Robert Eddison

Acting

Robert Eddison

Born 1908-06-10 · Yokohama, Japan

Robert Leadam Eddison, OBE (10 June 1908 – 14 December 1991) was an English actor, who is probably most widely remembered in the role of the Grail Knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. He also played the tragic ferryman in The Storyteller episode "The Luck Child". Born in Japan to English parents, Edwin Eddison and Hilda Muriel Leadham, he had a twin brother Talbot Leadam Eddison. Through his paternal grandmother, Anna Paulina Tatham of Philadelphia, he was related to the Tatham Brothers Iron pipe manufacturers of Philadelphia. As his paternal great-grandfather Henry Billington Tatham's name suggests, he was a descendant of the Billington family who came to America from England on the Mayflower. Eddison was known for his resonant, baritone voice and long, lean figure. He performed William Shakespeare and other classics, was noted for his Hamlet at the Old Vic, and later playing the comic roles of Feste and Sir Andrew Aguecheek inTwelfth Night, and King Lear on the New York stage. He was also a familiar figure in plays by Ibsen, Chekhov, andSophocles, and played Canon Chasuble in Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. Eddison also made his mark in radio, in countless BBC dramas through the decades, with some of his last roles includingDeath in The Canterbury Tales and parts in an adaptation of Japanese Noh plays. His film career was limited, but included a supporting role in Peter Ustinov's 1948 comedy Vice Versa, the electrical 'Nick' in The Boy Who Turned Yellow (1972), the college president in American Friends (1991), and a notable cameo in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusadeas the ancient Grail Knight, warning adventurers to choose wisely.

Acting credits

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade poster
7.9

In 1938, an art collector appeals to eminent archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones to embark on a search for the Holy Grail. Indy learns that a medieval historian has vanished while searching for it, and the missing man is his own father, Dr. Henry Jones Sr.. He sets out to rescue his father by following clues in the old man's notebook, which his father had mailed to him before he went missing. Indy arrives in Venice, where he enlists the help of a beautiful academic, Dr. Elsa Schneider, along with Marcus Brody and Sallah. Together they must stop the Nazis from recovering the power of eternal life and taking over the world!

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

1989

Vice Versa poster
7.2

Businessman Paul Bultitude is sending his son Dick to a boarding school. While holding a magic stone from India, he wishes that he could be young again. His wish is immediately fulfilled and the two change bodies with each other. Mr Bultitude becomes a school boy who smokes cigars and has a very conservative view on child upbringing, while his son Dick becomes a gentleman who spends his time drinking lemonade and arranging children's parties.

Vice Versa

1948

The Boy Who Turned Yellow poster
5.6

John and his class visit the Tower of London, where he loses his pet mouse. He falls asleep during a lesson on electricity, but with some help, he learns about it, invades the Tower, and saves his pet.

The Boy Who Turned Yellow

1972

Andover and the Android poster
NR

Roger Andover will inherit a fortune if he marries. But he is a solitary man with no ambition: human relationships mystify and dismay him. But to present a life-like female android as your wife: surely that will satisfy everyone? Andover finds more than he bargained for when his robot bride challenges his preconceptions about humanity.

Andover and the Android

1965

American Friends poster
6.3

Francis Ashby, a senior Oxford don on holiday alone in the Alps, meets holidaying American Caroline and her companion Elinor, the blossoming Irish-American girl she adopted many years before. Ashby finds he enjoys their company, particularly that of Elinor, and both the women are drawn to him. Back at Oxford he is nevertheless taken aback when they arrive unannounced. Women are not allowed in the College grounds, let alone the rooms. Indeed any liaison, however innocent, is frowned on by the upstanding Fellows.

American Friends

1991

The Storyteller: The Luck Child poster
NR

Seeking to avert a prophecy which foretells of a seventh son someday supplanting the current king, the unscrupulous monarch seeks out this luck child and attempts to do away with him. But those blessed with luck cannot be undone.

The Storyteller: The Luck Child

1988

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King poster
4.5

Plagues are ravaging Thebes, and the blind fortune-teller Tieresias tells Oedipus, the King, that the gods are unhappy. The murder of the former king has gone unavenged, and Oedipus sets out to find the killer.

