The Best 40 Films of Jason Robards
by jacobyjhn-18-315763 | created - 16 Jul 2015 | updated - 16 Jul 2015 | PublicThe great character actor, Jason Robards, created many memorable, indelible screen characterizations over his long acting career, spanning from the late 50's through the end of the century. Mr. Robards played many historical characters, including President Lincoln (three times!), FDR, U.S. Grant, as well as literary giants Mark Twain, Dashiell Hamett and Ben Bradlee, and legendary characters from Shakespeare to Eugene O'Neill plays and, of course, Doc Holiday, Al Capone and Howard Hughes. To say it's an impressive list of credits is understatement. It is a pleasure to suggest 40 of the very best films of the wonderful Jason Robards.
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1. All the President's Men (1976)
PG | 138 min | Drama, History, Thriller
"The Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Richard Nixon's resignation.
Director: Alan J. Pakula | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam
Votes: 126,069 | Gross: $70.60M
2. Julia (1977)
PG | 117 min | Drama
At the behest of an old and dear friend, playwright Lillian Hellman undertakes a dangerous mission to smuggle funds into Nazi Germany.
Director: Fred Zinnemann | Stars: Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, Jason Robards, Maximilian Schell
Votes: 10,413
3. Philadelphia (1993)
PG-13 | 125 min | Drama
When a man with HIV is fired by his law firm because of his condition, he hires a homophobic small time lawyer as the only willing advocate for a wrongful dismissal suit.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Roberta Maxwell, Buzz Kilman
Votes: 258,113 | Gross: $77.32M
4. A Thousand Clowns (1965)
Approved | 118 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A middle-aged iconoclast, doggedly avoiding the tedium of employment and conventional life, faces the prospect of losing custody of his young ward.
Director: Fred Coe | Stars: Jason Robards, Barbara Harris, Martin Balsam, Gene Saks
Votes: 3,704 | Gross: $5.23M
5. Melvin and Howard (1980)
R | 95 min | Comedy, Drama
The story of hard-luck Melvin E. Dummar, who claimed to have received a will naming him an heir to the fortune of Howard Hughes.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Elizabeth Cheshire, Mary Steenburgen
Votes: 5,305 | Gross: $4.31M
6. Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)
Not Rated | 174 min | Drama
At the end of a long and hot summer day, members of one family gather in a large house. Everyone has something painful and offensive to say, and their silence is even worse.
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Katharine Hepburn, Ralph Richardson, Jason Robards, Dean Stockwell
Votes: 5,928
7. Magnolia (1999)
R | 188 min | Drama
An epic mosaic of interrelated characters in search of love, forgiveness and meaning in the San Fernando Valley.
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson | Stars: Tom Cruise, Jason Robards, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Votes: 328,537 | Gross: $22.46M
8. Parenthood (1989)
PG-13 | 124 min | Comedy, Drama
Four Buckman siblings attempt to raise their children - each in their own different style - and deal with the joys and sorrows that the process brings.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Steve Martin, Mary Steenburgen, Dianne Wiest, Jason Robards
Votes: 54,893 | Gross: $100.05M
9. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
PG-13 | 166 min | Western
A mysterious stranger with a harmonica joins forces with a notorious desperado to protect a beautiful widow from a ruthless assassin working for the railroad.
Director: Sergio Leone | Stars: Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson, Claudia Cardinale, Jason Robards
Votes: 349,131 | Gross: $5.32M
10. Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
G | 144 min | Action, Drama, History
The story of the 1941 Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor, and the series of preceding American blunders that aggravated its effectiveness.
Directors: Richard Fleischer, Kinji Fukasaku, Toshio Masuda, Akira Kurosawa | Stars: Martin Balsam, Sô Yamamura, Jason Robards, Joseph Cotten
Votes: 37,217 | Gross: $29.55M
11. Max Dugan Returns (1983)
PG | 98 min | Comedy, Drama
An English teacher and struggling single mother's life is disrupted when her long-lost father, who abandoned her as a child, returns with some shady money in the hope of spending some time with her and the grandson he's never met.
Director: Herbert Ross | Stars: Jason Robards, Marsha Mason, Donald Sutherland, Matthew Broderick
Votes: 3,971 | Gross: $17.61M
12. The Paper (1994)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama
New York City tabloid editor Henry's faced with tough decisions while he faces several serious life challenges, and a tempting job offer.
Director: Ron Howard | Stars: Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei
Votes: 15,104 | Gross: $38.82M
13. The Good Mother (1988)
R | 103 min | Drama, Romance
A divorced mother may lose custody of her young daughter to her ex-husband after he learns that the little girl crawled into bed with the mother and her boyfriend.
