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Jason Robards, Jr. (July 26, 1922 – December
26, 2000) was an United States|American actor
whose wizened, iconic quality kept him in the
forefront of the acting profession for nearly
fifty years.  He made his name playing in the
works of United States|American dramatist Eugene
O'Neill, and would regularly return to O'Neill's
works throughout his career.  Robards' versatility
was such that he was cast to equal effect in
common-man roles and as well-known historical
figures.

==Childhood==
Born in Chicago, Illinois|Chicago, his father
Jason Robards, Sr. was among the better-known
actors of the first half of the twentieth century,
starring regularly on the stage and in such early
films as "The Gamblers" (1929).  The family moved
to New York City when young Jason was still a
toddler, and then moved for good to Los Angeles,
California|Los Angeles when he was six years old. 
As a teen he was a star athlete at Hollywood High
School, running a 4:18 mile during his junior
year.  

Later interviews with Robards suggested that the
divorce of his parents, which occurred during his
grade-school years,  was a trauma that left an
indelible mark on Robards' personality and
worldview.  The young Jason also witnessed
firsthand the decline of his father's acting
career.  Jason Sr. had enojoyed considerable
success during the era of silent films,  but he
fell out of favor after the advent of "talkies,"
leaving Jason, Jr. soured on the Hollywood film
industry. Although his athletic prowess attracted
overtures from many universities, upon his
graduation in 1940 decided to join the U.S. Navy.

==Naval service in World War II==
Serving as a radio operator, Robards was assigned
to the USS Northampton (CA-26)|USS Northampton, a
heavy cruiser homeported at Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii.  Although he is often referred to as a
survivor of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor,
on December 7, 1941 Northampton was at sea with
the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise
(CV-6)|Enterprise; the two ships returned to Pearl
Harbor the following day.  However, Robards would
indeed see considerable action in the Pacific
War|Pacific theater of World War II, initially
during the engagements at Wake Island and Battle
of Midway|Midway.  Northampton was later directed
into the Battle of Guadalcanal|Guadalcanal
campaign, where it was involved in the Battle of
the Santa Cruz Islands.

During the Battle of Tassafaronga on the night of
November 30, 1942, Northampton was sunk by hits
from two Japanese torpedoes.  Robards found
himself treading water until near daybreak, when
he was rescued by an American destroyer.  He would
remain in the Navy through the end of the war, and
be discharged in 1946.

==Early acting career==

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==Awards and honors==
Robards received the Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor in consecutive years for All the
President's Men (1976) and Julia (movie)|Julia
(1977). He was also nominated for another Oscar
for his role in Melvin and Howard (1980) and
received the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a
Miniseries or a Special for the 1988 production of
Inherit the Wind.  He was among the recipients at
the Kennedy Center Honors in 1999.

== List of credits ==

===Broadway Theatre===
*Long Day's Journey Into Night (1956)
*The Disenchanted  (1958)
*Toys in the Attic  (1960)
*Big Fish, Little Fish 	(1961)
*A Thousand Clowns (1962)
*Hughie (1964)
*But For Whom Charlie  (1964)
*After The Fall  (1964)
*The Devils  (1965)
*We Bombed in New Haven  (1968)
*The Country Girl  (1972)
*A Moon for the Misbegotten  (1973)
*A Touch of the Poet  (1977)
*You Can't Take It With You  (1984)
*The Iceman Cometh  (1985)
*A Month of Sundays  (1987)
*Ah, Wilderness!  (1988)
*Long Day's Journey Into Night  (1988)
*Love Letters  (1989)
*Park Your Car in Harvard Yard  (1991)
*No Man's Land  (1994)

