Jason Robards

Overview

Born
July 26, 1922 · Chicago, Illinois, USA
Died
December 26, 2000 · Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA (metastasized lung cancer)
Birth name
Jason Nelson Robards Jr.
Height
5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

Powerful and highly respected American actor Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was born in Chicago, Illinois, to Hope Maxine (Glanville) and stage and film star Jason Robards Sr. He had Swedish, English, Welsh, German, and Irish ancestry. Robards was raised mostly in Los Angeles. A star athlete at Hollywood High School, he served in the U.S. Navy in World War II, where he saw combat as a radioman (though he is not listed in official rolls of Navy Cross winners, despite the claims he and his public relations personnel made. Neither was he at Pearl Harbor during the Dec. 7, 1941 attack, his ship being at sea at the time.) Returning to civilian life, he attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and struggled as a small-part actor in local New York theatre, TV and radio before shooting to fame on the New York stage in Eugene O'Neill's "The Iceman Cometh" as Hickey. He followed that with another masterful O'Neill portrayal, as the alcoholic Jamie Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" on Broadway. He entered feature films in The Journey (1959) and rose rapidly to even greater fame as a film star. Robards won consecutive Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977), in each case playing real-life people. He continued to work on the stage, winning continued acclaim in such O'Neill works as "Moon For the Misbegotten" and "Hughie." Robards died of lung cancer in 2000.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Beaver <jumbIejim@prodigy.net>

Jennifer Jason Leigh added the Jason to her stage name in tribute to Robards, a long-time family friend. She said, "I like the way it sounds between Jennifer and Leigh.".
In one of his last roles, in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999), he portrayed a man dying from lung cancer to excellent effect. One year later he himself died from the same disease.
Preferred working in the theater, and said once that he performed in Hollywood films so that he could "grab the money and go back to Broadway as fast as I can."
As of 2015, he is the only actor to win consecutive best supporting actor Oscars (for All the President's Men (1976) and Julia (1977)). In both films, he was playing someone he actually knew.
Avoided films until age 37 because he felt his acting father, Jason Robards Sr., had sold out and tarnished his own reputation by "going Hollywood".

An actor doesn't change thought, theme, or mood unless the character does, and the character only does it within the words of the play.
I've always played disintegrated characters.
Once you're on [stage], nobody can say, "Cut it". You're out there on your own, and there's always that thrill of a real live audience.
All I know is, I don't do a lot of analysis. I know those words have to move me. I rely on the author. I don't want actors reasoning with me about "motivation" and all that bull. All I want 'em to do is learn the goddamn lines and don't bump into each other.
The theatre has kept me alive, and it's allowed me to work at my craft.