Fri, 07/28/2006

See Cliff Robertson In-Person

Actor Cliff Robertson will appear in person on Wednesday, August 9, for UCLA Film & Television Archive's 13th Festival of Preservation, in Los Angeles, CA.

Robertson will appear for a screening of two classic television dramas that aired as a part of the series The U.S. Steel Hour, one of the longest running and most prestigious of early television anthologies. The shows to be presented are: "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon" (which originally aired on February 22, 1961) and "Man on the Mountaintop" (which originally aired on November 15, 1961). This is a free screening. General information about this and the entire festival can be found at www.cinema.ucla.edu.

Also, check out Cliff Robertson's Archive of American Television interivew -- now online!

This video is Part 2 of Cliff Robertson's 5-part interview. In this segment, he speaks in-depth about his work in early "live" television. Click here to access all segments. (Remember, if you'd like to watch the interview in the order in which it was conducted, select the parts in order (1,2,3...).)

Archive of American Television Interview description:

Robertson begins by talking about his training at the Actors Studio and his early career on the New York stage. He talks about working in anthology series during the “live” television era of the 1950s. He discusses his role as mentally disabled “Charlie Gordon” in both television (The U.S. Steel Hour’s “The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon”) and film (Charly, which earned him an Oscar for Best Actor). He speaks in great detail about his work with director John Frankenheimer on the Playhouse 90 show “The Days of Wine and Roses.” Robertson talks about being personally selected by President John F. Kennedy to play him in the feature film PT109. He describes his two appearances on the classic anthology series The Twilight Zone and speaks about series creator Rod Serling. Robertson discusses his blacklisting by the industry following “Hollywoodgate,” in which he accused Columbia Pictures head David Begelman of forging a check. Robertson speaks about several of his television movie appearances as well as such television series as Rod Brown and the Rocket Rangers and Batman. The interview was conducted by Stephen J. Abramson on March 1, 2005.