Theban Plays: Oedipus the King

1986

Scoop poster
5.7

Scoop is a 1987 TV film directed by Gavin Millar, adapted by William Boyd from the 1938 satirical novel Scoop by Evelyn Waugh. It was produced by Sue Birtwistle with executive producers Nick Elliott and Patrick Garland. Original music was made by Stanley Myers. The story is about a reporter sent to Ishmaelia (a fictional African state) by accident.

Scoop

1987

A TV Dante poster
6.5

A TV Dante is an experimental mini-series directed by Tom Phillips and legendary filmmaker Peter Greenaway. It covers eight of the thirty-four cantos in Dante Alighieri's Inferno, part of his 14th century epic poem The Divine Comedy. The eight cantos of the film are not conventionally dramatised, rather they are illuminated with layered and juxtaposed imagery while the text is read entirely in "talking head" fashion, and punctuated with a kaleidoscopic blend of both newly shot and archival footage.

A TV Dante

1990

Sixty Glorious Years poster
6.3

Continuing the story of 'Victoria the Great'.

Sixty Glorious Years

1938

Henry IV Part 2 poster
8.5

The death of King Henry the Fourth and the coronation of King Henry the Fifth.

Henry IV Part 2

1979

Edward II poster
4.9

England, 14th century. King Edward II falls in love with Piers Gaveston, a young man of humble origins, whom he honors with favors and titles of nobility. The cold and jealous Queen Isabella conspires with the evil Mortimer to get rid of Gaveston, overthrow her husband and take power...

Edward II

1970

Uncle Silas poster
7.0

After her father's death, Maud, a young heiress, is sent to live with her Uncle Silas. She finds her new guardian living in a gothic nightmare of a mansion, and soon realizes that he wishes to murder her and claim her inheritance.

Uncle Silas

1968

I Was Happy Here poster
6.4

Cass followed the bright lights to London and was quickly disillusioned. She met and married Doctor Langdon, but soon realised she wanted to return to her home by the sea, and to her first love, Colin.

I Was Happy Here

1966

Theban Plays: Antigone poster
9.0

In a final battle for the control of Thebes, Oedipus's two sons kill each other. Creon issues an order that no one is to bury Polynices upon pain of death. But Antigone is determined that her brother's body will have the proper rites of burial.

Theban Plays: Antigone

1986

The Adventures Of Don Quixote poster
10.0

A self-proclaimed "knight" and his hapless squire travel the Spanish countryside, attacking "giants" that are really windmills in his attempt to win the love of the fair Dulcinea.

The Adventures Of Don Quixote

1973

The Tragedy of King Richard II poster
7.0

The Tragedy of King Richard II, by William Shakespeare. The actions and repercussions of a proud King, whose vanity and selfishness lead to his downfall.

The Tragedy of King Richard II

1970

An Affinity with Dr. Still poster
NR

A tragic event shatters the complacent calm of a great university. Haunted by it, Peter Molyneux turns up at the Italian villa of Dr Still.

An Affinity with Dr. Still

1979

Ordeal by Fire poster
NR

The biggest wildfire in North American history is brought to life, revealing what it means to us today, when the people of America are still figuring out how their federal government should manage and protect federal lands. It also explores how 21st century frontier technologies and people are coping with each other and with the ancient cycles of fire in a harsh yet beautiful land.

Ordeal by Fire

1957

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp poster
7.0

An angel finds that she needs money to fulfill her mission on Earth. Her only solution to this problem is to pawn her harp.

The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp

1954

Selkirk of Red River poster
9.0

This film tells the story of the Red River settlement, now the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The pioneer venture of Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, to establish a colony brought opposition from the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company’s powerful rival. A fine cast of actors portrays the ensuing dispute.

Selkirk of Red River

1964

No artwork available
4.0

A touring company of actors arriving at a theatre, rehearsing and preparing a performance of a revue based on the book 'Knots' by R.D. Laing, devised by Edward Petherbridge

Knots

1975