Edward G. Robinson

Robinson was born Emmanuel Goldenberg on December 12, 1893, in a Yiddish-speaking Romanian Jewish family in Bucharest, the fifth son of Sarah (née Guttman) and Yeshaya Moyshe Goldenberg (later called Morris in the U.S.), a builder.[8]

According to the New York Times, (before coming to the US) one of his brothers was attacked by an anti-semitic gang during a "schoolboy pogrom."[9] In the wake of that violence, the family decided to emigrate to the United States.[2] Robinson arrived in New York City on February 21, 1904.[10] "At Ellis Island I was born again," he wrote. "Life for me began when I was 10 years old."[2] In America, he assumed the name of Emanuel. He grew up on the Lower East Side,[11]^: 91 and had his Bar Mitzvah at First Roumanian-American Congregation.[12] He attended Townsend Harris High School and then the City College of New York, planning to become a criminal attorney.[13] An interest in acting and performing in front of people led to him winning an American Academy of Dramatic Arts scholarship,[13] after which he changed his name to Edward G. Robinson (the G. standing for his original surname).[13]

He served in the United States Navy during World War I, but was never sent overseas.[14]

During the 1930s, Robinson was an outspoken public critic of fascism and Nazism, donating more than $250,000 to 850 political and charitable organizations between 1939 and 1949. He was host to the Committee of 56, which gathered at his home on December 9, 1938, signing a "Declaration of Democratic Independence," which called for a boycott of all German-made products.[17] After the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, while he was not a supporter of Communism, he appeared at Soviet war relief rallies in order to give moral aid to America's new ally, which he said could join "together in their hatred of Hitlerism".[11]^: 107

Although he attempted to enlist in the military when the United States formally entered World War II, he was unable to do so because of his age;[16] instead, the Office of War Information appointed him as a Special Representative based in London.[11]^: 106 From there, taking advantage of his multilingual skills, he delivered radio addresses in over six languages to European countries that had fallen under Nazi domination.[11]^: 106 His talent as a radio speaker in the U.S. had previously been recognized by the American Legion, which had given him an award for his "outstanding contribution to Americanism through his stirring patriotic appeals".[11]^: 106 Robinson was also an active member of the Hollywood Democratic Committee, serving on its executive board in 1944, during which time he became an "enthusiastic" campaigner for Roosevelt's reelection that same year.[11]^: 107 During the 1940s, Robinson also contributed to the cultural diplomacy initiatives of Roosevelt's Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs in support of Pan-Americanism through his broadcasts to South America on the CBS "Cadena da las Américas" radio network.[20]

In early July 1944, less than a month after the Invasion of Normandy by Allied forces, Robinson traveled to Normandy to entertain the troops, becoming the first movie star to go there for the USO.[11]^: 106[21] He personally donated $100,000 ($1,500,000 in 2015 dollars) to the USO.[11]^: 107 After returning to the U.S., he continued his active involvement in the war effort by going to shipyards and defense plants in order to inspire workers, in addition to appearing at rallies in order to help sell war bonds.[11]^: 107

After the war ended, Robinson publicly spoke out in support of democratic rights for all Americans, especially in demanding equality for Black workers in the workplace. He endorsed the Fair Employment Practices Commission's call to end workplace discrimination.[11]^: 109 Black leaders praised him as "one of the great friends of the Negro and a great advocator of Democracy".[11]^: 109 Robinson also campaigned for the civil rights of African Americans, helping many to overcome segregation and discrimination.[22]

During the years when Robinson spoke out against fascism and Nazism, he was not a supporter of Communism, but he did not criticize the Soviet Union, which he saw as an ally against Hitler. However, the film historian Steven J. Ross observes "activists who attacked Hitler without simultaneously attacking Stalin were vilified by conservative critics as either Communists, Communist dupes, or, at best, as naive liberal dupes."[11]^: 128 In addition, Robinson learned that 11 out of the more than 850 charities and groups that he had helped over the previous decade were listed as Communist front organizations by the FBI.[23] As a result, he was called to testify in front of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in 1950 and 1952, and he was also threatened with blacklisting.[24]

