Robert Shaw

Robert Shaw Headshot

Actor • Writer

Birth Date: August 9, 1927

Death Date: August 28, 1978

Birth Place: Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, UK

Spouses: Mary Ure

A rough-hewn British character actor who played more leading roles later in his career, Robert Shaw went from being typecast as tough-guy villains to proving his versatility in a wide range of performances. Shaw had his start on the stage in the late 1940s and quickly segued to the screen where he broke through as an assassin for SPECTRE in "From Russia with Love" (1963). But it was his Oscar-nominated turn as King Henry VIII in "A Man for All Seasons" (1966) that helped shed new light on the actor, leading to a variety of characters in films like "Battle of Britain" (1969), "A Town Called Hell" (1971) and "Young Winston" (1972). Shaw then entered his most fruitful period to play ruthless mob boss Doyle Lonnegan in "The Sting" (1973) and criminal mastermind Mr. Blue in "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974), which paved the way for his most iconic performance as salty Quint in Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" (1975). From there, Shaw was a leading man in a number of major studio films like "Black Sunday" (1977), "Force 10 from Navarone" (1977) and "Avalanched Express" (1979). But at the height of his career, Shaw suffered a fatal heart attack. Whether on screen or as the author of award-winning novels, Shaw was a unique talent the likes of whom would not be seen again.

Born on Aug. 9, 1927 in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, Shaw was raised by his father, Thomas, a physician, and his mother, Doreen, a former nurse. When he was seven years old, the family moved to Scotland and when he was 12, Shaw's father - a manic depressive and alcoholic - committed suicide. As a result, the family moved to Cornwall where Shaw attended the independent Truro School and briefly taught school in Saltburn-by-the-Sea, before attending the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. In 1949, he made his stage debut with the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon and later in the year toured Australia with the Old Vic. Shaw soon made his London stage debut in a West End production of "Caro William" (1951) and a few years later, transitioned to the screen with minor supporting roles in "The Dam Busters" (1955) and "A Hill in Korea" (1956), before returning to the stage to star in his own play, "Off the Mainland" (1956). Following a turn in the British crime thriller "Man from Tangier" (1957), he spent 39 episodes as the lead pirate on the children-themed series "The Buccaneers" (ITV, 1956-57).

Following the show, Shaw went back to the big screen for small roles in "Sea Fury" (1958) and "Libel" (1959), before landing episodes of British series like "The Four Just Men" (ITV, 1959-1960) and "Danger Man" (ITV, 1960-68). After playing Leontes in the feature adaptation of "The Winter's Tale" (1961), he played cunning SPECTRE assassin Red Grant in "From Russia with Love" (1963). At this point, Shaw became a published author with The Hiding Place (1960) and The Sun Doctor, the latter of which won the 1962 Hawthornden Prize. He next played King Claudius in Grigori Kozintsev's adaptation of "Hamlet" (1964), the Ghost of Christmas Future in "Carol for Another Christmas" (1964), and a fictional colonel fighting in "Battle of the Bulge" (1965), an epic war film about the famed World War II battle starring Henry Fonda, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas and Charles Bronson. In "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), Shaw was King Henry VIII to Paul Scofield's Sir Thomas More and Orson Welles' Cardinal Wolsey, a performance that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor - the only such honor of his career.

Shaw went on to portray Gen. George Armstrong Custer in the critically derided Western "Custer of the West" (1967), before starring in William Friedkin's adaptation of Harold Pinter's "The Birthday Party" (1968). In the "Battle of Britain" (1969), Shaw was cast alongside British heavyweights like Laurence Olivier, Trevor Howard, Christopher Plummer, Michael Caine and Susannah York for this epic and surprisingly historically accurate depiction of England's fight to stop the Luftwaffe from bombing Britain back to the Stone Age. That same year, he starred opposite Plummer in the historical drama "The Royal Hunt of the Sun" (1969), while the following year he had his first screenwriting credit with "Figures in a Landscape" (1970), wherein he played an escaped convict alongside Malcolm McDowell who try to escape from the secret police of an unidentified totalitarian country. Following a leading performance in the little known Western "A Town Called Hell" (1971), he was Lord Randolph Churchill, father to Winston Churchill (Simon Ward) in "Young Winston" (1972), a British-made biopic about the early years of the future prime minister.

Though a well-known actor both in Britain and America, Shaw had yet to hit his most fertile period, which commenced with his turn as ruthless Irish mob boss Doyle Lonnegan in "The Sting" (1973), who becomes the target of a long con by two confidence men (Paul Newman and Robert Redford) after he kills their friend and mentor (Robert Earl Jones). Shaw's performance as the barely contained Lonnegan was a terrific counterpoint to Newman's devil-may-care turn as expert con artist Henry Gondorff, which was perfectly exemplified in a card game where Lonnegan is out-cheated by Gondoff - one of the more memorable scenes of this multi-Oscar winning film. Shaw next played Mr. Blue, a criminal mastermind who leads a gang of thieves into a New York subway to steal $1 million in the commercial and critical action hit "The Taking of Pelham One Two Three" (1974). Standing in Mr. Blue's way is a gruff, but determined transit cop (Walter Matthau), who contends with the chaos of multiple city agencies and a reluctant mayor (Lee Wallace) while trying to figure out just how the gang plans to escape the subway tunnel while surrounded by police.

