Sneering, dough-faced character lead whose defining role as trigger-happy mob boss Cesare Bandello in "Little Caesar" (1931) established him as both a star and as one of the screen's greatest heavies. Robinson began his career on the stage, made his film debut in 1923 and played a string of underworld types in Warner Bros. gangster films of the 1930s. A very versatile talent, he regularly played sympathetic parts as well ("Two Seconds" 1932, "The Little Giant" 1933) and in John Ford's "The Whole Town's Talking" (1935) played both a gangster and his double, a meek clerk. Robinson constantly
