Robert Archibald Shaw

Robert Archibald Shaw (9 August 1927 – 28 August 1978) was an English actor, novelist, and playwright. He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his role as Henry VIII in the drama film A Man for All Seasons (1966).

Shaw's other notable film roles were in From Russia With Love (1963), The Royal Hunt of the Sun (1969), Young Winston (1972), The Sting (1973), Jaws (1975), Robin and Marian (1976), and Black Sunday (1977).

Shaw began his acting career in theatre, appearing in regional theatre throughout England. In 1952, he made his London debut in the West End at the Embassy Theatre, in Caro William.

Shaw starred in a British TV series which also appeared on American television as The Buccaneers (1956–57). Shaw's best-known film performances include assassin Donald Grant in the second James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963); the title role in The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964); the relentless panzer German Army officer Colonel Hessler in Battle of the Bulge (1965); a young Henry VIII in A Man for All Seasons (1966); Lord Randolph Churchill, in Young Winston (1972); General George Armstrong Custer in Custer of the West (1967); mobster Doyle Lonnegan in The Sting (1973); the subway-hijacker and hostage-taker "Mr. Blue" in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974); the shark-obsessed fisherman Quint in Jaws (1975), lighthouse keeper and treasure-hunter Romer Treece in The Deep (1977); and Israeli Mossad agent David Kabakov in Black Sunday (1977).

Shaw was nominated for the Golden Globe Award and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in A Man for All Seasons.

He performed onstage as well, across Britain and on Broadway in the United States, where his notable performances include Harold Pinter's Old Times and The Caretaker, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's The Physicists directed by Peter Brook, and The Man in the Glass Booth, inspired by the kidnapping and trial of Adolf Eichmann, written by Shaw himself, and directed by Pinter.[

Shaw was also an accomplished writer of novels, plays and screenplays. His first novel, The Hiding Place, published in 1960, received positive reviews. His next, The Sun Doctor, published the following year, was awarded the Hawthornden Prize in 1962.

Shaw then embarked on a trilogy of novels – The Flag (1965), The Man in the Glass Booth (1967) and A Card from Morocco (1969). His adaptation for the stage of The Man in the Glass Booth gained him the most attention for his writing.

Like his father, Shaw was an alcoholic for most of his life. He died in Ireland at the age of 51 from a heart attack on 28 August 1978, while driving from Castlebar, County Mayo to his home in Tourmakeady. He suddenly became ill, stopped the car, stepped out, and then collapsed and died on the roadside. He was rushed to Castlebar General Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He had just completed acting in the film Avalanche Express. His body was cremated and its ashes scattered near his home in Toormakeady. A stone memorial to him was unveiled there in his honour in August 2008. It can be seen at 53°40'29.1"N 9°20'34.8"W