Robert Shaw (actor)

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Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws.
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Robert Shaw as Quint in Jaws.

Robert Shaw (August 9, 1927 – August 28, 1978) was an English stage and film actor and writer.

Contents

[edit] Life

Robert Shaw was born in Westhoughton, near Bolton, Lancashire, England, in 1927, to Thomas (a doctor) and Doreen Shaw. He had three sisters and one brother. At the age of seven, the family moved to Stromness, Orkney Islands, Scotland. When Robert was 12, his father died (apparently due to alcoholism), and the family moved to Cornwall, where he went to school in Truro. Shaw attended the Royal Academy of the Arts in London.

Shaw was married three times and had nine children--

[edit] Death

On August 28, 1978 Shaw died from a heart attack in Tourmakeady, County Mayo, Ireland at the age of 51, brought on by failing health. A Wetherspoon's Pub has been named after him in his home town. One of his sons, Ian Shaw, is also an actor.

[edit] Acting career

Shaw's best-known film performances include a turn as the dangerous enemy secret agent Red Grant in the James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963); the relentless panzer officer Colonel Hessler in Battle of the Bulge (1965); a young Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966); Lord Randolph Churchill, in Young Winston (1972); the ruthless mobster Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting (1973); and the strange, menacing shark fisherman Quint in Jaws (1975).

Shaw was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Man for All Seasons.

He performed on stage as well, both in England and on Broadway.

[edit] Writing career

In addition to his acting career, Shaw was also an accomplished writer of novels, plays and screenplays. His first novel, The Hiding Place, published in 1960, met with positive reviews. His next, The Sun Doctor, published the following year, was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in 1962.

Shaw then embarked on a trilogy of novels – The Flag (1965), The Man in the Glass Booth (1967) and A Card from Morocco (1969); it was his adaptation for the stage of The Man in the Glass Booth which gained for Shaw's writing the most attention. The book and play present a complex and morally ambiguous tale of a man who, at various times in the story, is either a Jewish businessman pretending to be a Nazi war criminal, or a Nazi war criminal pretending to be a Jewish businessman. The play was quite controversial when performed in the US and the UK, some critics praising Shaw's sly, deft, and complex examination of the moral issues of nationality and identity, others sharply criticizing Shaw's treatment of such a sensitive subject. The Man in the Glass Booth was further developed for the screen, but Shaw disapproved of the resulting film and had his name removed from the credits.

Shaw also adapted The Hiding Place into a screenplay for the film Situation Hopeless ... but not Serious starring Alec Guinness. His play Cato Street was produced for the first time in 1971 in London.

[edit] Films

[edit] Broadway performances

[edit] Books, plays and screenplays

[edit] External links

Preceded by:
Joseph Wiseman		 Official James Bond villain actor
1963		 Succeeded by:
Gert Fröbe
Preceded by:
Sammy Davis, Jr., Bob Hope, Shirley MacLaine, and Frank Sinatra
47th Academy Awards		 "Oscars" host
48th Academy Awards (with Goldie Hawn, Gene Kelly, Walter Matthau, and George Segal)		 Succeeded by:
Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, and Richard Pryor
49th Academy Awards
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