=== Film ===
*The Journey  (1959)  
*By Love Possessed  (1961)  
*Long Day's Journey Into Night  (1962)  
*Tender Is the Night  (1962)  
*Act One   (1963) (as George S. Kaufman) 
*A Thousand Clowns  (1965)  
*Any Wednesday  (1966)  
*A Big Hand for the Little Lady  (1966)  
*Hour of the Gun    (1967) (as Doc Holliday) 
*The St. Valentine's Day Massacre   (1967) (as Al
Capone) 
*Divorce American Style  (1967)  
*Isadora  (1968)  
*The Night They Raided Minsky's  (1968)  
*Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)  
*Fools  (1970)  
*Julius Caesar    (1970) (as Marcus Junius
Brutus|Brutus) 
*Rosolino Paternò: Soldato... , aka Operation
Snafu  (1970)  
*Tora! Tora! Tora!    (1970) (as Walter Short|Gen.
Walter Short) 
*The Ballad of Cable Hogue  (1970)  
*Murders in the Rue Morgue  (1971)  
*Jud  (1971)  
*Johnny Got His Gun  (1971)  
*The War Between Men and Women  (1972)  
*The Death Merchants aka Tod eines Fremden, aka
The Execution (1973)  
*Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid    (1973) (as Lew
Wallace) 
*Mr. Sycamore  (1975)  
*A Boy and His Dog  (1975)  
*All the President's Men   (1976) (as Benjamin C.
Bradlee|Ben Bradlee) Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor|Academy Award, Best Supporting
Actor
*Julia (movie)|Julia   (1977) (as Dashiell
Hammett) Academy Award for Best Supporting
Actor|Academy Award, Best Supporting Actor
*Comes a Horseman  (1978)  
*Hurricane  (1979)  
*Melvin and Howard   (1980) (as Howard Hughes)
Academy Award nomination, Academy Award for Best
Supporting Actor|Best Supporting Actor
*Raise the Titanic  (1980)  
*Caboblanco  (1980)  
*The Legend of the Lone Ranger   (1981) (as
Ulysses S. Grant|President Ulysses S. Grant) 
*Something Wicked This Way Comes (1983
movie)|Something Wicked this Way Comes  (1983)  
*Max Dugan Returns  (1983)
*The World of Tomorrow  (1984) (voice narration) 
*America and Lewis Hine  (1984) (voice-over)    
*Square Dance  (1987)  
*The Good Mother  (1988)  
*Bright Lights, Big City (1988)  
*Black Rainbow  (1989)  
*Parenthood  (1989)  
*Reunion  (1989)  
*Dream a Little Dream  (1989)  
*Quick Change (1990) 
*Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991)
(voice narration)
*Storyville  (1992)  
*Philadelphia (movie)|Philadelphia  (1993)  
*The Trial  (1993)  
*The Adventures of Huck Finn  (1993)  
*Little Big League  (1994)  
*The Paper  (1994)  
*Crimson Tide (movie)|Crimson Tide  (1995)  
*A Thousand Acres  (1997)
*The Great American West (1997) (voice narration) 

*Heartwood  (1998)  
*Enemy of the State  (1998)  
*Beloved  (1998)  
*The Real Macaw  (1998)  
*Magnolia_(movie)|Magnolia (1999)
*They Drew Fire: Combat Artists of World War II
(2000) (voice narration)

=== Films for Television ===
*A Doll's House  (1959)  
*The Iceman Cometh  (1960)  
*Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1964) (as Abraham
Lincoln) Emmy Award nomination, Outstanding Single
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
*Noon Wine (1966)  
*The House Without a Christmas Tree  (1972)  
*The Country Girl (1973)  
*The Holiday Treasure  (1973)  
*A Moon for the Misbegotten  (1975)  Emmy Award
nomination, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or
Comedy Special
*The Easter Promise (1975)  
*Addie and the King of Hearts  (1976)  
*Washington: Behind Closed Doors  (1977)  Emmy
Award nomination, Outstanding Lead Actor in a
Limited Series
*A Christmas to Remember  (1978)  
*Haywire (1980) (as Leland Hayward) 
*F.D.R.: The Last Year (1980) (as Franklin D.
Roosevelt) Emmy Award nomination, Outstanding Lead
Actor in a Limited Series or Special
*The Day After  (1983)  
*You Can't Take It with You  (1984)  
*Sakharov   (1984) (as Andrei Sakharov) 
*Hughie  (1984) 
*The Long Hot Summer  (1985)  
*The Atlanta Child Murders  (1985)  
*Johnny Bull  (1986)  
*The Last Frontier  (1986)  
*Breaking Home Ties  (1987)  
*Laguna Heat  (1987)  
*Thomas Hart Benton  (1988)  
*The Christmas Wife  (1988)  
*Inherit the Wind (1988)  Emmy Award, Outstanding
Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Special
*The Civil War (documentary)|The Civil War (1990)
(voice, as Ulysses S. Grant|Gen. Ulysses S. Grant)
*Mark Twain and Me  (1991) (as Mark Twain) 
*An Inconvenient Woman  (1991)  
*Chernobyl: The Final Warning  (1991) (as Armand
Hammer|Dr. Armand Hammer) 
*American Masters: Helen Hayes – First Lady of
the American Theatre (1991) (voice narration)
*When It Was a Game (1991) (voice)
*The Perfect Tribute  (1991) (as Abraham Lincoln) 
*Rabbit Ears: Jonah and the Whale  (1992)  
*Lincoln (1992) (voice, as Abraham Lincoln)
*When It Was a Game 2 (1992) (voice)
*Heidi (1993)  
*The Enemy Within (1994) 
*Baseball (documentary)|Baseball (1994) (voice) 
*Journey  (1995)  
*My Antonia  (1995)
*TR (documentary)|TR (1996) (voice narration)
*The West (documentary)|The West (1996) (voice)
*Truman (television movie)|Truman (1996) (voice
narration)
*The Irish in America: Long Journey Home (1998)
(voice)
*Going Home  (2000)  

==References==
*imdb name | id=001673 | name=Jason Robards
*http://www.ibdb.com/person.asp?ID=68627 Internet
Broadway Database
*http://www.tonyawards.com/en_US/archive/dyk/
American Theatre Wing's Tony Awards Website