By Loren Kantor
Editor’s Note: Loren Kantor often chooses Jews and Jewish themes as topics for his woodcuts. He’s agreed to share images from his work–and the stories behind them– with San Diego Jewish World. Actor Edward G. Robinson is the fourth topic in the series.
STUDIO CITY, California–Edward G. Robinson was born Emanuel Goldenberg in 1893 in Romania. He came to New York at age 10 and as a young man debated whether to become an actor or a rabbi. Fortunately for movie fans, he chose acting.
His big break came in 1931 with his role as gangster Rico in Little Caesar. Though he didn’t have the looks of most movie stars, Robinson was well respected and he worked with prominent directors like Fritz Lang, John Huston, Billy Wilder and Orson Welles. My first exposure to Robinson came via his animated alter ego “Rocky” in the Bugs Bunny cartoons. My two favorite Robinson films are Double Indemnity and Key Largo, both film noir classics.
In the early 1950’s, Robinson was rumored to be a communist sympathizer and he was forced to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He eventually cleared his name but his film roles soon diminished (though he did appear in Cecil B. DeMille’s The Ten Commandments). In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola seriously considered Robinson for the role of Don Corleone in The Godfather. Edward G. Robinson’s last film role was in Soylent Green in 1973. He died of cancer just 12 days after shooting was completed.
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Loren Kantor is a woodcut artist based in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles. To see works he has for sale, visit http://woodcuttingfool.blogspot.com/