Robert Shaw (actor)

For other people of the same name, see Robert Shaw (disambiguation).

Robert Shaw
publicity headshot (circa 1971)
Born	Robert Archibald Shaw 9 August 1927(1927-08-09) Westhoughton, Lancashire, England
Died	28 August 1978(1978-08-28) (aged 51) Tourmakeady, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland
Occupation	Actor, novelist
Years active	1951-1978
Spouse	Jennifer Bourke (m. 1952–1963) «start: (1952)–end+1: (1964)»"Marriage: Jennifer Bourke to Robert Shaw (actor)" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shaw_(actor)) 4 children Mary Ure (m. 1963–1975) «start: (1963)–end+1: (1976)»"Marriage: Mary Ure to Robert Shaw (actor)" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shaw_(actor)) her death; 4 children Virginia Jansen (m. 1976–1978) «start: (1976)–end+1: (1979)»"Marriage: Virginia Jansen to Robert Shaw (actor)" Location: (linkback://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Shaw_(actor)) his death; 2 children

Robert Archibald Shaw (9 August 1927 – 28 August 1978) was an English actor and novelist, remembered for his performances in The Sting (1973), From Russia with Love (1963), A Man for All Seasons (1966), the original The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Black Sunday (1977), The Deep (1977) and Jaws (1975), where he played the shark hunter Quint.

Early life

Robert Shaw was born in Westhoughton, near Bolton, Lancashire, England, in 1927. His mother, Doreen (née Avery), was a former nurse born in Piggs Peak, Swaziland, and his father, Thomas Shaw, was a physician. He had three sisters and one brother. When he was seven, the family moved to Stromness, Orkney, Scotland. When he was 12 his father, a manic depressive and alcoholic, took his own life. The family then moved to Cornwall, where he went to the independent Truro School. Shaw was a teacher in Saltburn-by-the-Sea in the North Riding of Yorkshire for a brief period, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Acting career

Shaw began his acting career in theatre, appearing in regional theatre throughout England. In 1952 he made his London debut on the West End at the Embassy Theatre in Caro William.

During the 1950s, Shaw starred in a British TV series which also appeared on American television as The Buccaneers. Shaw's best-known film performances include a turn as the assassin, Donald Grant, in the second James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963); the relentless panzer officer Colonel Hessler in Battle of the Bulge (1965); a young Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966); Lord Randolph Churchill, in Young Winston (1972); the ruthless mobster Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting (1973), the equally-ruthless subway-hijacker and hostage-taker "Mr. Blue" in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974); the shark-obsessed fisherman Quint in Jaws (1975); and lighthouse keeper and treasure hunter Romer Treece in The Deep (1977), and the Israeli Mossad agent David Kabakov in Black Sunday (1977), which was the most successful of his appearances in movies as the principal good-guy.

Shaw was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Man for All Seasons.

He performed on stage as well, both in Britain and on Broadway, where his notable performances include Harold Pinter's Old Times and The Caretaker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Physicists directed by Peter Brook, and The Man in the Glass Booth, inspired by the kidnapping and trial of Adolf Eichmann, written by Shaw himself, and directed by Pinter.

His penetrating, stage-trained shouting voice can be heard briefly in A Man for All Seasons, Black Sunday, Force Ten from Navarone, and The Sting.

Writing career

In addition to his acting career, Shaw was also an accomplished writer of novels, plays and screenplays. His first novel, The Hiding Place, published in 1960, met with positive reviews. His next, The Sun Doctor, published the following year, was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in 1962.

Shaw then embarked on a trilogy of novels – The Flag (1965), The Man in the Glass Booth (1967) and A Card from Morocco (1969); it was his adaptation for the stage of The Man in the Glass Booth that gained him the most attention for his writing. The book and play present a complex and morally ambiguous tale of a man who, at various times in the story, is either a Jewish businessman pretending to be a Nazi war criminal, or a Nazi war criminal pretending to be a Jewish businessman. The play was quite controversial when performed in the US and the UK, some critics praising Shaw's sly, deft, and complex examination of the moral issues of nationality and identity, others sharply criticizing Shaw's treatment of such a sensitive subject. The Man in the Glass Booth was further developed for the screen, but Shaw disapproved of the resulting film and had his name removed from the credits.

Shaw also adapted The Hiding Place into a screenplay for the film Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious starring Alec Guinness. His play Cato Street, about the 1820 Cato Street Conspiracy, was produced for the first time in 1971 in London.

