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Edward G. Robinson 1893 - 1973

Edward G. Robinson was born on December 12, 1893 in Bucharest, Bucharest County, Bucharest Romania, and died at age 79 years old on January 26, 1973 in United States. Edward Robinson was buried on January 30, 1973 at Beth-El Cemeteries 80-12 Cypress Hills St, in Queens, NY, Queens County, NY.
Edward G. Robinson
At birth only Emanuel Goldenberg.
Beverly Hills, CA.
December 12, 1893
Bucharest, Bucharest County, Bucharest, Romania
January 26, 1973
United States
Male
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Edward G. Robinson's History: 1893 - 1973

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  • Introduction

    Born December 12, 1893 in Bucharest, Romania Died January 26, 1973 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer) Buried in Brooklyn, NY. Birth Name Emanuel Goldenberg. Menashe Goldenberg. Nicknames Eddie and Manny. Height 5' 7" (1.7 m) Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten, and his family moved into New York's Lower East Side. He took up acting while attending City College, abandoning plans to become a rabbi or lawyer. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began work in stock, with his new name, Edward G. Robinson (the "G" stood for his birth surname), in 1913. Broadway was two years later; he worked steadily there for 15 years. His work included "The Kibitzer", a comedy he co-wrote with Jo Swerling. His film debut was a small supporting part in the silent The Bright Shawl (1923), but it was with the coming of sound that he hit his stride. His stellar performance as snarling, murderous thug Rico Bandello in Little Caesar (1931)--all the more impressive since in real life Robinson was a sophisticated, cultured man with a passion for fine art--set the standard for movie gangsters, both for himself in many later films and for the industry. He portrayed the title character in several biographical works, such as Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet (1940) and A Dispatch from Reuters (1940). Psychological dramas included Flesh and Fantasy (1943), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944)and Scarlet Street (1945). Another notable gangster role was in Key Largo (1948). He was "absolved" of allegations of Communist affiliation after testifying as a friendly witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee during the McCarthy hysteria of the early 1950s. In 1956 he had to sell off his extensive art collection in a divorce settlement and also had to deal with a psychologically troubled son. In 1956 he returned to Broadway in "Middle of the Night". In 1973 he was awarded a special, posthumous Oscar for lifetime achievement. Spouse (2) Jane Robinson (16 January 1958 - 26 January 1973) ( his death) Gladys Lloyd (21 January 1927 - 20 July 1956) ( divorced) ( 1 child) Prideful, nasty and violent characters involved in the underworld Unconventional, almost catfish-like mug. His short, squat frame. The line "Yeah, See" but pronouncing See as Say for "Yeah, Say" which has become an iconic imitation.
  • 12/12
    1893

    Birthday

    December 12, 1893
    Birthdate
    Bucharest, Bucharest County, Bucharest Romania
    Birthplace
  • Ethnicity & Family History

    I remember just before going onto the soundstage, I'd look in my dressing room mirror and stretch myself to my full 5'5" or 5'6"--whatever it was--to make me appear taller and to make me able to dominate all the others and to mow them down with my size. Of course, I started as a collector. A true collector. I can remember as if it were only yesterday the heart-pounding excitement as I spread out upon the floor of my bedroom The Edward G. Robinson Collection of Rare Cigar Bands. I didn't play at collecting. No cigar anywhere was safe from me. My father and uncles and all their friends turned their lungs black trying to satisfy my collector's zeal. And then came cigarette cards, big-league baseball players. I was an insatiable fiend, and would cheerfully trade you three Indian Joes for one of that upstart newcomer, Ty Cobb. Paintings never really belong to one of us. If we are fortunate, as I have been, we are allowed at most a lovely time of custody. Acting and painting have much in common. You begin with the external appearance and then strip away the layers to get to the essential core. This is reality and that is how an artist achieves truth. When you are acting, you are playing a part, you are being somebody else. You are also, at the same time, being yourself. Some people have youth, some have beauty--I have menace. The sitting around on the set is awful. But I always figure that's what they pay me for. The acting I do for free. [on Humphrey Bogart] I always felt sorry for him--sorry that he had imposed upon himself the character with which he had become identified. [om writer/director Richard Brooks] As feisty, individual, unpredictable and honest as any man I've ever known. [on being cast in The Ten Commandments (1956)] Cecil B. DeMille restored my self-respect. Every one of us bears within him the possibility of all passions, all destinies of life in all its manifold forms. Nothing human is foreign to us. [to good friend Jesse Lasky Jr., screenwriter of The Ten Commandments (1956)] You gave me the greatest exit a 'heavy' ever had. No actor would break friendship with a writer who created a tempest, then an earthquake, then opened a fissure and had me fall through into hell. Even in Little Caesar (1931) I never had an exit as good as that! [on DeMille, who gave Robinson the role of Dathan at a time when the actor was blacklisted] No more conservative or patriarchal figure existed in Hollywood, no one more opposed to communism or any permutation or combination thereof, and no fairer one, no one with a greater sense of decency and justice.
  • Nationality & Locations

