Jason Robards

Born: July 26, 1922
Where: Chicago, Illinois
Died: December 26, 2000

Jason Robards was one of the world's best loved stage and screen stars. His film career spanned five decades and he worked as much or more than many actors half his age, even towards the end of his life.

As a child he moved around a lot as his father was a performer and was always on the road. At school he excelled at sports and was a star runner and baseball player.

After school graduation, Jason served as a radioman with the US Navy and was stationed at Pearl Harbour at the time of the Japanese attack that precipitated American involvement in WWII.

After the war Jason decided to follow his father's footsteps and pursue a career in acting. He joined the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York - just like his father.

In the early 50s Jason made his earliest TV appearances and in 1956 he performed in the acclaimed The Iceman Cometh, which earned him an OBIE.

The following year Jason was at the height of his stage career when he performed with his father in The Disenchanted, a sell-out that won him his only Tony award, for Best Actor in a Drama.

In 1959 Jason had his film-acting debut as a Hungarian freedom fighter in The Journey and the 60s saw him in many Broadway and film roles, such as Abe Lincoln in Illinois, for which he received his first Emmy nomination.

In 1972 he survived a near-fatal car crash on a California highway but his career blossomed non-the-less as he went on to star in a number of films including All the President's Men.

This 1976 box office hit earned him his first Best Supporting Actor Oscar - the second came the following year for Julia.

Jason was Oscar-nominated yet again in 1980 for his supporting turn as reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes in Melvin and Howard - his first collaboration with director Jonathan Demme.

Jason's only movie with his son Sam was Bright Lights, Big City, which starred Michael J. Fox and he ended the 80s with his first collaboration with director Ron Howard, playing the father of grown children in Parenthood.

Still a major Broadway and TV movie star, Jason bounced back to movie goers' attention in Demme's Philadelphia when he played the cold-hearted head of a law firm that fires a young colleague (Tom Hanks) with AIDS.

The 90s provided yet more movies for the Hollywood legend and he finished the decade on a high with Magnolia.

The film was Oscar-nominated and was Jason's last feature film before he died of cancer at his home in December 2000.