A Tribute: Jason Robards

Still disdaining Hollywood, he claimed to make films only to pay the bills between stage performances. He didn't make his film debut until 1959, in "The Journey," and followed that up three years later with "Tender is the Night", and the film versions of "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "A Thousand Clowns."

Robards returned to films long enough to make the spaghetti-Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" in 1968, followed by "Tora! Tora! Tora!" in 1970. Despite not liking Hollywood, Robards managed to star in some classic films, two of which garnered him Academy Awards. In 1976 he portrayed Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in the Watergate drama "All the President's Men," which won him the Best Supporting Actor Award, and the following year he won again playing the alcoholic writer Dashiell Hammett in "Julia."

Robards often portrayed disturbed characters, and in real life, Robards fought against his own alcoholism and depression, which seemed to mirror many of his characters. In 1972, Robards survived a near-fatal car crash which required major reconstructive surgery. Two years later he gave up drinking altogether and in the process, reignited his career.

He continued working in the theater during the early 1970s, appearing in the stage versions of "Toys in the Attic," "After the Fall," and, "A Moon For the Misbegotten."

During his film career he ended up making over 50 films, and two other notable films include include 1978's "Comes a Horseman" and "Melvin and Howard", in which he portrayed the eccentric multi-millionaire Howard Hughes. For that film he received another Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

Among his television credits was the controversial 1983 film about nuclear war, "The Day After." He also provided the voice for General Grant in 1990's PBS series "The Civil War."

In 1983, Robards returned to Broadway once again in the comedy, "You Can't Take It With You." Two years later, he reprised his role of Hickey in "Iceman" and, in 1987, he played a lively old man in a nursing home in "A Month of Sundays."

He continued making great movies in the 1980s and 1990s, including two of my personal favorites, "Parenthood" and "Philadelphia." In 1997, he played a tyrannical land baron in "A Thousand Acres," the film adaptation of Jane Smiley's novel, co-starring Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Recently he co-starred with Tom Cruise in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia", ironically playing a

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