Emanuel Goldenberg
Edward G. Robinson, born Emanuel Goldenberg in Bucharest in 1893, set the standard for movie gangsters with his role as Rico Bandello in Little Caesar 1931. Over a 50-year career spanning stage, silent films, radio, and television, he starred in Double Indemnity 1944 and The Ten Commandments 1956. In 1973, he received a posthumous Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement.
Edward G. Robinson by the numbers — life, work, and family.
The relatives of Edward G. Robinson — parents, partners, children, and siblings.
Edward G. Robinson — early life, career, personal life, and legacy.
Emanuel Goldenberg arrived in the United States from Romania at age ten in 1903. His family settled in New York’s Lower East Side, where he attended Townsend Harris High School. At City College of New York, he dropped plans to be a rabbi or lawyer and turned to acting. The American Academy of Dramatic Arts awarded him a scholarship, and he began performing in stock under the name Edward G. Robinson in 1913.
He made his film debut in the silent The Bright Shawl 1923, but his breakthrough came with the coming of sound. His performance as Rico Bandello in Little Caesar 1931 set the standard for movie gangsters. He portrayed title characters in biographies such as Dr. Ehrlich’s Magic Bullet 1940 and A Dispatch from Reuters 1940. Psychological dramas included Flesh and Fantasy 1943, Double Indemnity 1944, The Woman in the Window 1944, and Scarlet Street 1945. Another notable gangster role was in Key Largo 1948. He was investigated during the McCarthy era and testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Robinson was married to Gladys Lloyd from 1927 until their divorce in 1956. The couple had a son, Edward G. Robinson Jr., born in 1933. In 1958 he married Jane Robinson, staying with her until his death. In 1956 he had to sell his art collection as part of the divorce settlement and also dealt with a son who had psychological troubles. He was a cultured man with a passion for fine art, a stark contrast to his screen persona.
Edward G. Robinson’s portrayal of gangsters in the 1930s and 1940s influenced generations of actors. His films Little Caesar, Double Indemnity, and The Ten Commandments have been selected for the National Film Registry. He received a posthumous Academy Honorary Award in 1973. In 2000, he was featured on a U.S. commemorative postage stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series. The American Film Institute ranked him #24 on its list of greatest screen legends. He is most remembered for his role as Rico Bandello in Little Caesar.
Browse the complete filmography of Edward G. Robinson — every film, TV show, and documentary credit, ranked by popularity.
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Every award, honor, and recognition received by Edward G. Robinson — Grammys, hall-of-fame inductions, civic honors, lifetime achievements.
A wall of memorable lines from Edward G. Robinson — lyrics, interviews, and off-the-cuff remarks captured over a lifetime.
If I Were Just a Bit Taller and I Was a Little More Handsome or Something Like That, I Could Have Played All the Roles That I Have Played, and Played Many More. There Is Such a Thing as a Handicap, but You’ve Got to Be That Much Better as an Actor. It Kept Me from Certain Roles That I Might Have Had, but Then, It Kept Others from Playing My Roles, so I Don’t Know That It’s Not Altogether Balanced.
I Have Not Collected Art. Art Collected Me. I Never Found Paintings. They Found Me. I Have Never Even Owned a Work of Art. They Owned Me.
To Last You Need to Be Real.
To Be Entrusted with a Character Was Always a Big Responsibility to Me.
To My Mind, the Actor Has This Great Responsibility of Playing Another Human Being . . . It’s Like Taking on Another Person’s Life and You Have to Do It as Sincerely and Honestly as You Can.
I Remember Just Before Going Onto the Soundstage, I’d Look in My Dressing Room Mirror and Stretch Myself to My Full 5’5 or 5’6 Whatever It Was to Make Me Appear Taller and to Make Me Able to Dominate All the Others and to Mow Them Down with My Size.
Of Course, I Started as a Collector. a True Collector. I Can Remember as If It Were Only Yesterday the Heart Pounding Excitement as I Spread Out Upon the Floor of My Bedroom the Edward G. Robinson Collection of Rare Cigar Bands. I Didn’t Play at Collecting. No Cigar Anywhere Was Safe from Me. My Father and Uncles and All Their Friends Turned Their Lungs Black Trying to Satisfy My Collector’s Zeal. and Then Came Cigarette Cards, Big League Baseball Players. I Was an Insatiable Fiend, and Would Cheerfully Trade You Three Indian Joes for One of That Upstart Newcomer, Ty Cobb.
Paintings Never Really Belong to One of Us. If We Are Fortunate, as I Have Been, We Are Allowed at Most a Lovely Time of Custody.
Acting and Painting Have Much in Common. You Begin with the External Appearance and Then Strip Away the Layers to Get to the Essential Core. This Is Reality and That Is How an Artist Achieves Truth. When You Are Acting, You Are Playing a Part, You Are Being Somebody Else. You Are Also, at the Same Time, Being Yourself.
Some People Have Youth, Some Have Beauty I Have Menace.
The Sitting Around on the Set Is Awful. but I Always Figure That’s What They Pay Me For. the Acting I Do for Free.
Every One of Us Bears Within Him the Possibility of All Passions, All Destinies of Life in All Its Manifold Forms. Nothing Human Is Foreign to Us.
To Go On, for a Moment, with My Career, It Was Obvious That While I Was Forgiven My Premature Antifascism, I Was Doomed, Both by Age and Former Political Leanings, to a Slow Graveyard. the Top Directors and Producers Wouldn’t Have Me and While I’m Grateful to Those Who Did in the Period and Bow Low to Them for Their Guts, What I Needed Was Recognition Again by a Top Figure in the Industry. I’ve Already Mentioned the Name of That Top Figure Cecil B. DeMille.
