Photo: Official Films / CC BY-SA 4.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
What fascinates me about Robert Shaw is that he refused to be just one thing. Most actors who came up through the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre and the Old Vic would have been content with a distinguished stage career, but Shaw also wrote well enough to win the Hawthornden Prize. I think that literary mind is exactly what made his screen presence so dangerous and intelligent — you always sensed a writer's understanding of character beneath the gruff surface. Dying at fifty-one, he left us wondering what else he had in him. For me, he remains the rare performer whose talent genuinely ran in two directions at once.
Overview
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.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Robert Shaw
- Name (Japanese)
- ロバート・ショウ
- Reading
- ろばーと・しょう
- Born
- August 9, 1927 – August 28, 1978
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Rabbit
- Origin
- Westhoughton, United Kingdom
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 180 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- actor / writer / novelist / playwright / screenwriter
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 1962 Hawthornden Prize
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Actor — see all → · Writer — see all → · More people from United Kingdom →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-10
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.