Death

Shaw died of a heart attack on 28 August 1978 in Ireland after completing filming of Avalanche Express. He was 51 years old. His remains were cremated and his ashes scattered near his home in Ireland. A stone memorial to him was unveiled there in his honour in August 2008.

Legacy

Shaw has a public house named after him in the town of his birth, Westhoughton, Lancashire. The pub is called the Robert Shaw. Also, villain Sebastian Shaw from the X-Men comics is named and modelled after Shaw.

Personal life

Shaw was married three times and had ten children, one of whom he adopted. His first wife was Jennifer Bourke (1952-63) with whom he had four daughters. His second wife was the actress Mary Ure (1963-75) with whom he had two sons and two daughters; this marriage ended with her death from an overdose. His third and last wife was Virginia Jansen (1976-78) with whom he had one son and adopted Jansen's son from a previous relationship. One of Shaw's sons by Mary Ure is the actor Ian Shaw.

For the last seven years of his life, Robert Shaw lived at Drimbawn House, in the village of Tourmakeady, County Mayo in Ireland.

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  Robert Shaw Memorial in Tourmakeady, County Mayo, Ireland, near the location where he died

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  Closeup of Text

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  View of the pier at the site

Work

Stage

• The Caretaker (1962)
• The Physicists (1964)
• The Man in the Glass Booth (1968)
• Gantry (1970)
• Old Times (1972)
• Dance of Death (1974)

Filmography

• The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) (uncredited)
• Operation Secret (1952) (uncredited) - Jacques
• The Dam Busters (1954) - Flight Sgt. J. Pulford
• A Hill in Korea (1956) - Lance Corporal Hodge
• Double Cross (1956)
• Man from Tangier (1957) - Johnny
• The Buccaneers (1957) - Captain Dan Tempest - Television (39 episdes)
• Sea Fury (1958) - Gorman
• Libel (1959) - Newspaper Photographer
• The Four Just Men (1960) - TV episode - Crack Up - Stuart
• Danger Man (1961) - TV episode - Bury The Dead - Tony Costello
• The Winter's Tale (1961) - Leontes
• The Valiant (1962) - Lieutenant Field
• The Caretaker (1963) - Aston
• From Russia with Love (1963) - Donald 'Red' Grant
• The Cracksman (1963) - Moke
• The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964) - Ginger Coffey
• Carol for Another Christmas (1964) - Ghost of Christmas Future
• Tomorrow at Ten (1964) - Marlowe
• Hamlet (1964) - Claudius, King of Denmark
• Battle of the Bulge (1965) - Col. Martin Hessler
• A Man for All Seasons (1966) - King Henry VIII
• Custer of the West (1967) - Gen. George Armstrong Custer
• The Birthday Party (1968) - Stanley Webber
• Battle of Britain (1969) - "Skipper"
• The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969) - Francisco Pizarro
• Figures in a Landscape (1970) - MacConnachie (also adapted for the screen)
• A Town Called Bastard (a.k.a. A Town Called Hell) (1971) - The Priest
• Young Winston (1972) - Lord Randolph Churchill
• A Reflection of Fear (a.k.a. Labyrinth) (1973) - Michael
• The Hireling (1973) - Steven Ledbetter
• The Sting (1973) - Doyle Lonnegan
• The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) (uncredited) - The Oracle of All Knowledge
• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) - Mr. Blue - Bernard Ryder
• Jaws (1975) - Quint
• The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) -
• Der Richter und sein Henker (a.k.a. End of the Game, Murder on the Bridge, Deception, and Getting Away with Murder) (1975) - Richard Gastmann
• Diamonds (a.k.a. Diamond Shaft) (1975) - Charles/Earl Hodgson
• Robin and Marian (1976) - Sheriff of Nottingham
• Swashbuckler (a.k.a. Scarlet Buccaneer) (1976) - Ned Lynch
• Black Sunday (1977) - Major David Kabokov
• The Deep (1977) - Romer Treece
• Force 10 from Navarone (1978) - Major Keith Mallory
• Avalanche Express (1979) - General Marenkov

Writing

• The Hiding Place (1960)
• The Sun Doctor (1961)
• The Flag (1965)
• Situation Hopeless... But Not Serious (1965) (screenplay adaptation of The Hiding Place)
• The Man in the Glass Booth (1967)
• The Man in the Glass Booth (1968) (play adaptation)
• A Card from Morocco (1969)
• Cato Street (1971) (play)

External links

• Robert Shaw at the Internet Broadway Database
• Robert Shaw at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Shaw - For All Seasons
• Robert Shaw at AllRovi
• Robert Shaw at the TCM Movie Database
• Robert Shaw at Find a Grave