My Favorite Jason Robards Performances

His career actually began on Broadway with his performances in The Iceman Cometh and Long Day's Journey into Night, but eventually Hollywood came to call. This was an actor who never really had the career he deserved because he had leading man talent, but not leading man looks, which I think limited the kind of roles he could do. But the roles he could do, he never phoned it in and his impressive body of work earned him three Oscar nominations, winning twice, five Golden Globe nominations, five Emmy nominations, an Emmy, eight Tony Award nominations and one Tony. One of the most remarkable and one of the most underrated actors ever to grace the stage and screen...get ready for my list of my favorite performances of the iconic Jason Robards.

Heavyweight actor for sure. I think one of his best remembered roles was of Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976). Or maybe it was because the movie was so memorable...

30.

Chief Rotzinger, Quick Change




Robards manage to garner a few laughs in this all-star comedy playing a no-nonsense police detective trying to nail a trio of bank robbers (Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid).

"They're ON a blufftonie!"

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

My favorite is A Thousand Clowns as Murray Burns who writes for a kiddie show and is father to a precocious boy.
He reprises the part he played on Broadway. It's a light and humorous play.

29.

Dr. Dick Diver, Tender is the Night



Robards was the best thing about this soapy melodrama adapted from an F. Scott Fitzgerald novel which finds Robards playing a psychiatrist who falls in love with one of his patients (Jennifer Jones).

28.

Will Varner, The Long Hot Summer (1985)




Robards effortlessly stepped into Orson Welles shoes as the manipulative patriarch of a dysfunctional southern family in this TV remake of the 1958 film.

27.

Jules Mendelson, An Inconvenient Woman




Definitely a guilty pleasure of mine...Robards was appropriately greasy in this ABC mini-series that was a fictionalized version of the Bloomingdale murder scandal. Robards plays the heir to a fortune who drives his family crazy when he starts dating a much young and very sexy model (Rebecca De Mornay).

Is that him in the picture? (Because there, he looks like Fernando Lamas!)

26.

Larry Cook, A Thousand Acres



Robards really chewed the scenery in a brief but flashy performance as a farmer who wants to retire and sets off a shocking chain of events when he declares that he wants his three daughters (Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jennifer Jason Leigh) to take over the farm.

He does look like Lamas in that picture, but it really is Robards.

25.

Frank, Parenthood



Robards was really funny in this all-star cast comedy directed by Ron Howard. Frank is the vagabond patriarch of a large family struggling to hold onto his patriarch title because he's a lousy father, at least that's how oldest son, Gil (Steve Martin) tells it.

24.

James Tyrone Jr., A Moon for the Misbegotten




Robards and Colleen Dewhurst were brilliant in this television version of the Eugene O'Neill play where he plays an elder version of the character he played in Long Day's Journey into Night.

One of my favs. Some of Robards personality in the movie reminded me of my own father.

Fingers crossed for the film Robards did with Gloria Grahame to show up here. I hope Gideon seen it.

Yes, he has, we discussed it when you read my review of it, Citizen, remember?

My memory isn't that great these days, but glad you seen it.

Are y'all talking about Melvin and Howard (1980)?

Yup, it's a good film, Gloria Grahame has a small part, but Mary Steenburgen has a real plumb role. Good story too.

I saw it when it came out, but I've since forgotten that Gloria was in it. Might have to re-watch...