Jason Nelson Robards Jr., also known as Jason Robards, was an American actor who was born on July 26, 1922. Robards won two Academy Awards, a Tony Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his interpretations of Eugene O’Neill’s plays. He is one of just 24 actors to win the Triple Crown of Acting.
Robards was born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 26, 1922, to actors Hope Maxine (1895–1992) and Jason Robards Sr. (1892–1963). He hailed from Germany, England, Wales, Ireland, and Sweden.
In 1941, Robards was assigned as a radioman 3rd class aboard the heavy cruiser USS Northampton after completing recruit training and radio school. Northampton was at sea in the Pacific Ocean about 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the coast of Hawaii on December 7, 1941.
Robards relocated to New York City and launched a career in radio and theatre. Follow That Music, a 1947 short film, was his debut acting performance. His major break came when he was cast as the philosophical salesman Hickey in José Quintero’s 1956 off-Broadway revival production and later 1960 television film of Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh, for which he earned an Obie Award.
As of 2020, Robards has garnered more Tony Award nominations than any other male actor. For his work in The Disenchanted (1959), he earned the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play; this was also his only stage appearance with his father.
He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor two years in a row, for his roles as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee in All the President’s Men (1976) and novelist Dashiell Hammett in Julia (1977). He was also nominated for an Academy Award for his performance in Melvin and Howard as Howard Hughes (1980).
He was critically injured in a car accident in 1972, when he slammed his car into the side of a mountain on a twisting California route, necessitating significant surgery and facial reconstruction. His long-term battle with drinking could have played a role in the accident. On December 26, 2000, he died of lung cancer in Bridgeport, Connecticut. His ashes were laid to rest in Oak Lawn Cemetery.
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