Jay Robinson

Jay Robinson
Credits
Roles	Julius Caesar Professor Poindexter Phipps
Biographical Information
Birthdate	April 14, 1930
Birthplace	New York, New York, United States
Death Date	September 27, 2013 (age 83)
Death Place	Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California, United States

Jay Robinson played two characters in the sixth season, Julius Caesar in "Samantha's Caesar Salad" (1969) and Professor Poindexter Phipps in "The Phrase Is Familiar" (1970).

Biography

Jay Robinson was an American character actor. He was born on April 14, 1930 in New York City. His mother was a dancer and his father a director of the Van Heusen Shirt Company. He came from a fine upbringing and studied at private schools in America and Europe. He became interested in acting after discovering a scrapbook of his mother's dance career.

He began his acting career in summer stock theater and repertory companies, and was eventually cast in Broadway productions of the Shakespeare classics As You Like It (1950) and Much Ado About Nothing (1952). He also starred in and produced (Robinson raised $50,000 from his father to finance the production) the 1951 Sumner Locke Elliott play, Buy Me Blue Ribbons, which ran for only thirteen performances.

His first film role was as the notorious Emperor Caligula in Henry Koster's 1953 film The Robe, which he reprised in his second film, that film's sequel, Delmer Daves' 1954 Demetrius and the Gladiators. At age twenty-three, his newfound fame reportedly inflated his ego and he became extremely difficult to work with. In addition, the volatile actor began experimenting recklessly with drugs. In 1958, he was arrested on a narcotics violation (possession of methadone) and sentenced to a year in jail. Although his conviction was overturned, he served a fifteen-month prison sentence after unknowingly missing his retrial date. The incident and resulting notoriety ruined his career. After scraping up work outside the entertainment industry as a cook and landlord, he recovered from his drug addiction and married Pauline Flowers in 1960. They had one son, Jay Paul, and were married until her death in 2002.

When he wanted to revive his career, Robinson credited letters of encouragement from friend Bette Davis, who had always recognized and appreciated his talent, with helping him find the strength to overcome his problems. She also helped him get his first film role in thirteen years in Gerd Oswald's 1971 Bunny O'Hare. The movie was a failure, but after that Robinson landed minor roles in a few films including Woody Allen's 1972 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), Hal Ashby's 1975 Shampoo, James Burrows' 1982 Partners, and Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Robinson also reappeared on television, beginning in October 1968 with a small role in the Mannix episode, "Pressure Point" (season three, episode three), a series in which he played four more guest roles through 1974, and as Dr. Maitland in the episode, "The Night of the Sedgewick Curse" in The Wild Wild West (season four, episode four). In December 1968, he was Ambassador Petri in the Star Trek episode, "Elaan of Troyius" (season three, episode thirteen). He even prodded the memory of his own Caligula character by playing an impertinent Julius Caesar in the 1969 Bewitched episode, "Samantha's Caesar Salad". After that, he guest-starred on numerous television series, including The Virginian, Room 222, Hawaii Five-0, The Waltons (three episodes in which he played Professor Thaxton), Barney Miller, CHiPs, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Cheers, and two episodes (1987 and 1991) of Murder, She Wrote. In 1976, he starred in the title role of a mad scientist on Sid & Marty Krofft's Dr. Shrinker, prominently featured on The Krofft Supershow. In 1988–89, he played Monty Dolan in fifty episodes of the soap opera Days of Our Lives. His last television series appearance was in the 1994 The Nanny episode, "The Playwright" (season two, episode two).

Late in his career, Robinson was providing various voices for the animated comedy series Mad Jack the Pirate (1998). He was also the host and narrator for the Discovery Channel special (and later documentary series) Beyond Bizarre from 1997 to 2000.

He retired from acting in 2000 after almost fifty years in the motion picture industry.

In 2004, he married Gloria Casas.

Jay Robinson died of congestive heart failure on September 27, 2013 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. He was 83.

Sources

• Jay Robinson on the Internet Movie Database. Retrieved on January 7, 2025.
• Jay Robinson on Wikipedia. Retrieved on January 7, 2025.