Robert Shaw
8/9/1927 - 8/27/1978

     Robert Shaw was born in Westhoughten, England. His Father, Thomas Shaw, was a well respected doctor in the town although he was also known as the town drunk. His Mother, Doreen Shaw, was a very independent woman for her time. She smoked and was employed, which for women in that day was very rare. When Robert was 7 the family moved to Stromness on the Orkney Islands. Once a very popular hangout for pirates. His father's medical skills were so superior to the rest of the doctors in the community that he quickly gained respect in the town. And his drinking only added to his popularity. Thomas relished the popularity and often made housecalls in the most horrendous weather conditions. He wanted to gain the trust and frienship of his new patients.

     Once they moved however, little Robert developed a problem with local bullies in the school
yard. Apparently, the English were not very loved throughout all the world. And Robert was to get his first taste of racism. He battered them off though, and years later when he became a teenager he tried out for the football team. When he was turned down, he formed a team of his own out of other kids who had been turned down. Later that year he challenged the school team to play his team. They took the challenge and regreted taking it when Robert's team beat them.

     Fortunately for the film world, sports was not the only interest Robert had at such a young age. He wrote his first story at the age of 9. It was, ironically, a sea adventure. Four men are stranded in a boat going nowhere and end up eating their chineese cook to survive. Pretty wild stuff for the mind of an 9 year old, eh? Eventually Thomas' drinking and manic depressive moods got too difficult to bear and Doreen and the kids moved out. They moved to Cornwall. However, another child was born and she moved back with Thomas. Not much later Thomas took an overdose of Opium and died. His mother tried to convince everyone that it was an accidental death, but Robert knew better. He kept it to himself, bottled up inside him for years, often causing nightmares. He also took on the role of becoming the man of the family to his two sisters and one brother. He was 12 years old at this time.

     Robert went to a school in Truro, and then was offered a scholarship to a school in London that offered continued education at Cambridge, but he turned it down when he found out that his own brother was going to be their second choice. "Give it to him." He said. He wanted to go into acting, not medicine. Robert continued in Truro and seemed to be involved in everything. He was in the choir, wrote for the school magazine, played rugby, and he did so well in the local theartre that he was unanimously elected to be the top office of the Toc H Club. Which of course, meant that he voted for himself. Something that caused a bit of a scandal. To which Robert's response did not help much,..."Of course I voted for me. Who else could do it better!"

     Robert was the only child of Doreen who did not go to Cambridge or Oxford. He opted instead for the Royal Academy Of Dramatic Arts. A two year experience that he truely hated. But he stuck it out anyway. His first big break came when he was doing a version of  Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" with a local theatre group. He was met by John Geilgud, backstage, who told him he had done an outstanding performance and offered him a role in his West End production of Hamlet. Despite the fact that it was a small role, Shaw took the chance to work with such an admired man in the theatre. The show was not that much of a success though and Robert gave Geilgud the impression that he was somewhat opinionated, so John didn't end up helping him at all. Shaw turned instead to another medium. Film. He appeard in the movie The Lavender Hill Mob. A small 20 second scene with no lines. But the film became a classic.

     The first novel that Shaw wrote was "The Hiding Place". It was recieved very well by the literary critics getting raving reviews all over the world. He was know more known as a writer than an actor. The book even ended up being adapted to film with Alec Guinness as the lead role. It was retitled to "Situation Hopeless But Not Serious." Shaw hated the fact that it was made into a comedy. Although he did get some money for it. It was at about this time that he married his first wife, Jennifer Bourke, whom he met during a production of "A Mid Summer Night's Dream" She was a red headed jamacian girl. It wasn't long before they had their first daughter Deborah, she was born in January of 1953.

     It was also about that time that Robert Shaw befriended Donald Pleasence. The two would go on to develop a strong friendship with each other. Later Shaw would write a play called "The Man In The Glass Booth," which by the way was also based on his own novel.  He would cast Donald Pleasence as the lead in it. He made a movie called The Dam Busters at about this time but he stole every scene he was in so much that the director ended up cutting out alot of his work. His 2nd daughter Penny was born a little later in October of 54. Robert Shaw made Hell in Korea and Double Cross two movies that did marginally well and were not huge successes. However luck came to him when he was cast as the lead in a new British sitcom called The Buccaneers. A pirate show. It was a huge hit and after the first episode aired he was signing autographs everywhere he went. But this was not enough for Robert Shaw. He didn't like the show itself. He wanted to be judged on his performance, not his luck. The show did get him into the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade in America though. It was decided that having a british star in the parade would be a good idea and Robert was chosen. He sat right between Roy Rogers and Basil Rathbone. Rathbone was quiet where as Roy Rogers kept offering Shaw Whiskey. Shaw loved it. He felt like a real star being with them. He made the movie Tiger At The Gates just at about the same time that his show finally lost it's charm due to a popularity in Westerns.

