Above video has clips of Jay Robinson from The Robe.
You might remember Jay Robinson as Warren Beatty’s boss in Shampoo or the angry priest in Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex. Movie fans know him as the crazy emperor Caligula in The Robe and its sequel Demetrius and the Gladiators.
The Caligula part made first-time actor Jay Robinson one of the most popular actors in Hollywood at age 22. All the big stars came to his newly purchased Bel Air mansion.
The biblical epic The Robe (1955) was the first movie filmed in Cinemascope. At first, John Buckmaster was playing the crazy Emperor. After filming 30% of the movie, he suddenly went crazy for real on the set, screaming and ripping off his toga. Security was called to take him away. So, Robinson got the part.
Working on The Robe and its sequel for five months, at $3,000 per week, Robinson earned $624,000 in today’s value.
After filming his first shot with Jean Simmons, the crew burst out in a rare, spontaneous applause. Robinson was so into his character that, instead of a stuntman taking the spear that kills Caligula, he volunteered to do it.
Victor Mature told him, “Are you crazy, Jay? Don’t let them throw that thing at you. If the wire breaks, you could be blinded or killed.”
Another actor joked, “Don’t worry. They left this shot till last, so if you’re killed, the picture is still completed.”
Robinson said, “They attached a wire to a board on my chest and had ropes on my hands and feet to pull me back onto my stone throne. A strong actor hurled the spear at me nine times before the director was satisfied.
"Each time I had the breath knocked out of me, making me wish I had taken Victor’s advice. I spent that night in the bathtub recovering.”
Robinson enjoyed his high-living status for three years. “I had a giant portrait of myself as Caligula in my home,” Robinson said, “and I lived the part.”
His next three movies didn’t give him parts equal to Caligula, so he felt resentful and turned to drugs. Set-up by druggie friends, the police raided his home and found methadone. He was sent to prison for 15 months, ruining his career.
Robinson said, "I was sent to a prison in Tracy, California. There was so much weight-lifting and body-building there, that it was known as the Gladiator School. How ironic. Caligula was going to the Gladiator School."
In prison, on Easter Sunday, Robinson watched The Robe on TV with the other prisoners. A guard said to him, "You had a big part in that movie. Was being a star too much for you?"
"I'm afraid it was, sir."
His 15 months over, he struggled 11 years to get back into the movie business. Finally, he was hired on the TV shows The Wild, Wild West, Star Trek and Bewitched.
From there he worked constantly, ending up with 76 credits by 1998. That’s Robinson who sends Keanu Reeves to Dracula’s castle in the Coppola movie.
Robinson’s autobiography, The Comeback, sold half-a-million copies. He received letters from around the world, saying how his book saved their lives.
In 1991, Robinson said, “More than anything else; never be defeated. Take the loses, keep going, and don’t look back so much. Then we can accomplish anything we can envision.”
So many that found sudden fame and wealth ended up getting into drugs. But the same thing happened where I worked at a university. The only one I know that came out of it quite well has been my long time caregiver and former, as she described it, "crack head," who went to prison for six years for shooting a man who raped her in a public place, "to teach him a lesson" that backfired when he died. She told me that "going crazy" saved her from rape on the streets many times. But when she went crazy on her husband and hit him with a pliers she used to start her car in public, she was sent again away for six years, but served two. She is now trying to pay off her debts, unsuccessfully on Social Security.
Robinson is one of the in a long line of celebrities who have written their recovery story and made money on it. Diane, my friend, wanted me to write her story, but she never seems to get around to giving me the information I need for a whole book. One with all the gory details like her father molesting of his seven daughters, etc. Unless you are celebrity, or you can write yourself after all the trouble, books like hers don't get written.
I just watched, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood." Makes me see why so many got into drugs. I rather liked Quentin Tarantino's twist at the end. Unfortunately the fairytale is not true that bad things happened.
Ron