    American Citizen and for many years he lived in New York and Hollywood but chose to be buried in a Jewish cemetery in Cypress Hills, Queens.
  • Early Life & Education

    Romania and the USA.
  • Religious Beliefs

    Jewish. He was buried in Beth El Cemetery in Cypress Hills, Queens, NY.
  • Professional Career

    Famous actor. Became a father at age 39 when his 1st [later ex] wife Gladys Lloyd gave birth to their son Edward G. Robinson Jr. on March 19, 1933. Interred at Beth El Cemetery, Queens, New York, in the Goodman Mausoleum. Incredibly, never nominated for an Academy Award. He was awarded an Honorary Oscar two months after his death. His wife, who accepted for him, commented on how thrilled he was to learn he would be given the award. Was originally slated to play Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes (1968) but dropped out due to heart problems. Pictured on a 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued 24 October 2000. Father of Edward G. Robinson Jr.. Died two weeks after he had finished filming Soylent Green (1973). The inspiration for the voice of Chief Clancy Wiggum (Hank Azaria) on The Simpsons (1989). Although best known for playing fierce, shady little men, Robinson was well liked by almost everyone off-screen, having been a sensitive, quiet, artistic type when not performing. Was named #24 greatest actor on The 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute According to the March 31, 1941, issue of "Time" magazine, he and Melvyn Douglas bid $3,200 for the fedora hat that Franklin D. Roosevelt had worn during his three successful campaigns for the presidency. They acquired the hat at a special Hollywood auction to benefit the Motion Picture Relief Fund. Both Robinson and Douglas were identified as "loyal Democrats". Robinson would later be "grey-listed" during the McCarthy Red Scare hysteria of the 1950s and have to make his living on stage. Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953. Lived in a Yiddish community in Romania until he was 9. Donated $100,000 to the United Service Organization (USO) during WW2. Like many celebrities, Robinson also pitched in at the Hollywood Canteen and, being multilingual (he reportedly spoke seven languages fluently, among them Yiddish, Romanian and German), worked on broadcasts to countries occupied by the Nazis. Spoke seven other languages besides English, including Yiddish, Romanian and German. When he died in 1973, he left an estate valued at $2,500,000 which largely consisted of rare works of art. Robinson's fellow student and close friend at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts was Joseph Schildkraut, who remembered, 'I looked at the girls, but Manny stuck to his work'. Robinson suffered a heart attack while filming A Boy Ten Feet Tall (1963) in Africa,. Other alumni of his P.S. 21 in Manhattan were George Gershwin, Paul Muni and US Sen. Jacob Javits. Although it has been said that Robinson chose his stage name after an actor he had seen and admired, later he said he was just trying to keep his birth initials. He was unsure as to why he had settled on Robinson but would have chosen a shorter name if allowed to do it again as it takes a long time to write Robinson in an autograph. He was considered for the role of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather (1972) before Marlon Brando was cast. He was originally offered the role of Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot (1959), but Robinson had vowed never again to work with George Raft, with whom he had a fist fight on the set of Manpower (1941) when for a scene Raft spun him around too hard. (Despite the avowal, Robinson did co-star with Raft in A Bullet for Joey (1955)) However, the role of Johnny Paradise, the kid homaging Raft's "cheap trick" of coin-flipping, is also the man with the Tommy gun in the birthday cake who mows down Spats and his gang. The actor is Edward G. Robinson Jr.. Became a grandfather at age 59 when his son Edward G. Robinson Jr. and his 1st [later ex] wife Frances Chisholm welcomed a daughter, Francesca Gladys Robinson, on March 27, 1953. His great grandson Adam Edward Sanchez, via granddaughter Francesca and her husband Ricardo, was born 10 years after his death on February 5, 1983. Starred in three Best Picture Academy Award nominees: Five Star Final (1931), Double Indemnity (1944), and The Ten Commandments (1956). He hated guns. During production of Little Caesar (1931), Robinson's eyelids had to be taped open so he wouldn't flinch when he fired his weapon. He was a great art lover, especially paintings. Robert Wagner, who knew him very well, revealed that Robinson bought a Cézanne painting which did not fit with his living room. So, he first changed the mantel of the living room, then the wall paper of the living room, then the furniture around the painting. But it did not make it. So he finally chose another apartment for the Cézanne painting.
  • Personal Life & Family

