Jason Robards Sr.

The foremost male interpreter of the works of playwright Eugene O'Neill since the mid-1950s, Jason Robards owes his career to the celebrated 1956 Circle in the Square revival of the playwright's "The Iceman Cometh," directed by Jose Quintero, which thrust the versatile actor from obscurity into the limelight. The parallels between his own life and O'Neill's are striking and surely resonated for his Broadway debut as Jamie Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" (1957), the most autobiographical of the playwright's oeuvre. Robards tapped into the essence of O'Neill, perfectly essaying the highly intelligent, often sensitive but frequently stubborn men, sometimes defeated by their own penchant for sadness while prone to angry outbursts, prejudice and alcoholism.