Cliff Robertson - ©Theda Bara

The name I highlight in this post is that of the respected and award-winning American actor Cliff Robertson, who won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1969 for his performance in the film “Charly” (1968), playing “Charly Gordon”, a 30-year-old man with an intellectual disability who, after brain surgery, becomes a genius.

In addition to the Best Actor Oscar, Cliff also won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1966 and is widely recognized for playing “Uncle Ben Parker” in the “Spider-Man” films (2002 and 2007).

Cliff Robertson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at 6801 Hollywood Boulevard, in the Cinema category.

Clifford Parker Robertson III was born on September 9, 1923, in La Jolla, San Diego, California, United States, and died on September 10, 2011, in Stony Brook, New York, United States, at the age of 88.

Cliff Robertson was married twice: first to American actress Cynthia Boyd Stone (1926-1988), a relationship that lasted less than two years, from 1957 to 1959, as Cynthia divorced him to marry fellow American actor and musician John Uhler “Jack” Lemmon III (1925-2001); after this traumatic separation, Cliff married again seven years later to American actress and philanthropist Nedenia Marjorie Hutton, known artistically as Dina Merrill (1923-2017), from 1966 to 1989.

Cliff Robertson had two daughters, one from each marriage. His eldest daughter, Stephanie Robertson or Stephanie Saunders (1959-), was born from his union with actress Cynthia Stone. His youngest daughter, Heather Robertson (1968-2007), was the result of his marriage to actress Dina Merrill.