Roberts Blossom Biography

Roberts Scott Blossom (March 25, 1924 " July 8, 2011) was an American theater, film and television actor and poet. He is best known for his roles as Old Man Marley in Home Alone and as Ezra Cobb in the horror film Deranged. He is also remembered for his supporting roles in films such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Escape from Alcatraz.

Early life

Roberts Scott Blossom was born in 1924 in New Haven, Connecticut to John Blossom, an athletic director at Yale University. He was raised in Cleveland but later moved to Shaker Heights, Ohio. He attended Hawken School and graduated from Asheville School in 1941 and attended Harvard University for a year until he joined the Army and served in World War II in Europe. He trained as a therapist and later decided to be an actor, and began directing and acting in productions at Karamu House and The Candlelight Theater in Cleveland and later moved to New York, where he supported himself by bundling feathers for hats and he practiced a disputed therapy called Dianetics. He also waited tables until he became a full-time actor.

Career

Blossom began acting on stage during the 1950s. He won three Obie Awards for his performances in the off-Broadway plays Village Wooing (1955), which was his debut, Do Not Pass Go (1965) and The Ice Age (1976). During the 1960s, he formed Filmstage, a multimedia avant garde theatrical troupe. His Broadway credits include Ballad of the Sad Cafe and Operation Sidewinder and in 1988 he appeared in Peter Brook's production of The Cherry Orchard.

Blossom began appearing on screen in 1958. His first appearance in a feature film was in 1971 with The Hospital. During the seventies he had roles in films including The Great Gatsby, with Robert Redford, Slaughterhouse-Five, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Escape from Alcatraz, with Clint Eastwood. Escape from Alcatraz is perhaps Blossom's best known supporting role for the scene where he chopped off his fingers with an axe. Blossom is remembered for his role as Ezra Cobb in the 1974 horror film Deranged based on American murderer Ed Gein. Blossom is also known for starring in the 1983 horror movie Christine, a film directed by John Carpenter which is an adaptation of the book by Stephen King. He is best known for his role in the 1990 film Home Alone, in which he played Old Man Marley alongside Macaulay Culkin. He appeared in his final film role in 1995 alongside Sharon Stone and Leonardo DiCaprio in The Quick and The Dead. Blossom's other film credits include Doc Hollywood; Reuben, Reuben; Resurrection; Flashpoint; Vision Quest; and Always.

Blossom made his first television appearance in 1958 in the television series Naked City. From 1976 to 1978, he starred on the television soap opera Another World, in which his role on the show won him a Soapy Award for Best Villain. His other television credits include Moonlighting, with Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis, Tales from the Darkside, The Equalizer, the revived eighties version of The Twilight Zone and Chicago Hope. His television films include John Brown's Raid, Family Reunion, with Bette Davis, the 1985 version of Noon Wine, Murder in the Heartland and Balloon Farm, which was his final role as an actor.

In 2000, Blossom appeared in the biography documentary Full Blossom: The Life of Poet/Actor Roberts Blossom, in which he talked about his life as an actor and poet. The documentary also featured his children Debbie and Michael, his first wife Beverly, and Edward Asner, Peter Brook and Robert Frank.

Personal life

Blossom was formerly married to Beverly Schmidt Blossom, with whom he had a son, Michael. He was later married to Marylin Orshan Blossom until her death in 1982, with whom he had a daughter, Deborah Blossom.

After Blossom retired from acting in the late nineties, he moved to Berkeley, California and spent his time writing poetry. He later moved to Santa Monica, California where he died in 2011.

Death

Blossom died on July 8, 2011 at the age of 87 of natural causes. He was residing in a nursing home in Santa Monica, California at the time of his death.

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1971	The Hospital	Guernsey
1972	Slaughterhouse-five	Wild Bob Cody
	Please Stand by	Judge Nott
1974	Deranged	Ezra Cobb
	The Great Gatsby	Mr. Gatz
1977	Handle with Care	Papa Thermodyne
	Close Encounters of the Third Kind	Farmer
1979	Escape from Alcatraz	Doc
1980	Resurrection	John Harper
1983	Christine	George LeBay
	Reuben, Reuben	Frank Spofford
1984	Flashpoint	Amarillo
1985	Vision Quest	Grandpa
1988	Candy Mountain	Archie
	The Last Temptation of Christ	Aged Master
1989	Always	Dave
1990	Home Alone	Old Man Marley
1991	Death Falls	Hals Johnson
	Doc Hollywood	Judge Evans
1995	The Quick and the Dead	Doc Wallace

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Naked City	Quint Butcher	Episode: "And a Merry Christmas to the Force on Patrol"
1959	The Art Carney Show	Simon Stimson
	Camera Three	Himself	Episode: "The Eagle, the Tiger and the Fly"
1960	John Brown's Raid	Stevens	Television film
1959–1961	The DuPont Show of the Month	Gustav	Episodes: "Billy Budd", "The Prisoner of Zenda"
1964	Brenner	Reader	Episode: "Charlie Paradise: The Tragic Flute"
	The Defenders	Thomas Riggs	Episode: "Go Between"
1972	Great Performances	Judge/Preacher	Episode: "The Rimers of Eldritch"
1975	Beacon Hill	D.W. Griffith	Episode: "The Test"
1976–1978	Another World	Bert Ordway/Sven Petersen	"? Soapy Award for Best Villain (1978)
1978	Mourning Becomes Electra	Seth	Mini-series
1980	ABC Weekend Specials	Mr. LeGrand	Episodes: "The Gold Bug: Parts 1 & 2"
1981	Family Reunion	Phil King	Television film
1982	The Wall	Kuchaski	Television film
	Johnny Belinda	John McAdam	Television film
1985	Noon Wine	Mr. McClellan	Television film
	Amazing Stories	Opa Globe	Episode: "Ghost Train"
1986	Moonlighting	Lawrence Everette	Episode: "Witness for the Execution"
	Tales from the Darkside	Inquisitor	Episode: "Heretic"
	The Equalizer	Oscar Peabody	Episode: "Tip on a Sure Thing"
1987	At Mother's Request	Doug Steele	Television film
	Stingray	Uncle Pat 'The Cat' Morel	Episode: "Bring Me the Hand That Hit Me"
1985–1987	The Twilight Zone	The Man/Mordecai Hawkline	Episodes: "The Burning Man" (#1.8), "Song of the Younger World" (#2.35)
1989	In the Heat of the Night	Dr. Harris Pendleton	Episode: "Tear Down the Walls"
1992	Northern Exposure	Ned	Episode: "Cicely"
	The Habitation of Dragons	Mr. Charlie	Television film
	Crossroads	Oscar Poland	Episode: "Pilot"
1993	Murder in the Heartland	Gus Meyer	Mini-series
	The American Clock	Old Wayne Taylor	Television film
1997	Chicago Hope	William Kronk	Episode: "Hope Against Hope"
1999	Balloon Farm	Weasel Mayfield	Television film

Short film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961	The Sins of Jesus
1972	The Witches of Salem: The Horror and the Hope	Gov. Phips
Documentary
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Full Blossom: The Life of Poet/Actor Roberts Blossom	Himself

Theater credits

• 1955: Village Wooing
• 1958: The Infernal Machine (Anubis)
• 1961: A Cook for Mr. General (Kroy)
• 1963: The Ballad of the Sad Cafe (Merlie Ryan)
• 1964: The Physicists
• 1965: Do Not Pass Go
• 1970: Operation Sidewinder
• 1973: Statis Quo Vadis (Mr.Elgin)
• 1988: The Cherry Orchard