Jason Nelson Robards, Senior was an American stage and screen actor, and the father of Oscar-winning actor Jason Robards, Junior. Robards appeared in many films, initially as a leading man, then in character roles and occasional bits.
Background
Robards was born Jason Nelson Robards on a farm in Hillsdale, Michigan, the son of Elizabeth (née Loomis), a schoolteacher, and Frank P. Robards, Senior, a farmer and post office inspector who managed Theodore Roosevelt"s 1912 Presidential campaign in Michigan.
Education
American Academy of Dramatic Arts.
Career
He was raised in Chicago, Illinois. He trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was consistently billed as "Jason Robards", as his more famous son, also named Jason Robards, did not come into prominence until the end of the elder Robards" career.
He is only referred to as Jason Robards, Senior in retrospect.
Acting career Robards" film career lasted from 1921 through 1961. His Broadway credits include the musical Turn To The Right (1917).
After 1951, Robards" career consisted entirely of television performances, but prior to that, the Internet Movie Database lists appearances in 208 movies over a 30-year span before he spent another decade acting in various television shows and series. Robards" best known stage role was John Marvin in the long-running hit Lightnin".
In the play, Tyrone is an actor whose career is limited by his identification with a single part, The Count of Monte Cristo.
Jason, Junior. would later say "One of the most damaging things for me, I realize now, was playing a drunk in the play Long Day"s Journey Into Night. In the play, the drunk"s father is a failed artist and his mother was a drug addict. lieutenant was only after years of analysis I realized I was acting out events in my own life on stage." In one of his television appearances, Robards played Judge Hesby in the 1958 episode "Dead Reckoning" of the American Broadcasting Company/Warner Brothers western series, Colt.45, starring Wayde Preston.
Others in the guest cast were Richard Webb and Lee Van Cleef as Rocky Norton and Devery, respectively.
Death Robards, Senior, died, aged 70, in Sherman Oaks, California, of a heart attack.