Meet Tony-Nominated, Bellevue-Born Roger Robinson
Roger Robinson in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone
Roger Robinson met us with a broad smile and a warm handshake in the doorway of his small dressing room at New York's Belasco Theater. He showed us in for a short chat, two hours before he was to perform in August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.
Robinson, who plays "conjure man" Bynum Walker in Joe Turner, is in his seventies, he's tall, and he'll look familiar if you are a dedicated fan of Kojak. Or Baretta. Or Quincy, M.E. Or Starsky & Hutch. A contract player for Universal in the '70s, Robinson played bit parts on dozens of T.V. shows. (Go ahead, check his IMDB page.)
We asked Robinson to compare the Bellevue of his youth to the Hill District of Pittsburgh, the setting of Joe Turner. Robinson laughed: "No, no." His was a very different Bellevue from the one we know: Before bridges across Lake Washington, before corporate HQs, before Bell Square. "I tell people I grew up a farm boy," Robinson told us, in between bites of a Subway sandwich. "We raised pigs, had a cow." Robinson's mother, who'll turn 99 in September, still lives on the Eastside. So do two of Robinson's sisters--one, who's never been to New York, will be Robinson's date to the Tonys.
Both Robinson and the revival of Joe Turner itself are up for Tony Awards; the play's gotten enthusiastic reviews from practically every corner. Barack Obama chose it for his and Michelle's recent Broadway excursion.
So, though we've never watched the Tonys before, we've got two reasons to this year: Rooting for Robinson, and seeing whether Neil Patrick Harris is as funny as an awards show host as he is as a Lothario or an ineffective supervillain.
Robinson attended Bellevue High, then joined the U.S. Navy, when a one-sentence statement by a famous actress changed his life forever.
Roger Robinson. Photo: T. Charles Erickson
He pointed to two framed photographs on a side table in his dressing room. One was Lloyd Richards, the Tony-winning director who was Robinson's acting teacher. The other was Diana Sands, a Broadway actress who gave Robinson his start with eight fateful words.
"I'll tell you the story," Robinson said. "It's not too long and not too boring, I hope."
"I was in Washington DC going to the Naval School of Music in January of 1961, and they gave out free tickets to the plays. Raisin in the Sun was on a national tour, at the National Theater. I went to see the play, and it was the first time I'd seen black people on stage; I'd never seen a black play like that."
"Diana Sands was playing Beneatha, as she did on Broadway. I went backstage afterwards, in my sailor uniform, and she had a lot of people in her dressing room. She had me come into the room. And she said, 'Ooh, just have a seat, have a seat.' When she had finished with these visitors, she turned to me and said: 'You want to be an actor, don't you.'"
"It was the most uncanny thing. Even now it moves me. Because I don't know what it was. And she said, 'You gotta study with this guy that directed this play'--Lloyd Richards, that was the landmark play he directed.... That was the beginning. And I started studying with Lloyd while I was still in the Navy."
You can hear Robinson's voice in the audio slideshow accompanying this New York Times review of Joe Turner.
The Tony Awards will be televised on delay at 8 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
Joe Turner's Come and Gone runs through June 14 in New York City.