     Now Shaw had to go back to the stage world where he was not really respected anymore because of his TV show. But it wasn't long before he made them all realize he hadn't lost anything. He moved to Abbey Road in London and worked with Peter O'Toole in "The Long And The Short And The Tall." The play was a huge success, and despite the friendship that developed between Robert and Peter they remained very competitive with each other. He also had another daughter at this time and was given a talk show by the BBC to discuss literary works with great writers, since his book The Hiding Place was becoming more and more popular every year

     In 1961 Robert Shaw fathered two more children. One by his wife and the other,...by an actress he had started having an affair with, Mary Ure, who by the way, at the time was much more famous than Robert. Because they were both married at the time it was difficult to keep the whole sordid affair out of the papers. Which the British press would have loved to get something on a star as famous as Mary Ure.  The two women even had their children's births performed at the same hospital only three weeks apart! By the time she was pregnant though, her husband, John Osborne, was already having an affair of his own. Jennifer on the other hand, had suspected nothing and was quite hurt. Robert and her remained best friends always though. She never hated him for it.

    "The Sun Doctor", Robert Shaw's second novel, was greeted with even better reviews than his first. He loved being an author, but he really mostly wanted to be a movie star. He was very contradictory as to which medium he liked the most. The only thing that was obvious was that he was slowly getting good at all of them. Novels, Plays, Stage, Films,.... The book won the Hawthornden Prize, which was a very coveted upper class award that every writer salivated for. I often laugh when Iwatch the movie "A Town Called Hell" (originally titled "A Town Called Bastard") and I think to myself,...'Amazing. This man won the Hawthornden Prize,...and here he is in this awful peice of sh*t with Telly Savalas. The next three films were critical successes but did not do that great at the box office. Which was often the case with Robert Shaw's movies.  New York loved him, Hollywood was just about to discover him,...but middle america had never heard of him. In Britain of course he was already known by much of the public from his TV show The Buccaneers. The three films ( The Valliant, Tommorow At Ten, and The Caretaker ) would preceed the one film that brought Robert Shaw into middle America. The 2nd installment in the James Bond series,..."From Russia With Love"

     Unlike, Dr. No, the first of the Bond films, From Russia With Love was a huge success. There are even some critics that believe Shaw's role in the film was monumental to it's huge success. Dr. No, didn't do horrible, but it was no huge mega hit. Connery was no slouch mind you, but if you watch the movie you'll have to agree that every scene Robert Shaw is in,...your attention is focused on him. I don't think Robert Shaw get's enough credit for helping the Bond series along. That movie's plot became the standard format for all the Bond movies that followed. Sean Connery became a mega star overnight. Shaw went back to television in a performance that some of todays biggest stars consider to be his best. He appeard in a very succsessful BBC made for TV version of Hamlet. Shaw played Claudius. "I've seen that play so many times," Richard Dreyfuss later told an interviewer, "And Robert Shaw did that part better than anyone I've ever seen do it. It was amazing." Other struggling stars who saw it, like James Earl Jones loved it. He felt the same way Richard Dreyfuss had. Shaw also got letters of approval from Britian's most legendary actors, Laurence Olivier, Richard Harris, Peter O'Toole.

     At about the same time as his television success with Hamlet, Shaw also wrote another screenplay for BBC. This was based on Oscar Wilde's "The Florentine Tragedy." It was greeted with raving reviews as well. He was becoming a huge star on British TV, but he hadn't really made a dent in the market he most wanted,...America. He then made what was to become his personal favorite of all his movies, "The Luck Of Ginger Coffey" It was highly acclaimed by critics but that's about it. Not a huge success. He then worked in a very odd project for BBC, a re-adaption of A Christmas Carol with Henry Fonda, Richard Harris, and Sterling Hayden. Shaw was to play the ghost of Christmas Future. The show was a disaster, despite the awesome cast, and was panned by critics as well.

     He then starred in a film that became one of the classic war films "Battle Of The Bulge" Once again he was working with Henry Fonda. And once again critics agreed that he stole every scene he was in. Pretty impressive when you consider he was working with Henry Fonda. That was 1965, the year he also wrote his most critically acclaimed novel of his whole writing career. "The Flag." It was a huge success. He was now known as two different people it seemed. The writer and the actor. And,...God knows how many kids the man had by this point. He ended up eventually fathering 10 of them. Stage Writer, Film Writer, Stage Actor, Film Actor, Novelist, TV talk show host,...and a stud with the ladies. Is there anything this man couldn't do? And yet he wasn't happy. He wanted more. And with his next film he got just that.

     Walter Matthau won the oscar for best supporting actor in 1966. For the first and only time Robert Shaw was up for that same award. The movie was "A Man For All Seasons" and appearing in the film with Robert were legendary greats, John Hurt, and Orsen Welles. The film was a huge success, it swept the oscars that year, including best picture and director, a total of 9 all together. It was, in my opinion one of Shaw's best performances. Although as of this writing there are still a few of his films I've never seen.

