A Tribute
It is with heavy hearts that we at RiverRun must announce the recent passing of Cliff Robertson, an incredible actor and a dear friend of the festival, at age 88. Sadly Cliff passed away last Saturday, September 10th, and all of us here at the office were quite dispirited at the news but truly grateful for the wonderful memories we have of Mr. Robertson and the lovely time we shared with him at the 2005 Festival, where he was our Master of Cinema honoree. He was a master of his craft in every sense of the word, both screen acting as well as directing, and was as warm and magnanimous a guest and human being as we've ever had the pleasure of hosting at RiverRun. He and the legendary Rosemary Harris, another dear friend of the Festival, took the time to visit with us that year after famously starring together in the new Spiderman films as Uncle Ben and Aunt May Parker. They're pictured together above walking the red carpet during RiverRun.
Cliff was perhaps best known for his title character performance in the 1968 film Charly, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor. Based on Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon, the film featured Robertson in the role of Charly Gordon, a mentally disabled Bostonian who undergoes an experimental procedure and emerges a genius, if only temporarily. For those of you interested in seeing more of his work or simply paying tribute by catching up with an old fave, TCM is actually pre-empting their previously scheduled programming to run a Cliff Robertson mini-marathon all day today (Monday, 9/19). Details are available on their site here.
Versatile and dynamic, Cliff made his film debut in Picnic (1955), opposite William Holden and Kim Novak. He then moved on to leading man, playing such roles as Joan Crawford's schizophrenic husband in Autumn Leaves (1956), the Big Kahuna in Gidget (1959), and a safecracker in Sam Fuller's Underworld U.S.A. (1961). In 1963 his career gained momentum when he was personally selected by President John F. Kennedy to play the young John Kennedy in P.T. 109. In 1971 he wrote, directed, and starred in J.W. Coop, an acclaimed film about a rodeo cowboy. Other notable film performances by Mr. Robertson came in Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, co-starring Henry Fonda (1964); The Honey Pot, co-starring Maggie Smith (1967); The Great Northfield Mining Raid (1972); Sydney Pollack's espionage thriller Three Days of the Condor (1975) opposite Robert Redford; and Obsession with Genevieve Bujold, directed by Brian De Palma (1976). More recent film work includes Wind (1992), Escape From L.A. (1995), and all three of the new Spiderman films.
There's also a really nice capsule of Cliff's career here courtesy of The Washington Post. His talents and his positive, kind presence in the world will be sorely missed.
