Early life

Robinson was born in New York City. His middle name, Jordt, was given to him to honor his grandfather, though he did not begin using it in his professional credits until the 1996 Deep Space Nine episode, "Body Parts". His father was a soldier in World War II, and was killed when Robinson was three years old. After his father's death, he and his mother moved to Hartford, Connecticut to be raised with her family. In his later childhood, Robinson had become a juvenile delinquent, and was eventually sent to St. Andrew's School, a boarding school for troubled children in Rhode Island.

After graduating from high school, Robinson attended the University of New Hampshire. After picketing the school's ROTC program his degree was withheld by the university, so he transferred to The New School for Social Research in New York City and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in English. He originally intended to become a journalist, but went into acting after earning a Fulbright Scholarship. After graduating, he went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art on the scholarship.

Robinson began acting in high school and college theatre. While attending the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), he studied Shakespeare and voice training.

Career

Robinson's first professional roles were as a stage actor and playwright in New York. His first role in New York was in the play Macbird-Macbeth. He went on to appear in productions in North America and Europe, including Woyzeck, Futz, Werner Liepolt's "The Young Master Dante" and The Cannibals. In 1969, he had his first television role with a guest part on N.Y.P.D. at the age of 26. In 1971, he began acting in feature films.

Dirty Harry

Robinson's first feature film role was in 1971's Dirty Harry. Don Siegel, the film's director, and Clint Eastwood picked Robinson for the role after seeing him in a production of Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Robinson was cast as the Scorpio Killer, the antagonist of the film. The Scorpio Killer (a role that Harry and Rita Fink had reportedly originally written for Audie Murphy, who died before he could take the role) was heavily based on the contemporary, real life Zodiac Killer, and Robinson integrated many known aspects of that serial killer's personality into his acting, such as a disturbed sense of humour and a sadistic inclination to taunt his pursuers. In the film, his character murders several girls, a young boy and a police officer, and takes a school bus full of young children hostage. His portrayal was so convincing that he received death threats after the film's release. Director Don Siegel noted that he cast Robinson because he had the face of "a choir boy."

Critical reactions to Robinson were generally positive. Box Office Magazine wrote: "Andy Robinson is the maniacal Scorpio ... a good blending of cunning and savagery." His role as Scorpio gave him widespread exposure, but Robinson also found himself typecast as "psycho" characters. He claimed the role severely limited his casting options, as film producers were reluctant to cast him in any "good guy" roles. Some of his notable "psycho" roles include a demented and ill-fated military barber in Child's Play 3 (1991), and the character Frank Cotton (in the skin of Larry Cotton, Robinson's actual character) in the horror film Hellraiser (1987), in which Robinson had his first lead role in a feature film.

Film and television, 1971-1992

Robinson starred in Charley Varrick, a 1973 film, which starred Walter Matthau, and was also directed by Don Siegel. Robinson played Frank Ryan on the soap opera Ryan's Hope from 1976-78, for which he received a Daytime Emmy nomination. Robinson has had many one-time and recurring roles on a wide variety of television shows. His filmography includes guest roles on Bonanza, Kung Fu, Ironside, S.W.A.T., The Streets of San Francisco, Kojak, The Incredible Hulk, CHiPs, The Greatest American Hero, Mrs. Columbo, The Dukes of Hazzard, The A-Team, Moonlighting, Matlock, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, Murder, She Wrote, L.A. Law, The X-Files, Without a Trace, and The Practice.

He met his wife Irene after wrapping a production of Springvoices, and the two married in 1970. He has two stepsons from his wife's previous marriage and one daughter named Rachel, who became an actress as well.

In 1978 Robinson left acting professionally for five years, and concentrated on raising his family in the small mountain community of Idyllwild, California, located about 150 miles (240 km) from Los Angeles. During that time he taught community theatre for middle and high school students, and also worked as a carpenter to bring in a regular salary. He returned to acting professionally in the mid-1980s.

In 1986, he played President John F. Kennedy in an episode of the 1980s revival of The Twilight Zone, "Profile in Silver". In 1988 he portrayed Liberace in a television biopic. With one of Robinson's acting trademarks being his effeminate voice, he was well suited for the part. Robinson had described it as one of his favorite roles, and that, "The most fun was wearing his furs and jewelry and singing 'I'll be Seeing You.'" The New York Times reviewer noted that "Robinson does rather well in the leading role." He returned to the stage in 1993 with a Broadway production of Frank Gilroy's Any Given Day, but the play closed after only six weeks.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In 1993, Robinson was cast in his first regular television role since Ryan's Hope in 1978. He played Elim Garak on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a Cardassian tailor, with a secret past as a spy and assassin. The character was intended to be an enigmatic darkly comedic foil for the character of Dr. Julian Bashir (played by Alexander Siddig), and the two were often paired together onscreen. Prior to being cast in the role, Robinson knew little of the Star Trek franchise and had never seen an episode of any of the television series.