Director: Leonard Nimoy | Stars: Diane Keaton, Liam Neeson, Jason Robards, Ralph Bellamy
Votes: 1,788 | Gross: $4.76M
14. Little Big League (1994)
PG | 119 min | Comedy, Family, Sport
A young boy is bequeathed the ownership of a professional baseball team.
Director: Andrew Scheinman | Stars: Luke Edwards, Timothy Busfield, John Ashton, Ashley Crow
Votes: 11,559 | Gross: $12.21M
15. Lincoln (1992 TV Movie)
240 min | Biography, History
Famous actors and actresses read testimonies from people close to Lincoln about him and his actions during the Civil War.
Directors: Peter W. Kunhardt, James A. Edgar | Stars: Jason Robards, James Earl Jones, Glenn Close, Richard Widmark
Votes: 341
16. The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
PG | 108 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
In Missouri, during the 1840s, young Huck Finn fearful of his drunkard father and yearning for adventure, leaves his foster family and joins with runaway slave Jim in a voyage down the Mississippi River toward slavery free states.
Director: Stephen Sommers | Stars: Elijah Wood, Courtney B. Vance, Robbie Coltrane, Jason Robards
Votes: 9,244 | Gross: $24.10M
17. The Trial (1993)
PG-13 | 120 min | Drama, Thriller
Joseph K. (Kyle MacLachlan) awakens one morning to find two strange men in his room, telling him he has been arrested. Joseph is not told with what he is charged, and despite being "... See full summary »
Director: David Hugh Jones | Stars: Kyle MacLachlan, Anthony Hopkins, Jason Robards, Juliet Stevenson
Votes: 2,534
18. A Big Hand for the Little Lady (1966)
Approved | 95 min | Western
Comedy western in which a traveler bets more money than he can afford in a poker game, and unusual events follow.
Director: Fielder Cook | Stars: Henry Fonda, Joanne Woodward, Jason Robards, Paul Ford
Votes: 4,651
19. Johnny Got His Gun (1971)
R | 111 min | Drama, War
During World War I, a patriotic young American is rendered blind, deaf, limbless, and mute by a horrific artillery shell attack. Trapped in what's left of his body, he desperately looks for a way to end his life.
Director: Dalton Trumbo | Stars: Timothy Bottoms, Kathy Fields, Marsha Hunt, Jason Robards
Votes: 18,356 | Gross: $0.55M
20. Tender Is the Night (1962)
Approved | 142 min | Drama
A Psychiatrist and his life with a patient he helped to recover.
Director: Henry King | Stars: Jennifer Jones, Jason Robards, Joan Fontaine, Tom Ewell
Votes: 899
21. Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971)
PG-13 | 87 min | Crime, Horror, Mystery
Paris...at the turn of the century. Inspector Vidocq investigates a series of unexplained murders at a Grand Guignol-type theatre...where the players have suddenly become real-life victims. Based on the story by Edgar Allan Poe.
Director: Gordon Hessler | Stars: Jason Robards, Herbert Lom, Christine Kaufmann, Adolfo Celi
Votes: 1,552
22. Crimson Tide (1995)
R | 116 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
On a U.S. nuclear missile sub, a young First Officer stages a mutiny to prevent his trigger happy Captain from launching his missiles before confirming his orders to do so.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Gene Hackman, Denzel Washington, Matt Craven, George Dzundza
Votes: 123,348 | Gross: $91.40M
23. Hour of the Gun (1967)
Approved | 100 min | Drama, Western
Marshal Wyatt Earp kills a couple of men of the Clanton gang in a fight. In revenge, Clanton's thugs kill the Marshal's brother. Thus, Wyatt starts to chase the killers together with his friend Doc Holliday.
Director: John Sturges | Stars: James Garner, Jason Robards, Robert Ryan, Albert Salmi
Votes: 4,598
24. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967)
Not Rated | 100 min | Crime, Drama, History
Al Capone's Valentine's Day surprise for the rival Bugs Moran gang in 1929 Chicago.
Director: Roger Corman | Stars: Jason Robards, George Segal, Ralph Meeker, Jean Hale
Votes: 4,768
25. Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1964 TV Movie)
80 min | Drama
The life of Abraham Lincoln is traced from the 1830s when he was a struggling backwoods lawyer to winning the Presidency in 1860.
Director: George Schaefer | Stars: Jason Robards, Kate Reid, Jack Bittner, Burt Brinckerhoff
Votes: 21
26. Any Wednesday (1966)
Not Rated | 109 min | Comedy
Ellen Gordon, a New York executive's mistress, falls for the executive's young business associate when he is accidentally sent to use the apartment where the executive and Ellen meet every Wednesday.
