A serious and talented actor, at his best playing somewhat troubled characters, Cliff Robertson has been a fairly successful leading man through most of his career without ever becoming a major star. Following strong stage and television experience, he made an interesting film debut in a supporting role in Picnic. He then played Joan Crawford's deranged young husband in Autumn Leaves and was given leads in films of fair quality such as The Naked and the Dead, Gidget and The Big Show.

He supplemented his somewhat unsatisfactory big-screen work with interesting appearances on television, including the lead male role in the small-screen version of "Days of Wine and Roses" in 1958. Robertson could be effective playing a chilling petty criminal obsessed with avenging his father in the B-feature Underworld U.S.A. or a pleasant doctor in the popular hospital melodrama The Interns. However, significant public notice eluded him until he was picked by President John F. Kennedy to play the young JFK during the latter's WWII experience in PT 109.

Moving into slightly better pictures, Robertson gave some of his best performances: a ruthless presidential candidate in The Best Man, a modern-day Mosca in an updated version of Ben Jonson's "Volpone", _Honey Pot, The (1967)_ , and most memorably as a mentally retarded man in Charly, for which he won an Academy award for best actor. His critical success with "Charly" allowed him to continue starring in some good films in the 1970s, including Too Late the Hero, The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid and Obsession.

He also acted in, directed and co-produced the fine rodeo drama J.W. Coop and, less interestingly, The Pilot. Since then, he has remained active mostly in supporting roles, notably playing Hugh M. Hefner in Star 80. More recently he had supporting parts in Escape from L.A. and Spider-Man.


He is a well known sailplane pilot. He was the voice in the "Running On Empty" documentary video about the Barron Hilton Cup, a prestigeous soaring competition. His first wife was Jack Lemmon's ex. Owns a number of vintage aircraft, including an original German Messerschmitt ME-108, which is currently on diplay at the Parker/O'Malley Air Museum in upstate New York. Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1989 Was responsible for unravelling a major studio fraud in the seventies which led to the downfall of a powerful Hollywood figure. The morality of Hollywood was such that it did some harm to his career for a period of time. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, eighteen year-old Cliff - then serving on a merchant ship in the Pacific - was reported dead to his family in California. Inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2006 in the Advocate category.