Eulogy: JASON ROBARDS

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The first Broadway play I saw was Long Day's Journey into Night. At the time I was planning on becoming an artist, and I was pretty green to the theater. JASON ROBARDS' performance was powerful and raw, and his naturalistic style stuck in my mind. I ended up at the same acting school he had attended, and in 1960 we did a TV movie of the play that had made him famous, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. We hit it off right off the bat, and he was extremely generous to me. In the play, when his character meets mine, he says, "We're members of the same lodge--in some way." Because of our personal connection, he invested that moment pretty heavily, and I'll never forget the line.

He stopped drinking after a near-fatal car accident in 1972, and after that he had a difficult time getting work, so when I was producing All the President's Men in 1975, I insisted on casting Jason. It was a way for me to return his generosity, and it was wonderful to watch how he nailed the character of Ben Bradlee. He was a consummate actor, almost the last of a breed. He was tortured, and he carried that with him and used it beautifully. He was also incredibly warmhearted and generous. One of the bright spots of my career is having met and worked with him.

--Robert Redford