ir
ytobertson.aa Kennedy, encourages crewman (actor James McCaUion) after PT 109 sinking.
nd strafed us with machine-gun fire.
"We had two lifeboats. All but three
fnen jumped into one boat, which was low
ered into the water. The captain was in
the wheelhouse taking care of the log, and
vhe PArnentor and I were iinniifvpRnfiillv
Jtrying to lower the second boat."
During the last strafing attack, Cliff
jsaved the carpenter's life by shoving him
fto the deck just as the plane came over.
Bullet holes marked the spot where the
carpenter had stood seconds before.
"The rest of the crew returned to the
ship when it appeared we would stay afloat
after all. Fortunately, the Japanese bomb
er pilot didn't think so. He took off." The
Admiral Cole went to New Zealand for a
week of major repairs and a chance for
Cliff to jump ship. "I wanted to join the
New Zealand Air Force," he told me.
."I hid in a cemetery on a hill overlook
ing Wellington for five days and lived on
raw carrots. On the sixth day, I saw smoke
rising from the funnel of the Admiral
Cole and decided it was safe to leave my
hide-out"
No sooner had he arrived in town than
he was stopped by two plain-clothes men.
"Is your name Robertson?" one asked.
"No, sir, it's Richardson," he answered.
But the man insisted, "You're seaman
Robertson, all right"
"How did you know?" Cliff burst out
"You forgot your accent, old boy."
Back aboard the Admiral Cole, Cliff
faced a not-too-stern captain. As he re
calls: "Because of the perilous journey to
New Zealand, almost all the guys got
drunk and went AWOL. Only two of us
were able to work at all that first day."
The day after hia ship finally pulled
into San Francisco, Cliff walked up to his
grandmother's house and found a gold
star on her door. His ship had been re
ported sunk with all hands lost, and Cliff
had been named La Jolla's first victim of
World War II!
Later, Robertson enrolled in the U.S.
Maritime Service, rose tq Lieutenant
(j-g-) and became one of the few sailors
whose .ship went down after VE Day.
"We piled up on rocks off the coast of
Sweden during a heavy storm," he re
called, "but no one was seriously hurt."
He continued his sea duty after the war
as third officer aboard a freighter out of
New York, while trying to get up enough
nerve to make the theatrical rounds. "I
had some summer-theater experience in
high school, but that was all," he says.
Cuff GOT his apprenticeship in the
Catskill Mountain resorts at $5 a
week, plus room and board. But his big
breaks came on Broadway and through
television. Unfortunately, the tv roles he
created went to other actors when movies
were made of them. Marlon Brando starred
in the film version of "Orpheus Descend
ing," Paul Newman in . "The Hustler,"
Anthony Franciosa in "Career," and Jack
Lemmon in "Days of Wine and Roses."
But Cliff is convinced that "PT 109"
will be a turning point in his career and
he hopes it will be a turning point in his
private life as well. Although there's no
one "special" right now, he wants to get
married again and have more children.
Cliff was divorced in 1959 from Cynthia
Stone after two years of marriage. They
had one daughter, Stephanie.
"I've always longed for family life,
probably because I didn't have the benefit
of a mother or father," Cliff told me. Then
he added philosophically, "I would like to
use my childhood as an excuse for things
I did wrong, but in all honesty I can't It
wasn't that bad. In fact, life has been
pretty good to me all along and it prom
ises to be even better I"
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