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Robert Archibald Shaw (9 August 1927 - 28 August 1978) was an English stage and film actor and writer. He is most remembered for his performances in The Sting, From Russia with Love, A Man for all Seasons and his most famous as Quint in the hit movie Jaws.
Biography
Robert Shaw was born in Westhoughton, Lancashire, England, in 1927, to Thomas (a physician) and Doreen Shaw. He had three sisters and one brother. When he was seven, the family moved to Stromness, Orkney, Scotland and when he was 12 his father committed suicide by swallowing a lethal dose of opium. He apparently had been struggling with alcohol for a number of years. The family then moved to Cornwall, where he went to school in Truro. Shaw was a teacher in Saltburn, Yorkshire for a brief period, then attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London.
Acting career
During the 1950's, Shaw starred in a British TV series which also appeared on American television as The Buccaneers." Shaw's best-known film performances include a turn as the dangerous enemy secret agent, Red Grant, in the second 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); the tightly wound, but coolly efficient heist mastermind/former mercenary soldier Bernard Ryder aka "Mr. Blue" in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), and the shark-obsessed 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 Britain and on Broadway.
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 the most attention for Shaw's writing. 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, about the 1820 Cato Street Conspiracy, was produced for the first time in 1971 in London.
Personal life
Shaw was married three times and had ten children: Jennifer Bourke (1952-1963) by whom he had four daughters; Mary Ure (1963-1975, until her death as a result of accidental overdose), with whom he had two sons and two daughters; and Virginia Jansen (1976-1978), two sons, one, he adopted. One of his sons by Mary Ure, Ian Shaw, is also an actor. For the last seven years of his life he lived in a Gaeltacht village of Tourmakeady, Co Mayo in Ireland.
Death
Shaw died of a heart attack in Ireland while filming Avalanche Express, on August 28, 1978. He was driving home with his wife, Virginia, and his youngest son, Thomas (then twenty months old), after golfing with friends during a break in filming. After feeling chest pains, he stopped the car and told Virginia he would get out and walk them off. After taking four or five steps he collapsed by the side of the road and was pronounced dead by the paramedic team which arrived fifteen minutes later. He was cremated and his ashes scattered near his home in Ireland. A stone memorial to him was unveiled there in his honour in August 2008.
Trivia
A Wetherspoon's Pub has been named after him in Westhoughton, Lancashire.
Work
Stage
Filmography
Bibliography
External links
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