The following year, Shaw delivered his most iconic performance in Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" (1975) playing Quint, a salty old shark fisherman who hunts down a killer great white with a landlubber police chief (Roy Scheider) and a know-it-all marine biologist (Richard Dreyfuss). Shaw's turn as the grizzled seafarer was the film's most memorable, particularly in his confrontations with Dreyfuss' bookish biologist and in his haunting recount of the sinking of the doomed U.S.S. Indianapolis. The movie was a monster hit and the highest-grossing film ever made at the time, making "Jaws" Shaw's most successful film on all fronts. From there, Shaw starred alongside James Earl Jones as two pirates in "Swashbuckler" (1976) and played the Sheriff of Nottingham to Sean Connery's Robin Hood in "Robin and Marian" (1976). He went on to search for sunken treasure with Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset in "The Deep" (1977) and was an Israeli military officer trying to thwart a crazed Vietnam vet (Bruce Dern) from blowing up the Super Bowl in "Black Sunday" (1977). Shaw next starred in the sequel "Force 10 From Navarone" (1977), taking over the Gregory Peck role as the leader of a special forces group that tries to blow up a bridge with a traitor in their midst. After completing the filming of "Avalanche Express" (1979), where he played a Russian general who defects to the United States, Shaw suffered a sudden heart attack while home in Tourmakeady, County Mayo, Ireland. He was only 51 years old.

By Shawn Dwyer

Credits

O Homem que Não Vendeu sua Alma

Actor
King Henry VIII
Show
2020

Schweizer Film

Actor
Richard Gastmann
Show
2018

Avalanche Express

Actor
Marenkov
Movie
1979

BBC Television Shakespeare

Actor
Claudius
Show
1978

Force 10 from NavaroneStream

Actor
Mallory
Movie
1978
67%

The Deep

Actor
Romer Treece
Movie
1977

Black SundayStream

Actor
Ma. David Kabakov
Movie
1977
74%

Robin and Marian

Actor
Sheriff of Nottingham
Movie
1976

End of the Game

Actor
Richard Gastmann
Movie
1976

Swashbuckler

Actor
Ned Lynch
Movie
1976

Diamonds

Actor
Charles/Earl Hodgson
Movie
1975

JawsStream

Actor
Quint
Movie
1975
97%

JawsStream

Writer
Movie
1975
97%

The Taking of Pelham One Two ThreeStream

Actor
Blue
Movie
1974
98%

The Break

Actor
Movie
1974

The Hireling

Actor
Steven Ledbetter
Movie
1973

A Reflection of Fear

Actor
Michael
Movie
1973

The StingStream

Actor
Doyle Lonnegan
Movie
1973
93%

Young Winston

Actor
Lord Randolph Churchill
Movie
1972

A Town Called Hell

Actor
The Priest
Movie
1971

Una ciudad llamada Bastarda

Actor
Movie
1971

The Battle of the Bulge

Actor
Show
1970

Figuras en un Paisaje

Actor
Movie
1970

Figures in a Landscape

Actor
MacConnachie
Movie
1970

The Royal Hunt of the Sun

Actor
Francisco Pizarro
Movie
1969

Battle of BritainStream

Actor
Squadron Leader Skipper
Movie
1969
67%

The Dick Cavett ShowStream

Guest
Talk
1968

Custer of the West

Actor
Gen. George Armstrong Custer
Movie
1968

The Birthday Party

Actor
Stanley Webber
Movie
1968

A Man for All SeasonsStream

Actor
King Henry VIII
Movie
1966
89%

Battle of the BulgeStream

Actor
Col. Hessler
Movie
1965
63%

The Cracksman

Actor
Moke
Movie
1965

Hamlet at Elsinore

Actor
Movie
1964

The Luck of Ginger Coffey

Actor
Ginger Coffey
Movie
1964

The Caretaker

Actor
Aston
Movie
1964

Tomorrow at Ten

Actor
Marlowe
Movie
1964

Carol for Another ChristmasStream

Actor
Ghost of Christmas Future
Movie
1964

From Russia with LoveStream

Actor
Donald 'Red' Grant
Movie
1963
97%

The Winter's Tale

Actor
Leontes
Movie
1962

The Valiant

Actor
Lieutenant Field
Movie
1962

Dial 999

Actor
Willy
Show
1958

Sea Fury

Actor
Gorman
Movie
1958

Holiday

Actor
Show
1957

Holiday

Narrator
Movie
1957

Man From Tangier

Actor
Johnny
Movie
1957

The BuccaneersStream

Actor
Dan Tempest
Series
1956

Hell in Korea

Actor
LCpl. Hodge
Movie
1956

What's My Line?Stream

Guest
Game Show
1950