Director: Robert Ellis Miller | Stars: Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Dean Jones, Rosemary Murphy
Votes: 1,124
27. The Spy Who Never Was (1976)
PG | 113 min | Drama
A diabolical tale of romance, murder, and mistaken identity as a treacherous terrorist organization hunts an enemy agent with the intention of killing him, but instead they set their sights... See full summary »
Directors: Reza Badiyi, Uri Massad | Stars: Hardy Krüger, Jason Robards, Gila Almagor, Haim Bashi
Votes: 93
28. The Iceman Cometh (1960 TV Movie)
240 min | Drama
Theodore Hickman, a hardware salesman, makes by-yearly visits to Harry Hope's 1910-era waterfront bar for his periodical drinking binges. But on this visit he has decided to try to save the bar's patrons from their "lying pipe dreams."
Director: Sidney Lumet | Stars: Jason Robards, Myron McCormick, Tom Pedi, James Broderick
Votes: 386
29. Enemy of the State (1998)
R | 132 min | Action, Thriller
A lawyer becomes targeted by a corrupt politician and his N.S.A. goons when he accidentally receives key evidence to a politically motivated crime.
Director: Tony Scott | Stars: Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight, Lisa Bonet
Votes: 258,946 | Gross: $111.55M
30. Beloved (1998)
R | 172 min | Drama, History, Horror
A slave is visited by the spirit of a mysterious young woman.
Director: Jonathan Demme | Stars: Oprah Winfrey, Danny Glover, Yada Beener, Emil Pinnock
Votes: 9,583 | Gross: $22.85M
31. Raise the Titanic (1980)
PG | 115 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Once they said God himself couldn't sink her. Then they said no man on Earth could reach her. But an underwater research agency, headed by Admiral James Sandecker, is assigned the job of finding the doomed ship in her North Atlantic grave.
Director: Jerry Jameson | Stars: Jason Robards, Richard Jordan, David Selby, Anne Archer
Votes: 5,442 | Gross: $14.82M
32. Mark Twain and Me (1991 TV Movie)
TV-PG | 93 min | Biography, Drama
Dorothy Quick, a young girl, befriends the famous writer, Samuel "Mark Twain" Clemens, during the final years of his life.
Director: Daniel Petrie | Stars: Jason Robards, Talia Shire, R.H. Thomson, Fiona Reid
Votes: 193
33. The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968)
PG-13 | 99 min | Comedy
A naive young Amish woman runs away from her home in Pennsylvania to New York City, where she hopes to act in religious stage plays but ends up performing in Burlesque theatre.
Director: William Friedkin | Stars: Jason Robards, Britt Ekland, Norman Wisdom, Forrest Tucker
Votes: 1,810
34. Julius Caesar (1970)
G | 117 min | Drama, History, War
The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar, but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
Director: Stuart Burge | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jason Robards, John Gielgud, Richard Johnson
Votes: 2,002
35. Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid (1973)
R | 122 min | Biography, Drama, Western
Pat Garrett is hired as a lawman on behalf of a group of wealthy New Mexico cattle barons to bring down his old friend Billy the Kid.
Director: Sam Peckinpah | Stars: James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, Richard Jaeckel, Katy Jurado
Votes: 21,091 | Gross: $0.95M
36. The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)
PG | 98 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The sole surviving Texas Ranger (Klinton Spilsbury) of an ambush arranged by outlaw leader Major Bartholomew "Butch" Cavendish (Christopher Lloyd) returns to fight back as a great masked western hero, The Lone Ranger.
Director: William A. Fraker | Stars: Klinton Spilsbury, Michael Horse, Christopher Lloyd, Matt Clark
Votes: 2,518 | Gross: $12.62M
37. Reunion (1989)
PG-13 | 110 min | Drama, History
Two young boys from very different backgrounds become friends in 1933 Stuttgart. However, they don't realize how different they are until much later as one is the son of a well-to-do Jewish... See full summary »
Director: Jerry Schatzberg | Stars: Jason Robards, Christien Anholt, Samuel West, Françoise Fabian
Votes: 573
38. F.D.R.: The Last Year (1980 TV Movie)
180 min | Biography, Drama
Biopic about the final year of FDR's Presidency, and life.
Director: Anthony Page | Stars: Jason Robards, Laurinda Barrett, Edward Binns, Vladimir Bondarenko
Votes: 55
39. Inherit the Wind (1988 TV Movie)
Not Rated | 96 min | Drama, History
A biblical orator opposes a liberal lawyer defending a man for teaching Darwinism in the 1920s South.
Director: David Greene | Stars: Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, Darren McGavin, John Harkins
Votes: 613
40. Divorce American Style (1967)
Approved | 109 min | Comedy
Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds star as a suburban couple who learn that not even divorce can solve all their problems.
Director: Bud Yorkin | Stars: Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Reynolds, Jason Robards, Jean Simmons
Votes: 1,883 | Gross: $12.00M
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