    Received a special award from the Maryland State Council of the American Jewish Congress for his performance as Dathan in The Ten Commandments (1956). According to an interview with Soylent Green (1973) costar Dick Van Patten , he worked with Edward G. Robinson for the first time while shooting the euthanasia scene and was somewhat embarrassed that he was so nervous they had to do several takes before he got use to not calling him "Mr. Robinson". The next day, before, shooting started, Charlton Heston called all the cast together to announce that "Eddie" has passed away during the night. One of the finest scenes ever worked by this classic icon fittingly became his swan song. He has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: Little Caesar (1931), Double Indemnity (1944) and The Ten Commandments (1956). Personal Quotes (19) If I were just a bit taller and I was a little more handsome or something like that, I could have played all the roles that I have played, and played many more. There is such a thing as a handicap, but you've got to be that much better as an actor. It kept me from certain roles that I might have had, but then, it kept others from playing my roles, so I don't know that it's not altogether balanced. [on Double Indemnity (1944)] It was, in fact, the third lead. I debated accepting it. Emanuel Goldberg told me that at my age it was time to begin thinking of character roles, to slide into middle and old age with the same grace as that marvelous actor Lewis Stone . . . The decision made itself . . It remains one of my favorites. I have not collected art. Art collected me. I never found paintings. They found me. I have never even owned a work of art. They owned me. To last you need to be real. To be entrusted with a character was always a big responsibility to me. To my mind, the actor has this great responsibility of playing another human being . . . it's like taking on another person's life and you have to do it as sincerely and honestly as you can. Ah yes, I remember well what it was like to be a true collector, that soft explosion in the heart, that thundering inner "Yes!" when you see something you must have or die. For over 30 years I made periodic visits to [Auguste Renoir's] "Luncheon of the Boating Party" in a Washington museum, and stood before that magnificent masterpiece hour after hour, day after day, plotting ways to steal it.
  • 01/26
    1973

    Death

    January 26, 1973
    Death date
    Heart Attack in Africa.
    Cause of death
    United States
    Death location
  • 01/30
    1973

    Gravesite & Burial

    January 30, 1973
    Funeral date
    Beth-El Cemeteries 80-12 Cypress Hills St, in Queens, NY, Queens County, New York 11385, United States
    Burial location
  • Obituary

