On television, Robertson portrayed retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the 1976 TV film adaptation of Aldrin's autobiographic Return to Earth, played a fictional character based on Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms in the 1977 miniseries Washington: Behind Closed Doors, and portrayed Henry Ford in Ford: The Man and the Machine (1987).

Robertson was an accomplished aviator who served as the founding chairman of the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA)'s Young Eagles Program at its inception in the early 1990s.

Merchant Marine during World War II,[1][9] before attending Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, and dropping out to work for a short time as a journalist.

Logan's wife recommended Robertson after seeing him in a revival of The Wisteria Trees, and the director remembered him from a Chicago production of Mister Roberts.

[12] The film was a box office success and Robertson was promoted to Joan Crawford's co-star in Autumn Leaves (1956), also at Columbia Pictures, playing her mentally unstable younger lover.

In 1961, he was the third lead in Paramount's All in a Night's Work, starred in Samuel Fuller's Underworld U.S.A. at Columbia, and supported Esther Williams in The Big Show.

After supporting Debbie Reynolds in My Six Loves (1963), Robertson was President John F. Kennedy's personal choice to play him in 1963's PT 109.

More popular was Sunday in New York (1963), where Robertson supported Rod Taylor and Jane Fonda, and The Best Man where he was a ruthless presidential candidate.

Robertson appeared in a popular war film 633 Squadron (1964) then supported Lana Turner in a melodrama, Love Has Many Faces (1965).

[15] In 1961 Robertson played the lead role in a United States Steel Hour television production titled "The Two Worlds of Charlie Gordon", based on the novel Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes.

[16] Frustrated at the progress of his career, Robertson optioned the rights to the teleplay and hired William Goldman to write a script.

He co-starred with Harrison in The Honey Pot (1967) for Joseph L. Mankiewicz then appeared in another war film, The Devil's Brigade (1968) with William Holden.

The film was another box office success and Robertson won the 1968 Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a mentally-challenged man.

Charly was made by ABC Pictures, which insisted that Robert Aldrich use Robertson in Too Late the Hero (1970), a war film with Michael Caine that was a disappointment at the box office.

Robertson played Cole Younger in The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid (1972) and a pilot in Ace Eli and Rodger of the Skies (1973).

He played the lead in Obsession (1976), a popular thriller from Brian De Palma and Paul Schrader, and in the Canadian drama Shoot (1976).

[19] He was a villain in Malone (1987), did Dead Reckoning (1990) on TV and supported in Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991), Wind (1991), Renaissance Man (1994) and John Carpenter's Escape from L.A. (1996).

He appeared as a villain on five episodes of ABC's Batman series as the gunfighter "Shame" (1966 and 1968), the second time with his wife, Dina Merrill, as "Calamity Jan".

He also learned that the forgery had been carried out by then-Columbia Pictures head David Begelman, and on reporting it he inadvertently triggered one of the biggest Hollywood scandals of the 1970s.

In 1966, he married actress and Post Cereals heiress Dina Merrill, the former wife of Stanley M. Rumbough Jr.; they had a daughter, Heather (1968–2007), before divorcing.

[26] A certified private pilot, one of Robertson's main hobbies was flying and, among other aircraft, he owned several de Havilland Tiger Moths, a Messerschmitt Bf 108, and a genuine World War II–era Mk.

[30] In 1969, during the civil war conflict in Nigeria, Robertson helped organize an effort to fly food and medical supplies into the area.

He was instructed by air traffic control to land immediately at the nearest airport after a nationwide order to ground all civilian and commercial aircraft following the attacks.

Along with educating youth about aviation, the initial goal of the Young Eagles was to fly one million children (many of them never having flown before) prior to the 100th Anniversary of Flight celebration on December 17, 2003.

[34][35] His body was cremated, and a private funeral was held at St. Luke's Episcopal Church in East Hampton, New York and was interred at the Cedar Lawn Cemetery.