Jason Robards brought a rich voice and an inward intensity to men accustomed to authority. We rate him for making those men worth watching, though Philadelphia shows how much even he depended on the writing.
Fi1m perspective
In Philadelphia (1993), Jason Robards's Charles Wheeler has to contend with a screenplay that makes its characters' attitudes too easy to anticipate. He keeps the supporting exchanges watchable, alongside Mary Steenburgen as Belinda Conine. We enjoyed those scenes because the actors held our attention after the writing had made the people predictable. It is a small but telling example of his usefulness in a supporting part.
His theatrical reputation helps explain what we look for in his screen work: a rich voice and an intense, inward manner suited to flawed men. He established himself in Eugene O'Neill with Hickey in the 1956 revival of The Iceman Cometh. Jamie Tyrone in Long Day's Journey Into Night followed that year. Film work became steady in the 1960s, including Cheyenne in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West (1968).
By All the President's Men (1976), he was playing Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, a role well suited to his skill with men of authority. His performance is carefully modulated, a useful reminder that the rich voice was only part of the work. Dashiell Hammett in Julia (1977) continued that run of real-life figures. The work carried on through the 1990s, with Earl Partridge in Paul Thomas Anderson's ensemble Magnolia (1999) among the late roles.
Philadelphia makes the limits clear enough. Jonathan Demme's drama is moving and humane, but Nyswaner's cautious screenplay gives too little space to lives beyond the case. Kristi Zea's production design keeps the legal surroundings from competing with the actors, a restraint that serves Robards and Steenburgen well. They still have to make neatly assigned attitudes sound like the views of particular people, and we cannot credit Robards with solving a problem that belongs to the writing. Watch it for the cast, and allow for the lectures.
Biography
Jason Robards was an American stage and film actor. Born Jason Nelson Robards Jr. in Chicago, Illinois, on 26 July 1922, he died in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on 26 December 2000. The son of actor Jason Robards Sr., he trained at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. He gained prominence on Broadway for his interpretations of Eugene O'Neill plays, including Hickey in The Iceman Cometh (1956) and roles in Long Day's Journey into Night.
Robards entered feature films in the late 1950s. He received consecutive Academy Awards for Best Supporting Actor for his performances as Ben Bradlee in All the President's Men (1976) and Dashiell Hammett in Julia (1977). Other notable film roles include Cheyenne in Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Frank Buckman in Parenthood (1989), Charles Wheeler in Philadelphia (1993) and Earl Partridge in Magnolia (1999). He also won a Tony Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
