A serious and talented actor, at his best playing somewhat troubled characters, Cliff Robertson has been a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic (1955). He then played Joan Crawford's deranged young husband in Feuilles d'automne (1956) and was given leads in films of fair quality such as Les nus et les morts (1958), Gidget (1959) and The Big Show (1961).
He supplemented his somewhat unsatisfactory big-screen work with interesting appearances on television, including the lead male role in the small-screen version of "Days of Wine and Roses" in 1958. Robertson could be effective playing a chilling petty criminal obsessed with avenging his father in the B-feature Les bas-fonds new-yorkais (1961) or a pleasant doctor in the popular hospital melodrama The Interns (1962). However, significant public notice eluded him until he was picked by President John F. Kennedy to play the young JFK during the latter's World War II experience in Patrouilleur 109 (1963).
Moving into slightly better pictures, Robertson gave some of his best performances: a ruthless presidential candidate in Que le meilleur l'emporte (1964), a modern-day Mosca in an updated version of Ben Jonson's "Volpone", Guêpier pour trois abeilles (1967), and most memorably as a mentally retarded man in Charly (1968), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Actor. His critical success with "Charly" allowed him to continue starring in some good films in the 1970s, including Trop tard pour les héros (1970), La légende de Jesse James (1972) and Obsession (1976). He also acted in, directed and co-produced the fine rodeo drama J.W. Coop (1971) and, less interestingly, The Pilot (1980). Since then, he had remained active mostly in supporting roles, notably playing Hugh M. Hefner in Star 80 (1983). More recently, he had supporting parts in Los Angeles 2013 (1996) and Spider-Man (2002).
Cliff Robertson died on September 10, 2011, just one day after his 88th birthday in Stony Brook, New York.
