NEW YORK – President John F. Kennedy had just one critique when he saw photos of the actor set to play him in a World War II drama.
The year was 1963 and actor Cliff Robertson looked convincing in his costume for “PT-109,” the first film to portray a sitting president. Kennedy had favored Robertson for the role, but one detail was off.
Robertson’s hair was parted on the wrong side.
The actor dutifully trained his locks to part on the left and won praise for a role he’d remain proud of throughout his life.
Robertson, who went on to win an Oscar for his portrayal of a mentally disabled man in “Charly”, died of natural causes Saturday afternoon in Stony Brook, a day after his 88th birthday, according to Evelyn Christel, his secretary of 53 years.
Robertson never elevated into the top ranks of leading men, but he remained a popular actor from the mid-1950s into the following century. His later roles included kindly Uncle Ben in the “Spider-Man” movies.
He also gained attention for his second marriage to actress and heiress Dina Merrill, daughter of financier E.F. Hutton and Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress to the Post cereal fortune and one of the world’s richest
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