Jason Robards, Sr.

Jason Robards, Sr. was an American stage and screen actor, and the father of Oscar-winning actor Jason Robards Jr. Robards appeared in many films, initially as a leading man, then in character roles and occasional bits. Most of his final roles were in television.

Robards was born on a farm in Hillsdale, Michigan, the son of Elizabeth (née Loomis), a schoolteacher, and Frank P. Robards Sr., a farmer and post office inspector who managed Theodore Roosevelt's 1912 Presidential campaign in Michigan. He was raised in Chicago, Illinois.[2][3] He trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was billed simply as "Jason Robards" through most of his career, but in his latter years, after his namesake son took up acting, he was generally listed in credits as Jason Robards Sr. He died in 1963 (after which his increasingly famous son switched from "Jason Robards Jr." to "Jason Robards"). Contemporary actors Jason Robards III and Sam Robards are Jason Sr.'s grandsons.

Robards's film career lasted primarily from 1921 to 1961. His Broadway credits include the musical Turn To The Right (1917). After 1951, Robards's career consisted mainly of television performances, but prior to that, the Internet Movie Database lists appearances in 208 movies over a 30-year span before he spent another decade acting in various television shows and series.

Robards’s best known stage role was John Marvin in the long-running hit Lightnin'. Robards's connection to the part caused his son to equate him to the character of James Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night, which Jason Jr. played on Broadway in 1956 and on screen in 1962. In the play, Tyrone is an actor whose career is limited by his identification with a single part, The Count of Monte Cristo.

Jason Jr. would later say "One of the most damaging things for me, I realize now, was playing a drunk in the play Long Day's Journey Into Night. In the play, the drunk's father is a failed artist and his mother was a drug addict. It was only after years of analysis I realized I was acting out events in my own life on stage."[4]

In one of his television appearances, Robards played Judge Hesby in the 1958 episode "Dead Reckoning" of the ABC/Warner Brothers western series, Colt .45, starring Wayde Preston. Others in the guest cast were Richard Webb and Lee Van Cleef as Rocky Norton and Devery, respectively.[5]

The Robardses, father and son, acted on stage together only once, in Budd Schulberg's The Disenchanted, a play inspired by the story of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Jason Jr. won his only Tony Award for his performance.[6]

Actor. Born in Hillsdale County, Michigan, he was a stage and screen performer and the father of Oscar-winning actor Jason Robards Jr. He was a prominent Broadway Tony Award winning actor when he made his first feature film in "The Gilded Lily" (1921). Billed consistently, he appeared in over 200 movies to include "The Third Degree" (1926), "The Last Dance" (1930), "The Storm" (1938), "Man Alive" (1945), "The Second Woman" (1950) and "Wild in the Country" (1961). He also had success on television being series such as "Cimarron City", "Wagon Train", "Sugarfoot", "G.E. Theatre" and "The Adventures of Ozzie & Harriett". He died at age 70 of a heart attack in Sherman Oaks, California.

Robards Sr. died, aged 70, in Sherman Oaks, California, at his home.

The Land of Hope (1921)

Footloose Widows (1926)

The Third Degree (1926)

Tracked by the Police (1927)

Polly of the Movies (1927)

Jaws of Steel (1927)

Wild Geese (1927)

Streets of Shanghai (1927)

On Trial (1928)

Paris (1929)

The Flying Marine (1929)

Trifles (1930)

Peacock Alley (1930)

The Jazz Cinderella (1930)

Abraham Lincoln (1930)

Crazy That Way (1930)

Charlie Chan Carries On (1931)

Salvation Nell (1931)

The Law of the Tong (1931)

Discarded Lovers (1932)

Docks of San Francisco (1932)

Slightly Married (1932)

A Strange Adventure (1932)

Damaged Lives (1933)

Devil's Mate (1933)

Dance Hall Hostess (1933)

Ship of Wanted Men (1933)

Carnival Lady (1933)

Public Stenographer (1933)

Corruption (1933)

The Woman Condemned (1934)

Ladies Crave Excitement (1935)

Clipped Wings (1937)

Flight to Fame (1938)

Cipher Bureau (1938)

Sky Patrol (1939)

The Mad Empress (1939)

The Fighting Marines (1939) serial

The Fatal Hour (1940)

Betrayal from the East (1945)

Man Alive (1945)

Bedlam (1946)

Trail Street (1947)

Desperate (1947)

Guns of Hate (1948)

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)

Western Heritage (1948)

Fighting Father Dunne (1948)

Return of the Bad Men (1948)

Rimfire (1949)

Horsemen of the Sierras (1949)

Impact (1949)

The Second Woman (1950)

Cimarron City (NBC television series) (1958)

Wild in the Country (1961)