    HOLLYWOOD, Jan. 26 —Edward G. Robinson, whose tough, sinister appearance on movie screens concealed the soul of a gentle man, died today at the age of 79. Mr. Robinson succumbed at Mount Sinai Hospital where he had undergone tests in recent weeks. The cause of death was not immediately determined. Man of Great Kindness By ALDEN WHITMAN Edward G. Robinson was a skilled actor of the stage and screen whose vivid portrayal of motion picture gangsters, among them Little Caeser, during the nineteen‐thirties marked powerful mobsters who ruled the underworld during the Prohibition era. So effective was the Robinson interpretation of the gartgster that many of the underworld characters found themselves affecting the Robinson character—chomping down on cigar butts while snarling threats and orders out of the sides of their mouths. But while Mr. Robinson was making his mark on others he, himself, remained strangely unaffected. In real life he was a man of great kindness and courtesy whose generosity scarcely knew bounds. Between 1939 and 1949 he made more than 850 contributions totaling above $250,000 to relief and entertainment agencies, to cultural, educational and religious groups. His art collection comprised perhaps the outstanding ground of privately owned paintings in the United States. During the course of a marital settlement it was sold in 1957 for $3,250,000. Mr. Robinson was born Dec. 12, 1893, as Emanuel Goldenberg in Bucharest, Rumania. One of Mr. Robinson's broth ers was hit on the head with a rock during a schoolboy pogrom and years later he died in America, probably from the affects of the blow. To escape this persecution the family managed to scrape together the fare for steerage passage and came to the United states. “At Ellis Island I was born again,” Mr. Robinson wrote later. “Life for me began when I was 10 years old.” As a boy Mr. Robinson, as soon as he had mastered English, made speeches to his family and friends. His favorite was Theodore Roosevelt's second inaugural address, which he had committed to memory. He hoped to become a criminal lawyer “to defend the human beings who were abused. and exploited.” With this purpose, he entered Townsend Harris High School and after that City College: It was at City College that the youth decided to forego his law career to be an actor. He loved to perform before people. But Mr. Robinson's study of the theatre told him that there had been many little men in the theatre. He won a scholarship at the American Academy of Dramatic Art with a sizzling and effective delivery of the Brutus and Cassius quarrel scene from “Julius Caesar.” He was 19 when he entered a drama school and shortly thereafter changed his name to Robinson “a name I had heard while sitting in the balcony of the Criterion Theatre.” He played in stock in Cincinnati, in vaudeville as a Chinese man in a skit at Hammerstein's. He finally broke into the legitimate theater in 1915 in a play called “Under Fire.” He got the part because he was multilingual, an attribute called for in the script, Role followed role and the youngster received many good notices. He joined the Theatre Guild and played a great variety of roles in such productions as “The Adding Machine,” “The Brothers Karamazov,” “Right You Are, If You Think You Are” and “Juarez and Maximilian.” He was starred for the first time in “The Kibitzer” —a play of which he was the co‐author. In January 1927, Mr. Robinson married Gladys Lloyd, an actress. Mr. Robinson had experimented with several screen roles in silent pictures but he was not happy with the result. With the addition of sound to the shadows, however, Mr. Robinson's interest was renewed and he tried his first talking picture “The Hole in the Wall." There followed “The Widow from Chicago” and a short time later, in 1931, “Little Caesar.” Of “Little Caesar” a critic for The New York Times wrote: “‘Little Caesar’ becomes at Mr. Robinson's hands a figure out of a Greek tragedy, a cold, ignorant, merciless killer, driven on and on by an insatiable lust for power, the plaything of force that is greater than himself.” The film contained a climatic line that itself became a classic, Little Caesar's parting words as he lay slumped under a billboard after he had been shot by the police: “Mother of God, is this the end of Rico?” It was sometimes said that Mr. Robinson was selected to play the role of Little Caesar because of a resemblance to Al Capone, the Chicago vice baron. Mr. Robinson doubter this theory, and there was no real‐life resemblance. Hollywood makeup artists, however always managed to make Mr. Robinson look as sinister as Capone was reputed to be. A more reasonable theory was that Hollywood sought him out because of his success as Nick Scarsi, a character in a play called “The Racket. This play was so real, Mr. Robinson once remarked, that it could not be produced in Chicago. In any event, his portrayal of Little Caesar came to be considered a classic, and there followed others in the curled lip mold—“Smart Money,” “Five Star Final,” “Bullets or Ballots,” “Kid Galahad” and “A Slight Case of Murder.” The actor thought “Five Star Final” was one of his finest tough guy pictures. In it he played Randall, the editor of a muckraking tabloid. This film, released in 1931, along with many of his other movies, has been revived from time to time on television. Mr. Robinson's first real departure from his two‐fisted type of role on the screen was “Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet” in 1940, and even this film about syphilis was billed as “the war against the greatest public enemy of all.” From 1929 to 1966 Mr. Robinson appeared in more than 100 films. His name, until recent years, usually meant good box office. In all, his films grossed well over $50‐million, and this figure is a modest estimate. His own earnings were high and he lived appropriately. Mr. Robinson was the first Hollywood star to entertain in France after the invasion of Normandy. He sold war bonds and it was said he turned his regular weekly radio dramatic show “Big” Town” into a soapbox in favor of the American way. The American Legion gave the program a citation and he was commended for his “outstanding contribution to Americanism through his stirring patriotic appeals.” But because he had allowed his name to be linked with so many causes, inevitably there were those with a Communist tinge. Mr. Robinson was named in “Red Channels” in connection with 11 Communist front organizations. But Mr. Robinson carried his case to the House Un‐American Activities Committee and eventually won a clean bill of health. After 28 years of marriage, Mr. Robinson was sued for divorce in 1955 and his wife was granted an interlocutory divorce decree the next year. After 28 years as a movie actor, Mr. Robinson returned to the stage in “Middle of the Night” and scored a success. At the age of 63, he was a forceful and vital figure on the stage and the youthful cast said that they found it difficult to match his boundless energy. In “Middle of the Night” he portrayed an aging widower who married a much younger woman. Early in 1958, while he was still appearing in the Paddy Chayefsky play, Mr. Robinson was married to. Jane Bodenheimer, a 38‐year‐old dress designer known professionally as Jane Arden. After his stage success, the actor performed occasionally on television and played featured roles in several other movies. In all, he appeared in 40 Broadway plays and more than 100 films. Among his most recent movies were “A Boy Ten Feet Tall,” “Cheyenne Autumn,” “The Cincinnati Kid” and “Sammy Going South.” It was while making this picture in 1964 that he suffered a mild heart attack. Mr. Robinson was an excellent actor and was to have received a special Oscar for his “outstanding contribution to motion pictures” at the Academy Awards ceremony on March 27. It would have been his first Oscar. He received a number of other citations, however, including the Legion of Honor, the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award, and a medal from City College, his alma mater. At the bestowal ceremony for the medal in 1965, he yielded to student demands for a glimpse of his “Little Caesar” style. “So you want to be an actor?” he demanded of one sophomore, with a finger jab in the chest. “Well, stick to your schooling, kid!” Surviving are his widow; a son by his former marriage, Edward G. Robinson Jr.; granddaughter, Francesca, and a brother, William Goldberg. Funeral services for Mr. Robinson will be held Sunday at 2 P.M. at Temple Israel, 7300 Hollywood Boulevard, with Dr. Max Nussbaum officiating. The eulogy will be delivered by Charlton Heston. Serving as pallbearers will be Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis, Mervyn Leroy, George Burns, Sam Jaffe, Frank Sinatra, Jack Karp, and Alan Simpson. He was buried in Queens.
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18 Memories, Stories & Photos about Edward

Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
This is a photo of Edward G. Robinson added by Amanda S. Stevenson on April 27, 2020.
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Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson went from the Yiddish theater of New York to Broadway and to superstardom in Hollywood, an incredible journey for a man born Menashe Goldenberg in Bucharest, Romania. Born on this date in 1893, Robinson received an honorary Oscar for his brilliant career.
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He was a great actor. He loved the United States and donated $120,000 to American causes during World War II. Edward served in the U.S. Navy in World War I. It is his birthday today, so I restored the photograph of him in his Navy uniform.
He said his life began when he arrived in the USA at the age of ten.
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Portrait of Edward G. Robinson by Arthur K. Miller
Portrait of Edward G. Robinson by Arthur K. Miller
This captures the tough investigator look.
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Edward G. Robinson was a proud World War I veteran.
Edward G. Robinson was a proud World War I veteran.
I restored this photograph on the anniversary of his birthday, December 12, 2022.
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Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
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Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
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Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
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Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
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Edward G. Robinson
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Edward Robinson's Family Tree & Friends

Edward Robinson's Family Tree

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