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Jason Robards: Roles
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Synopsis: Jason Robards, who portrayed Abraham Lincoln in a 1964 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Abe Lincoln in Illinois, reprised the role 27 years later in the made-for-TV The Perfect Tribute. The film intertwines two separate plot threads. In one, Lincoln, plagued by the war and the conduct of hisRead More
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Robards worked steadily throughout the '90s, taking on roles in such acclaimed features as Philadelphia (1993), A Thousand Acres (1997), and Beloved (1998). He ... continued to appear in a number of TV miniseries. In 1999, Robards lent his voice to the widely lauded documentary The Irish in America: The Long Journey Home, further demonstrating that, in addition to being one of Hollywood's most respected figures, he was also one of its most versatile. One of Robards' last roles was a suitably complex one, a dying man longing for a reconciliation with his estranged son in Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia (1999). The actor died of cancer, himself, the following year. ~ All Movie Guide
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Robards asked if he could read for the role. The actor was 34, the character about 50. Quintero, thinking he knew the actor's limits, was hesitant. Robards pleaded for a chance. He took a script from his pocket and began reading Hickey's long monologue, but soon threw the script down. "I know it by heart."
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Robards continued to act on-stage and in film throughout the '80s, in addition to working on a number of documentaries and made-for-TV movies. Among his more notable television portrayals were the title role in the acclaimed 1980 miniseries F.D.R.: The Last Year (1980) and a lead part in You Can't Take It With You (1984). He ... participated in the 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams, a highly acclaimed film about the making of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. Robards' screen roles during that decade were usually limited to the part of the patriarch in such films as Square Dance (1987) and Parenthood (1989), although he was introduced to a younger audience with his lead in the 1989 comedy Dream a Little Dream, which featured Corey Haim and Corey Feldman and little else.
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Robards is at his best on screen when either he, the director, or both keeps his scenery chewing in check. As evidence of this, he won Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor in 1976 and again in 1977 for two of his most restrained screen performances—as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men and as the writer Dashiell Hammett in Fred Zinneman's Julia. Given the alcoholic Hammett's brooding, self-destructive nature, the latter role gave Robards plenty of opportunities to engage in extravagant histrionics, but the tight rein he held on himself resulted in a Hammett that is both warm and likable. Robards received his last Academy Award nomination (so far) for his whimsical portrayal of billionaire-recluse Howard Hughes in Jonathan Demme's Melvin and Howard.
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