As shown in the full House Un-American Activities Committee transcript for April 30, 1952, Robinson repudiated some of the organizations that he had belonged to in the 1930s and 1940s.[24][25] and stated that he felt he had been duped or made use of unawares "by the sinister forces who were members, and probably in important positions in these [front] organizations."[11]^: 121 When asked whom he personally knew who might have "duped" him, he replied, "Well, you had Albert Maltz, and you have Dalton Trumbo, and you have ... John Howard Lawson. I knew Frank Tuttle. I didn't know [Edward] Dmytryk at all. There are the Buchmans, that I know, Sidney Buchman and all that sort of thing. It never entered my mind that any of these people were Communists."[26] Despite accusing these persons of being duplicitous towards him about their political aims, Robinson never directly accused anyone of being a Communist. His own name was cleared, but in the aftermath, his career noticeably suffered; he was offered smaller roles infrequently. In October 1952, he wrote an article titled "How the Reds made a Sucker Out of Me", and it was published in the American Legion Magazine.[27] The chair of the committee, Francis E. Walter, told Robinson at the end of his testimonies that the Committee "never had any evidence presented to indicate that you were anything more than a very choice sucker."[11]^: 122

Robinson and his son Manny in a 1962 episode of Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre

Robinson married stage actress Gladys Lloyd Cassell in 1927. The couple had a son, Edward G. Robinson, Jr., known as Manny, (1933–1974), and a daughter from Robinson's wife's first marriage.[28] The couple divorced in 1956. In 1958, Robinson married Jane Bodenheimer, a dress designer professionally known as Jane Arden. He lived in Palm Springs, California.[29]

In contrast to the gangsters he portrayed in film, Robinson was a soft-spoken and cultured man.[2] He was a passionate art collector, eventually building up a significant private collection. In 1956, however, he was forced to sell his collection to pay for his divorce settlement with Gladys Robinson; his finances had also suffered due to underemployment in the early 1950s.[11]^: 120

Robinson died of bladder cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles[30] on January 26, 1973. Services were conducted at Temple Israel in Los Angeles where Charlton Heston delivered the eulogy.[2] More than 1,500 friends of Robinson attended, with another 500 people outside.[11] His body was flown to New York where it was entombed in a crypt in his family's mausoleum at Beth-El Cemetery in Brooklyn.[31] His pallbearers were Jack L. Warner, Hal B. Wallis, Mervyn Leroy, George Burns, Sam Jaffe, Frank Sinatra, Jack Karp and Alan Simpson.[2]

Robinson as a gangster in Little Caesar (1931)

In October 2000, Robinson's image was imprinted on a U.S. postage stamp, the sixth in its Legends of Hollywood series.[11]^: 125[32]

Robinson has been the inspiration for a number of animated television characters, usually caricatures of his most distinctive 'snarling gangster' guise. An early version of the gangster character Rocky, featured in the Bugs Bunny cartoon Racketeer Rabbit, shared his likeness. This version of the character also appears briefly in Justice League, in the episode "Comfort and Joy", as an alien with Robinson's face and non-human body, who hovers past the screen as a background character.

Similar caricatures also appeared in The Coo-Coo Nut Grove, Thugs with Dirty Mugs and Hush My Mouse. Another character based on Robinson's tough-guy image was The Frog (Chauncey "Flat Face" Frog) from the cartoon series Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse. The voice of B.B. Eyes in The Dick Tracy Show was based on Robinson, with Mel Blanc and Jerry Hausner sharing voicing duties. The Wacky Races animated series character 'Clyde' from the Ant Hill Mob was based on Robinson's Little Caesar persona.

Voice actor Hank Azaria has noted that the voice of Simpsons character police chief Clancy Wiggum is an impression of Robinson.[33]

Robinson was portrayed by actor Michael Stuhlbarg in the 2015 biographical drama film Trumbo.[34]

• List of posthumous Academy Award winners and nominees

• Gansberg, Alan L. (2004). Little Caesar: A Biography of Edward G. Robinson. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-4950-1.
• Epstein, Lawrence Jeffrey (2007). Edge of a Dream: The Story of Jewish Immigrants on New York's Lower East Side, 1880–1920. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-7879-8622-3.
• Robinson, Edward G.; Spigelgass, Leonard (1973). All My Yesterdays; an Autobiography. Hawthorn Books. LCCN 73005443.

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• Edward G. Robinson at IMDb
• Edward G. Robinson at the TCM Movie Database
• Edward G. Robinson at the Internet Broadway Database
• Edward G. Robinson at Find a Grave
• Photographs and literature