     The Man in the Glass Booth, Shaw's fourth novel, was not only critically acclaimed, it was a public success as well, and was made into a play, and film with Donald Pleasence as the star. Shaw was glad to see it done, but it was a little too political at the time and producers were wary of it, although every time it played, it got cheers from the audiance. It was a success with the very people the producers were most worried about offending. Then Robert Shaw starred in one of his most critically acclaimed roles. Odd, when it was released it did poorly, now it's one of the most respected flims about General Custer by film critics world wide, "Custer Of The West" Apparently the film went unoticed and when it was rediscoverd that Shaw had played Custer with sympathy for the first time, it became a cult classic. He had broken new ground, and few noticed until years later. His next film The Battle Of Britian became another war classic. It is now considered by airplane buffs to be the best war film ever made. He followed that with a film that was hugely successful, but unfortuneately you can't get a good copy of it today. The Royal Hunt For The Sun is said to be one of Shaw's best performances, indeed people at Amazon.com who review the books rave about the movie, but they also rant about how awful the print Amazon.com is selling is. It's available in both DVD and VHS, and both are under $12.00. It wasn't a huge sucess then, but like Custer Of The West, it became a big cult hit. Unfortunately, something awful must have happened to the master print. It's ruined.

     Shaw's last published novel Card From Marroco was another huge hit. And he got another starring role in another good movie, Figures In A Landscape. He also made "A Town Called Bastard" at this time. Which he eventually forgave himself for. It seemed so promising at the time, the director was hot, Telly Savalas was going to co-star. This movie sucks though. Pee Yew!!!!

     "Young Winston" was the role Shaw had been waiting for. In it he played the father of Winsston Churchill. It was a good script and Shaw loved making it. It was hailed by some critics as Shaw's best work, and once again Shaw dominated every scene he was in. He then went on to make the first film of his that was filmed in Hollywood, "A Reflection Of Fear" Sandra Locke and Sally Kellerman were his co-stars.The film had minimal success, and now for some reason it is one of the most expensive videos of the Robert Shaw collection at Amazon.com. The critics were not kind to it, and there's really no reason they  should have been. The picture sucked. In fact Robert Shaw never liked the script to begin with. He only made it so he could see Hollywood. Fortunately for Shaw, his wife Mary was along for the ride, or else he would have surely had an affair with Sally Kellerman. The two were constantly flirting with  each other during the filming of this picture. And can you blame him? Have you ever seen her? Hubba Hubba!

     The next two films Robert Shaw made were both fine quality work. The first one, "The Hireling" was picked as best picture by the Cannes Film Festival in 1973. The movie tied with 'Scarecrow', the film with Al Pacino and Gene Hackman. It was a huge critical success, and it didn't do bad with the public either. However it wasn't as popular as the movie that followed, "The Sting" became an instant classic and to this day still delights audiances of all ages. Shaw's portrayal of Doyle Lonnigan won him lots of critical acclaim, and he finally got a check that helped his bank account. For the first time in a long time, Shaw was no longer in debt. He was doing good. The Sting was one of the biggest films made that year. As usual Shaw dominated most of the scenes he was in,...however the last few scenes in which Newman was in the scene with him,...he couldn't quite steal the scene. He'd finally met his match in Paul Newman. "You're gonna do great things." Shaw told him.

     Shaw's next film was, in my opinion, one of his best films. It's a suspense/action adventure film called, "The Taking Of Pelahm One Two Three" He ironically got to co-star with the same man who beat him out for Best Supporting Actor in 1966, Walter Matthau. Shaw deliverd some very chilling lines as the villian in this film. And stole every scene he was in. He also made a new drinking friend in Hollywood. Walter Matthau.      

     During the summer that Robert Shaw was making the worst flm of his career, "A Town Called Bastard," a man named Peter Benchley was starting a new novel. It would be years later when Shaw would call a friend and say, "They want me to do this movie about a big fish. I don't know if I should do it or not."  When the friend asked why Shaw had reservations he mentioned that he'd never heard of the director and didn't like the title,...."Jaws." That friend would never see Robert Shaw again. A year later he would bump into Sean Connery who had just come back from Spain where he and Robert Shaw made "Robin And Marion." The friend would ask "How is Robert?" Sean Connerys reply, "I'm worried about him. He looks exhausted."

      "Jaws" of course was the biggest box office film that Robert Shaw had been a part of. In fact by the time it had been out for a year, the film became the biggest box office grossing film of all time. It was the most seen new film in the entire world. It became a part of American culture and spawned three sequels, none of which captured the greatness of the original. And most critics agreed that Shaw's character was the most interesting one in the whole story. He had finally made the top of the game. The scene in which Shaw tells the story of the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis was written by Robert Shaw. When he first delivered it during rehearsals the whole cast was devastated as to how good it was. In fact Speilberg new that it was too good, and didn't want any scene to be better than the finale. So he had to ask Robert to tone down the emotions. By this time Shaw had gained such respect for Speilberg that he didn't argue. He toned it down. It worked fine in the film. Sadly everyone went home rich from this film except for Robert Shaw. He went home broke. The taxes that he had to pay working in America and Ireland, and Canada during the shooting were too much to handle, and he sadly didn't get a percentage of the films profits. However,...he was now a much stronger force in Hollywood.

Read some more by clicking the link below:

THE FINAL YEARS

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