Robert Arden

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American actor (1922–2004)

title: "Robert Arden" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1922-births", "2004-deaths", "20th-century-english-male-actors", "21st-century-english-male-actors", "male-actors-from-london", "male-actors-of-american-descent", "english-male-film-actors", "english-male-television-actors", "english-people-of-american-descent"] description: "American actor (1922–2004)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Arden" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American actor (1922–2004) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameRobert Arden
imageRobert Arden Mr Arkadin.jpg
captionArden in a scene from Mr. Arkadin.
birth_date
birth_placeLondon
death_date
death_placeLondon
::

| name = Robert Arden | image = Robert Arden Mr Arkadin.jpg | caption = Arden in a scene from Mr. Arkadin. | birth_date = | birth_place = London | death_date = | death_place = London Robert Arden (11 December 1922 – 25 March 2004) was a British-American film, television, and radio actor born in London. He worked and lived mostly in the United Kingdom, where he specialized in playing American characters.

Early years

Arden was born from an American father and an English mother. His father had a successful career as a professional boxer after World War II. He attended "a combination of English and American schools."

Career

Arden's most famous film appearance was as lead character Guy Van Stratten in Mr. Arkadin (1955), written and directed by Orson Welles. Welles had worked with Arden on the Harry Lime radio series, produced in London, and had also appreciated his performance in a London production of Guys and Dolls. He later cast the little-known actor in Mr. Arkadin, in the central role of the investigator who uncovers Arkadin's past. Reportedly, Arden was shocked that Welles might consider him for the part and initially thought that the director's phone inquiry was a crank call.

Arden's performance in Mr. Arkadin was panned by some critics: The New York Times called it "hopelessly inadequate". Film historian Jonathan Rosenbaum has defended Arden's performance, locating the problem not in the actor's work, but in "the unsavoriness and obnoxiousness of the character", who was intended by Welles to be unattractive, though he occupied in the film "the space normally reserved for charismatic heroes".

The credits of one of the film's Spanish versions misspelled Arden's name as "Bob Harden". Another Spanish print actually credited him as "Mark Sharpe".

Mr. Arkadin did poorly at the box office, though it later enjoyed a critical reappraisal. Afterwards, Arden played a few other lead roles, in films such as The Depraved (1957) and The Child and the Killer (1959). Later on, he appeared mostly in supporting roles, working in film, television, and stage productions, perhaps most memorably as a high official who is hypnotized to take his own life by the adult Damien Thorn (played by Sam Neill) in Omen III: The Final Conflict.

Selected filmography

References

References

  1. Scott Palmer, ''British film actors' credits, 1895-1987'', McFarland & Co Inc, 1988, Page 18
  2. Aaker, Everett (2006). ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters''. McFarland & Company, Inc. {{ISBN. 978-0-7864-6409-8. Pp. 20-23.
  3. Everett Aaker, ''Encyclopedia of Early Television Crime Fighters: All Regular Cast Members in American Crime and Mystery Series, 1948-1959'', McFarland, 2006, p. 20
  4. Charles Higham, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=xAtZkLq5clYC&pg=PA145 The films of Orson Welles]'', 1970, page 145
  5. [http://www.filmthreat.com/features/1401/ ''The Bootleg files : Mr. Arkadin''], ''filmthreat.com''
  6. [https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=980CE4DB163AE23ABC4A52DFB6678389679EDE Mystery Movie Opens at the New Yorker Welles' 'Mr. Arkadin'], The New York Times, October 12, 1962
  7. Jonathan Rosenbaum, ''Discovering Orson Welles'', University of California Press, 2007, pp.160-161
  8. {{YouTube. U4_F5BLPDKk. Spanish credits
  9. [http://www.dvdtown.com/review/complete-mr-arkadin/dvd/3607 DVD Town: Complete ''Mr. Arkadin'' a.k.a. ''Confidential Report'']

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1922-births2004-deaths20th-century-english-male-actors21st-century-english-male-actorsmale-actors-from-londonmale-actors-of-american-descentenglish-male-film-actorsenglish-male-television-actorsenglish-people-of-american-descent