Edward G. Robinson
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Edward G. Robinson (December 12, 1893 – January 26, 1973) was a Romanian-American actor of stage and film.
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Born Emanuel Goldenberg in Bucharest, he emigrated with his family to New York in 1903. He attended Townsend Harris High School and then City College of New York, but an interest in acting led to him winning an American Academy of Dramatic Arts scholarship, where he changed his name to Edward G. Robinson (the G. signifying his real name). He began his acting career in 1913 and made his Broadway debut in 1915. He made his film debut in a very minor and uncredited role in 1916; in 1923 he made his named debut as E. G. Robinson in The Bright Shawl. One of many actors who saw his career flourish in the new sound film era rather than falter, he made only three films prior to 1930 but left his stage career that year and made fourteen films in 1930-32. He married the actress Gladys Lloyd in 1927.
A sensational performance as the gangster Rico Bandello in Little Caesar (1931) led to him being typecast as a 'tough' for much of his early career in works such as Five Star Final (1931), Tiger Shark (1932), Kid Galahad (1937), and A Slight Case of Murder (1938). In the 1940s, after a good performance in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940), he expanded into edgy psychological dramas including Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1945) and Scarlet Street (1945); but he continued to accept gangster roles such as that of Johnny Rocco in the classic Key Largo (1948), one of five films he made with Humphrey Bogart. He was a popular box-office draw and was able to avoid flops.
In the 1950s he was called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee, where he was cleared of all suspicion. In 1956 he had to sell off his large art collection for $3.25 million as part of his divorce settlement with Lloyd. That same year he returned to Broadway in Middle of the Night.
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Never nominated for an Academy Award, in 1973 he was awarded an honorary Oscar in recognition that he had "achieved greatness as a player, a patron of the arts, and a dedicated citizen ... in sum, a Renaissance man"; sadly, he died two months prior to its formal presentation. He is interred at Beth El Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York. His last role was in Soylent Green (1973).
Filmography
- Arms and the Woman (1916)
- The Bright Shawl (1923)
- The Hole in the Wall (1929)
- Warner Bros. Jubilee Dinner (1930) (short subject)
- Night Ride (1930)
- A Lady to Love (1930)
- Outside the Law (1930)
- East Is West (1930)
- The Widow from Chicago (1930)
- How I Play Golf by Bobby Jones No. 10: Trouble Shots (1931) (short subject)
- Little Caesar (1931)
- The Slippery Pearls (1931) (short subject)
- Smart Money (1931)
- Five Star Final (1931)
- The Hatchet Man (1932)
- Two Seconds (1932)
- Tiger Shark (1932)
- Silver Dollar (1932)
- The Little Giant (1933)
- I Loved a Woman (1933)
- Dark Hazard (1934)
- The Man with Two Faces (1934)
- The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
- Barbary Coast (1935)
- Bullets or Ballots (1936)
- Thunder in the City (1937)
- Kid Galahad (1937)
- The Last Gangster (1937)
- A Slight Case of Murder (1938)
- The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
- I Am the Law (1938)
- Verdensberomtheder i Kobenhavn (1939) (documentary)
- A Day at Santa Anita (1939) (short subject)
- Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939)
- Blackmail (1939)
- Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940)
- Brother Orchid (1940)
- A Dispratch from Reuters (1940)
- The Sea Wolf (1941)
- Manpower (1941)
- Polo with the Stars (1941) (short subject)
- Unholy Partners (1941)
- Larceny, Inc. (1942)
- Tales of Manhattan (1942)
- Moscow Strikes Back (1942) (documentary) (narrator)
- Magic Bullets (1943) (short subject) (narrator)
- Destroyer (1943)
- Flesh and Fantasy (1943)
- Tampico (1944)
- Mr. Winkle Goes to War (1944)
- Double Indemnity (1944)
- The Woman in the Window (1945)
- Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
- Scarlet Street (1945)
- American Creed (1946) (short subject)
- Journey Together (1946)
- The Stranger (1946)
- The Red House (1947)
- All My Sons (1948)
- Key Largo (1948)
- Night Has a Thousand Eyes (1948)
- House of Strangers (1949)
- It's a Great Feeling (1949) (Cameo)
- Operation X (1950)
- Actors and Sin (1952)
- Vice Squad (1953)
- Big Leaguer (1953)
- The Glass Web (1953)
- Black Tuesday (1954)
- Hell on Frisco Bay (1955)
- The Violent Men (1955)
- Tight Spot (1955)
- A Bullet for Joey (1955)
- Illegal (1955)
- Nightmare (1956)
- The Ten Commandments (1956)
- The Heart of Show Business (1957) (short subject) (narrator)
- A Hole in the Head (1959)
- Seven Thieves (1960)
- Pepe (1960) (Cameo)
- My Geisha (1962)
- Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
- A Boy Ten Feet Tall (1963)
- The Prize (1963)
- Robin and the 7 Hoods (1964) (Cameo)
- Good Neighbor Sam (1964)
- Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
- The Outrage (1964)
- The Cincinnati Kid (1965)
- All About People (1967) (short subject) (narrator)
- Grand Slam (1967)
- The Blonde from Peking (1967)
- Operation St. Peter's (1967)
- The Biggest Bundle of Them All (1968)
- Never a Dull Moment (1968)
- It's Your Move (1969)
- Mackenna's Gold (1969)
- Song of Norway (1970)
- Mooch Goes to Hollywood (1971) (Cameo)
- Neither by Day Nor by Night (1972)
- A Look at the World of SOYLENT GREEN (1973) (short subject)
- Soylent Green (1973)
External links
- IMDb filmography (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000064/)
Category:Romanian-Americans|Robinson, Edward G.]]
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