[1] During World War II, Boon volunteered to serve a Dutch East Indies oil battalion and was sent to the United States for military training.
[1] He took part in the Borneo campaign in May 1945,[1] the last major Allied invasion in the South West Pacific Area during World War II.
[1] However, Boon first took a position with Bataafse Petroleum Maatschappij (BPM), a former subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell, for financial reasons.
[1] Robert Boon soon joined the Little Theatre, a theater company in Curaçao, and worked part-time as an actor and writer one of the island's radio stations.
[1] He served on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences's Best Foreign Language Film's nominating committee for many years.