Robinson was offered the role of Garak after he originally auditioned for the role of Odo, which eventually went to René Auberjonois. He almost did not accept the role, but was pressured into accepting for financial reasons.

Other works

After working on Deep Space Nine for several years, Robinson began a career in television directing, after directing the 1996 episode "Looking for par'Mach in All the Wrong Places." He went on to direct two episodes of Star Trek: Voyager and seven episodes of the courtroom drama Judging Amy, in which his real-life daughter, Rachel Robinson, starred.

In 2000, he wrote the novel A Stitch in Time, based on his character on Deep Space Nine. Robinson has stated that one of the reasons he wrote the novel was to get "total closure" of the character. He starred opposite DS9 costar Michael Dorn on an episode of Martial Law.

In 1993, Robinson was a founding member of The Matrix Theatre Company in Los Angeles, California.

Filmography

Film

Year	Film	Role
1971	Dirty Harry	The Scorpio Killer (as Andy Robinson)
1973	Charley Varrick	Harman Sullivan
1975	The Drowning Pool	Pat Reavis
	A Woman for All Men	Steve McCoy
	Mackintosh and T.J.	Coley
1985	Mask	Dr. Vinton
1986	Cobra	Monte
1987	The Verne Miller Story	Pretty Boy Floyd
	Hellraiser	Larry Cotton / Frank Cotton (Uncredited)
1988	Shoot to Kill	Harvey
1990	Fatal Charm	Sheriff Harry Childs
1991	Child's Play 3	Sgt. Botnick
	Prime Target	Commissioner
1992	Trancers III	Col. Muthuh
1994	There Goes My Baby	Frank
	The Puppet Masters	Hawthorne
	Pumpkinhead II: Blood Wings	Sean Braddock
1998	Running Woman	Captain Don Gibbs
2004	Homeland Security	Senator
2005	A Question of Loyalty	Dr. Albert Krentz

Television

Year	Program	Role	Notes
1974	Marcus Welby, M.D.	Chris Bakewell	Season 5 Episode 17: "Each Day a Miracle"
1974	Ironside	David Cutter	Season 7 Episode 21: "Come Eleven, Come Twelve"
1974	The Family Kovack	Butch Kovack	TV movie
1975	Kojak	Leon	Season 2 Episode 24: "I Want To Report A Dream"
1975	The Streets of San Francisco	Archie Kimbro	Season 4 Episode 13: "Spooks For Sale"
1976	S.W.A.T.	Edward Stillman	Season 2 Episode 22: "Any Second Now"
1976	Once an Eagle	Reb Rayburne	TV miniseries
1976-1978	Ryan's Hope	Frank Ryan #2	Daytime Emmy nomination
1976-1980	Barnaby Jones	(Various)	Recurring
1977	The Streets of San Francisco	Ron Maguire	Season 5 Episode 13: "The Cannibals"
1978	The Eddie Capra Mysteries	Greg Chandler	Season 1 Episode 4: "Murder on the Flip Side"
1979	From Here to Eternity	Sergeant Maylon Stark	TV miniseries
1980	Vega$	Derek Razzio	Recurring
1985	Not My Kid	Doctor Royce	TV movie
1985	The Atlanta Child Murders	Jack Mallard	Television miniseries
1986	The New Twilight Zone	John F. Kennedy	Episode #20-1 "Profile in Silver"
1987	The New Twilight Zone	Mr. Williams	Episode #33-3 "Private Channel"
1988	Liberace	Liberace	Made-for-television film
1991	Matlock	Frank Hayes	Season 6 Episode 9 "The Defense"
1992	Law & Order	Phillip Mariietta	Season 3 Episode 10 "Consultation"
1993	Murder, She Wrote	Ambrosse	Season 10 Episode 205 "A Killing in Cork"
1993	Walker, Texas Ranger	Leo Cabe	Season 1 Episode 3 "A Shadow in the Night"
1993-1999	Star Trek: Deep Space Nine	Garak	Recurring
1994	M.A.N.T.I.S.	Solomon Box	Recurring
1994	Wings	Michael Foster	Season 7, Episode 4 "The Person Formerly Known as Lowell Mather"
1999, 2004	JAG	Admiral Thomas Kly	Recurring
1997-1998	Star Trek: Voyager		Directed two episodes
1999	The X-Files	Dr. Ian Detweiler	Season 6, Episode 16 "Alpha"
1999-2005	Judging Amy	Daniel McGill	Directed seven episodes
2002	Presidio Med	Jesse	Recurring
2004	Without a Trace	Carl Monroe	Season 3, Episode 4 "Upstairs Downstairs"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]