British postcard by H & M. Photo: Magnus Marding.
American actor Eric Roberts (1956) made a big splash with early films like King of the Gypsies (1978), Star 80 (1983), The Coca-Cola Kid (1985), and Runaway Train (1985). He earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations, but somehow never got the star status of his sister Julia. His daughter Emma is now also starring in Hollywood films.
Eric Anthony Roberts was born in Biloxi, Mississippi in 1956. He was the son of Betty Lou (née Bredemus) and Walter Grady Roberts, one-time actors and playwrights. His sisters are the actresses Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan. He began his acting career at age 5 in a local theatre company called the Actors and Writers Workshop, founded by his late father. At age 17, he studied drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London for two years, then returned to the States and continued his studies at the American Academy in New York. In 1977, Roberts got his start on the daytime soap opera Another World. His film career began earning a Golden Globe nomination for best actor debut opposite Sterling Hayden in King of the Gypsies (Frank Pierson, 1978), based on Peter Maas' best-seller about a fracturing dynasty of New York City gypsies. Gary Brumburgh at IMDb: "his burning intensity and brooding charm marked sure signs of star potential. " Roberts received Golden Globe nomination for his stark and frightening portrayal of two-bit hustler Paul Snider in Star 80 (Bob Fosse, 1983) about the true story of Playboy Playmate of the Year Dorothy Stratten (played by Mariel Hemingway), who was murdered by her estranged husband Snider in 1980. Roberts earned both a Golden Globe and Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. This time for his role as the escaped convict Buck, hiding out with Jon Voight aboard an out-of-control train in the ultra-violent, character-driven action adventure Runaway Train (Andrei Konchalovsky, 1985). This masterpiece was based on an original screenplay by Akira Kurosawa. In 1987, Roberts won the Theatre World Award for his Broadway debut performance in Burn This. His other starring roles of the 1980s included Raggedy Man (Jack Fisk, 1981) with Sissy Spacek, The Pope of Greenwich Village (Stuart Rosenberg, 1984) with Mickey Rourke, the Australian romantic comedy The Coca-Cola Kid (Dušan Makavejev, 1985), Nobody's Fool (Evelyn Purcell, 1986), and the martial arts film Best of the Best (Bob Radler, 1989).
Through the 1990s and 2000s, Eric Roberts' film career slided further and further, appearing in more quantity than quality pictures. Interesting was his lead in the gay drama It's my partry (Randal Kleiser, 1996), one of the first feature films to address the topic of AIDS patients dying with dignity. His other starring roles were in action films like By the Sword (Jeremy Paul Kagan, 1991), the sequel Best of the Best 2 (Bob Radler, 1993), The Immortals (Elie Samaha, 1995), La Cucaracha (Jack Perez, 1998), and the TV Western Purgatory (Uli Edel, 1999) with Sam Shepard. He soon began appearing as flashy secondary villains and creeps that showcased other stars instead, such as in the neo-noir drama Final Analysis (Phil Joanou, 1992) starring Richard Gere and Kim Basinger, and the action film The Specialist (Luis Llosa, 1994) starring Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. In the late 1990s his films more and more went straight to video. Most of his film work in the first years of the new decennium was also undistinguished. His TV work at the time includes three seasons with the sitcom Less than Perfect (2002-2005) and a recurring role on the NBC drama Heroes (2007). In February 1995, Roberts was arrested for shoving his wife, Eliza Garrett, into a wall. He subsequently announced that he was giving up drug use entirely. In 2010, Roberts appeared as a cast member in the fourth season of the VH1 reality television series Celebrity Rehab, for dependency on medical marijuana. His wife, Eliza, and his stepson, Keaton Simons, appeared in Episode 6 to discuss the effects of his addiction on their lives. Roberts returned to the big screen in The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, 2008) as Sal Maroni, a Gotham City Mafia boss who hires The Joker (Heath Ledger) to kill Batman (Christian Bale). Since then he appeared in small roles in the action star reunion The Expendables (Sylvester Stallone, 2010) and the biographical drama Lovelace (Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, 2013) about porn actress Linda Lovelace (played by Amanda Seyfried). Sadly, the latter was a box-office failure. However, Eric Roberts continues to be hyper-active. His filmography counts over 40 screen parts in 2013, and more than 50 in 2014. Gary Brumburgh calls Eric Roberts at IMDb "One of Hollywood's edgier, more intriguing characters running around and about for decades" and also "A risky, no-holds-barred actor, he was often guilty of overacting if given half the chance". We do hope for another real memorable film role for Eric Roberts like in his early years. The man deserves it. His daughter Emma Roberts (1991), with his then-girlfriend Kelly Cunningham, has now the more interesting acting career of the two.
Sources: Gary Brumburgh (IMDb), Wikipedia and IMDb.