Little-known facts about Edward G. Robinson — origins, oddities, and behind-the-scenes details from a public life.
Well-liked and respected off-screen, Robinson was a sensitive, quiet, artistic type despite his fierce on-screen persona.
Robinson died two weeks after completing his last film, Soylent Green 1973.
A great art lover, Robinson once bought a Paul Cézanne painting that didn’t fit his living room; he changed the mantel, wallpaper, and furniture, and when still unsatisfied, moved to a different apartment, as recalled by Robert Wagner.
At his death in 1973, his estate was valued at $2.5 million, mostly from rare art.
Despite never being nominated during his lifetime, Robinson received a posthumous Honorary Oscar two months after his death. His wife accepted, noting his excitement upon learning he would be honored.
During Little Caesar 1931, Robinson’s eyelids were taped open to prevent flinching when he fired a gun, as he hated firearms.
During World War II, Robinson donated $100,000 to the USO and worked at the Hollywood Canteen. Speaking seven languages fluently, including Yiddish, Romanian, and German, he broadcast to Nazi-occupied countries.
Until age nine, Robinson lived in a Yiddish-speaking community in Romania.
While filming A Boy Ten Feet Tall 1963 in Africa, Robinson suffered a heart attack.
He is interred in the Goodman Mausoleum at Beth El Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.
Robinson’s voice inspired Hank Azaria’s portrayal of Chief Clancy Wiggum on The Simpsons.
Robinson was considered for the role of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather 1972 before Marlon Brando was cast.
Regarding his stage name, Robinson said he aimed to keep his birth initials E.G. and was unsure why he chose Robinson, later wishing for a shorter name because of the time required for autographs.
In 1941, Robinson and Melvyn Douglas bid $3,200 for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fedora at a Hollywood auction benefiting the Motion Picture Relief Fund, both being loyal Democrats. Robinson later faced greylisting during the McCarthy era and returned to stage work.
Dick Van Patten recalled that during the euthanasia scene in Soylent Green, he was nervous and called Robinson Mr. Robinson repeatedly, requiring multiple takes. The next day, Charlton Heston announced Robinson’s passing; the scene became his swan song.
Robinson appeared on a 33-cent US commemorative stamp in the Legends of Hollywood series, issued October 24, 2000.
The American Film Institute ranked him #24 on its list of the 50 Greatest Screen Legends.
Originally cast as Dr. Zaius in Planet of the Apes 1968, Robinson dropped out due to heart problems.
For his role as Dathan in The Ten Commandments 1956, Robinson received a special award from the Maryland State Council of the American Jewish Congress.
Three of Robinson’s films—Little Caesar 1931, Double Indemnity 1944, and The Ten Commandments 1956—have been selected for the National Film Registry.
In May 2020, Turner Classic Movies honored Robinson as Star of the Month.
Robinson became a father at 39 when his wife Gladys Lloyd gave birth to son Edward G. Robinson Jr. on March 19, 1933.
In 1949, the California Senate’s Tenney Committee investigated Robinson, labeling him a progressive Democrat frequently involved in Communist fronts and causes.
Robinson starred in three Best Picture nominees: Five Star Final 1931, Double Indemnity 1944, and The Ten Commandments 1956.
He served on the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1953.
Fellow alumni of P.S. 21 in Manhattan included George Gershwin, Paul Muni, and Senator Jacob Javits.
Robinson was offered the role of Little Bonaparte in Some Like It Hot 1959 but refused due to a vow never to work with George Raft again after a fistfight on Manpower 1941. Despite this, he co-starred with Raft in A Bullet for Joey 1955. Interestingly, his son Edward G. Robinson Jr. played Johnny Paradise in Some Like It Hot.
At the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, his close friend Joseph Schildkraut recalled, I looked at the girls, but Manny stuck to his work.
On April 30, 1952, Robinson named names of Communist sympathizers and repudiated left-wing organizations he had previously supported.
Robinson was an alumnus of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, class of 1913.
His great-grandson Adam Edward Sanchez was born on February 5, 1983, ten years after Robinson’s death.
Robinson became a grandfather at 59 when his son Edward G. Robinson Jr. and his wife Frances Chisholm had daughter Francesca Gladys Robinson on March 27, 1953.
He co-starred with Joan Bennett in The Woman in the Window 1944 and Scarlet Street 1945.
Robinson co-starred with Nina Foch in Illegal 1955 and The Ten Commandments 1956.
He was caricatured in the 1941 short Hollywood Steps Out.
Robinson’s favorite leading ladies included Mary Astor, Jean Arthur, and Marlene Dietrich; his least favorites were Miriam Hopkins and Bette Davis, though he later admired Davis.
Robinson’s 50-year career spanned stage, silent film, sound film, radio, and television.
He was born at 5:00 a.m. Local Mean Time.
Robinson and Raymond Massey were on-screen friends in The Woman in the Window 1944. Massey was first choice for Dathan in The Ten Commandments 1956 but turned it down, and DeMille gave the role to Robinson.
He co-starred with Mary Astor in The Little Giant 1933 and The Man with Two Faces 1934.
Robinson was mentioned in the 1963 episode Have Kimono, Will Travel of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Quick answers to the questions readers ask most about Edward G. Robinson.
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