Robert Shaw (actor)

Robert Shaw
Shaw in a 1958 advertisement for The Buccaneers
Born
Robert Archibald Shaw

(1927-08-09)9 August 1927
Westhoughton, Lancashire, England
Died28 August 1978(1978-08-28) (aged 51)
Toormakeady, County Mayo, Ireland
Occupations
  • Actor
  • novelist
  • playwright
  • screenwriter
Years active1947–1978
Spouses
Jennifer Bourke
(m. 1952; div. 1963)
(m. 1963; died 1975)
Virginia Jansen
(m. 1976)
Children10, including Ian Shaw
RelativesTanya Landman (niece)
Rob Kolar (grandson)
Evzen Kolar (son-in-law)

Robert Archibald Shaw (9 August 1927 – 28 August 1978) was an English actor and writer. Beginning his career in theatre, Shaw joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre after the Second World War and appeared in productions of Macbeth, Henry VIII, Cymbeline, and other Shakespeare plays. With the Old Vic company (1951–52), he continued primarily in Shakespearean roles. In 1959 he starred in a West End production of The Long and the Short and the Tall.

Shaw was nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for his role as Henry VIII in the drama film A Man for All Seasons (1966). His other film roles included the mobster Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting (1973) and the shark hunter Quint in Jaws (1975). He also played roles in From Russia with Love (1963), Battle of Britain (1969), Young Winston (1972), The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), Robin and Marian (1976), and Black Sunday and The Deep, both of which were released in 1977.