Robert Drivas

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Robert Drivas (November 21, 1938 - June 29, 1986) was an American actor and theatre director.

Born Robert Choromokos Drivas in Chicago, Illinois, Drivas studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Miami. After further training at the Greek Playhouse in Athens, Greece and with the Coconut Grove Playhouse in Miami Beach, he made his New York City debut in the role of Rameses in 1958 in the play The Firstborn, starring Anthony Quayle as Moses. He continued to perform on stage with One More River (1960), The Wall (1960), The Irregular Verb to Love (1963), and And Things That Go Bump in the Night (1965), which he also directed. In 1963 he won a Theatre World Award for his performance in Mrs. Dally Has a Lover.

Drivas was associated with many well-known theatrical figures of his time, including playwright Terrence McNally, whose play The Ritz he directed in 1975. Other directing credits include Bad Habits, for which he won an Obie Award, Legend, Cheaters, It Had to Be You, a revival of the musical Little Me, and Peg, a musical biography of songstress Peggy Lee, with lyrics and book by the star herself.

Concurrent with his theater work, Drivas appeared in television, beginning in 1958. He showed great intensity and power in guest-starring roles on 1960s crime shows and dramas such as Route 66, N.Y.P.D., The Defenders, The Fugitive and The F.B.I..

Drivas' first theatrical film appearance was in the role of "Loudmouth Steve" in the classic prison drama Cool Hand Luke (1967). This debut led to more film work, Drivas soon sharing the screen with Rod Steiger and Claire Bloom in the The Illustrated Man (1969). Though Drivas' performance was mezmerizing, the film was a commercial failure and was not the star-making role for Drivas it might otherwise have been. Drivas also excelled as the cool, but idealistic, son of David Janssen in "Where It's At" (1969), but again, the film was dismissed and Drivas' career did not advance.

Though he did not not become a star popular with general audiences, a cult following has grown up around his distinctive persona and unusual performances, and his premature death at age 47 of AIDS-related complications includes him in the company of important artists lost to that epidemic.

[edit] Miscellanea

Drivas was once involved in an on-stage scuffle with an irate theater-goer during a 1965 performance of Terrence McNally's play And Things That Go Bump in the Night. The play, which featured an overtly gay character, had been panned by the six daily New York newspapers and had become a source of some controversy. McNally told theatermania.com that he saw one theater-goer "jump onto the stage and try to get [actress] Eileen Heckart off of it, prompting Robert Drivas to grapple with him. The man felt that the play was filthy and that such a distinguished actress as Heckart shouldn't be doing it".
Drivas has long held iconic status among connoisseurs of images of nudity in film for his famous extended bare-bottomed scene in "The Illustrated Man" (1969). Considered ground-breaking for its time, the sequence features Drivas, seen from behind, bathing nude in a lake.
The drama Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune (later filmed as Frankie and Johnny, starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer) was written by playwright Terrence McNally soon after losing his two best friends, Drivas (to AIDS) and actor James Coco (to heart disease). In 1993 McNally told The New York Times, "Bobby [Drivas] didn't want anyone to know he had AIDS,so he would regularly change his phone message, saying, 'Hi, it's Bobby. I've gone to Paris.' Or 'Hi, it's Bobby, I'm in Australia. I'll be back soon.' When I called up people to tell them he'd died, they'd say, 'How can that be? I just talked to him. He was just in India' or 'He was just in Paris.' And I'd tell them, 'No, that was his answering machine.' And they'd realize they hadn't laid eyes on the man for 18 months". - from "A Profile of Terrence McNally", Aug. 29, 1993 ([1])