by Actor Cliff Robertson died from natural causes Saturday at the age of 88.
Spanning over 50 years Robertson’s roles in Hollywood included the first portrayal of a sitting president in PT-109 (1963), an Oscar-winning performance in Charly (1968), and his take on Henry Ford in Ford: The Man and the Machine (1987).
I remember reading (and being incredibly moved by) “Flowers for Algernon” in school and becoming curious to see if the movie version was any good. Charly, the film adaptation, featured Robertson as a mentally disabled man who slowly develops superior intelligence only to lose it all again. Robertson, who bought the rights to the book and was the driving force behind the movie being made, brought a heartbreaking vulnerability to the role as well as exposure and education regarding the mentally disabled to the public.
You could feel the fear and mourning Charly experienced, knowing he was slowly losing the gift he had been given, and Robertson was solely responsible for bringing that level of humanity and compassion to the role.
Other facts about Robertson you may not have known:
Before acting, he was a journalist.
In the 1970s, he was blacklisted from Hollywood as a “thank you” for exposing corruption within the industry. He returned to film in 1983.
He was rejected by the army during World War II, and served in the Merchant Marines.
He was the original “Big Kahuna” in Gidget.
