JASON ROBARDS, acting giant of the American stage but hell this will just be films and TV

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I have several favorites, and will probably choose something besides the newspaper movie. I did see him twice on the Broadway stage, O'Neill both times. Sidney Lumet did a TV version of The Iceman Cometh with Robards in 1960, but I can't see that it's readily findable.

I left off some TV stuff, bit roles, obscure or ill-regarded films, and his Metallica videos.

Poll Results

Option	Votes
Once Upon a Time in the West	7
The Ballad of Cable Hogue	3
Melvin and Howard	2
Mr. Sycamore	1
All the President's Men	1
The St Valentine's Day Massacre	1
Parenthood	1
Magnolia	1
Long Day's Journey Into Night	1
A Thousand Clowns	1
Something Wicked This Way Comes	0
The Long Hot Summer (TV)	0
The Day After (TV)	0
The Atlanta Child Murders (TV)	0
Square Dance	0
Inherit the Wind (TV)	0
Sakharov (TV)	0
Reunion	0
Quick Change	0
Enemy of the State	0
A Thousand Acres	0
My Antonia (TV)	0
The Enemy Within (TV)	0
The Paper	0
Philadelphia	0
Storyville	0
Mark Twain and Me (TV)	0
other	0
Haywire (TV)	0
The Night they Raided Minsky's	0
Isadora	0
Hour of the Gun	0
Divorce American Style	0
Noon Wine (TV)	0
Any Wednesday	0
A Big Hand for the Little Lady	0
Tender Is the Night	0
Fools	0
Johnny Got His Gun	0
The War Between Men and Women	0
F.D.R.: The Last Year (TV)	0
Cabo Blanco	0
Comes a Horseman	0
Washington: Behind Closed Doors (TV)	0
Julia	0
A Boy and His Dog (voice)	0
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid	0
The House Without a Christmas Tree (TV)	0
The Journey	0

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:27 (seven years ago)

Great in Long Day's Journey and Melvin and Howard and I'm sure many films I haven't seen--I've always intended to watch A Thousand Clowns--but I'll cast the obvious ATPM vote. That moment when he taps the desk while walking away from Woodward and Bernstein is brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tg4_lfm5VrQ

― clemenza, Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:45 (seven years ago)

He's remarkably charming in A Thousand Clowns, a teenaged fave of mine, as a Kennedy-era slacker. A big Broadway hit and Oscar-nominated for Best Picture, even though he's kind of miscast. Rewatched the other night, and while the sentimental seams show, it still has something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V67fzMQOfP0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VXyDhB2VrE

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:50 (seven years ago)

i got to meet jason robards one time when i was little. it was on the film set of johnny bull, which was shooting near knoxville. he played a coal miner. in the scene i saw he was covered in coal dust and getting a sponge bath. he was kind of gruff and distracted but nice. colleen dewhurst was his co-star and she was just incredible to me. in my memory she glowed. also showed me where the catering table was.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091298/

― illegal economic migration (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:52 (seven years ago)

Once upon a time is one of the best movies ever made and he's the best thing about it

― Alderweireld Horses (darraghmac), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:54 (seven years ago)

I saw him and Dewhurst in Long Day's Journey on Broadway, 1988. She seemed like a real Earth Mother on and off stage (well, when she wasn't playing an opium addict). xp

yes, "Mr Choo Choo..."

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 20:55 (seven years ago)

Super in Long Day's Journey and that late '70s post-Oscar spree (the Julia win is unearned though...). For my generation he defined Old Coot.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 21:48 (seven years ago)

and agree he's weirdly charming in A Thousand Clowns when "charm" is not what I expect from him. I expect this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWVOH1lxY34

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 21:49 (seven years ago)

Married to Lauren Bacall 1961-69, who he occasionally called "the Widow Bogart." Didn't get sober til the early '70s.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 22:14 (seven years ago)

He shone pointlessly in Dream A Little Dream along with Piper Laurie and Harry Dean Stanton

― erry red flag (f. hazel), Wednesday, 14 February 2018 22:43 (seven years ago)

One of the most unusual Nixons--not named as such--in Washington Behind Closed Doors.

― clemenza, Wednesday, 14 February 2018 23:06 (seven years ago)

My dad always referred to him as Jason Robards Jr., for indeed that's how he was always billed into the early '60s, as his father had been a popular character actor in film and theatre.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:19 (seven years ago)

It makes the Long Day's Journey parallels all the more delicious.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:33 (seven years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpLLr6cUs34

― Entrepreneurial Jism Unshackler (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:39 (seven years ago)

No Max Dugan, no peace

― Entrepreneurial Jism Unshackler (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:48 (seven years ago)

yeah that was a late cut. sorry, didn't Neil Simon write it? gtfo

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:54 (seven years ago)

he did yeah

― Entrepreneurial Jism Unshackler (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 15 February 2018 03:59 (seven years ago)

an awful Reagan-era fairytale but it warmed my heart at 13 yrs old

― Entrepreneurial Jism Unshackler (Hadrian VIII), Thursday, 15 February 2018 04:22 (seven years ago)

I understand.

I first saw Robards when I was 10 or 11 in the TV play House Without a Christmas Tree, in which he plays an embittered rural widower and father as a huge wall of sadness. Indelible.

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 15 February 2018 04:32 (seven years ago)

Bacall had a type, didn't she? He looked and even sounded a bit like Bogart.

LDJIN

― Brad C., Thursday, 15 February 2018 15:14 (seven years ago)

Among the many reasons why Parenthood is the only better-than-good thing Ron Howard touched.

― "Minneapolis" (barf) (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 February 2018 15:28 (seven years ago)

True story: my brother Steve befriended Sam Robards (son of Jason Robards and Lauren Bacall) in elementary school, knowing nothing of his famous parents. One day Sam invited Steve over after school. "Sam, I want to meet your new friend" called Bacall from another room. They dutifully walked into that room, where she was lying in a bubble bath and extended a wet hand in greeting.

― Ρεμπετολογια, Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:27 (seven years ago)

did afterward she brew him a rich cup of grounds-heavy Maxwell House?

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:30 (seven years ago)

Married to Lauren Bacall 1961-69, who he occasionally called "the Widow Bogart."

oof

― Well bissogled trotters (Michael B), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:32 (seven years ago)

OK I've spent the last 10 minutes watching every Bacall coffee commercial – her best acting ever.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 15 February 2018 17:33 (seven years ago)

You Can't Take It With You (TV) sadly omitted. I'm torn between how much I love ATPM and how little I've seen of the rest of his work, including the O'Neills.

― Moo Vaughn, Thursday, 15 February 2018 18:05 (seven years ago)

YCTIWY was a televised Broadway production he was in... I don't like to count those. Apparently the Lumet Iceman can be bought tho.

I like to imagine Jason and Betty having that coffee after throwing all the crockery at each other the night before. (Her '80s coffee-in-the-limo spot is the best.)

― ice cream social justice (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 February 2018 04:15 (seven years ago)

three months pass...

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

― System, Wednesday, 30 May 2018 00:01 (seven years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

― System, Thursday, 31 May 2018 00:01 (seven years ago)

who is the Mr Sycamore voter?

― the ignatius rock of ignorance (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 31 May 2018 02:39 (seven years ago)

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