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 fought for a wider range of roles, playing the title character in the 1940 biopic, "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet", and, after he and Warner Bros. parted company, the assiduous insurance agent in Billy Wilder's "Double Indemnity" (1944).

Robinson was also memorable in suffering roles opposite Joan Bennett in two films noirs directed by Fritz Lang, "The Woman in the Window" (1944) and "Scarlet Street" (1945). Other notable films include Orson Welles' "The Stranger" (1946), John Huston's "Key Largo" (1948), Cecil B. DeMille's 1956 remake of "The Ten Commandments", the 1959 Frank Capra comedy "A Hole in the Head" and Norman Jewison's "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), in which he gave a memorable characterization as cultured poker kingpin Lancy Howard. Amazingly, Robinson never even received an Academy Award nomination; it would not be until 1972 that the Academy finally awarded him an honorary Oscar.

Robinson suffered a series of personal setbacks in the 1950s, including a hearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee (he was eventually exonerated of Communist affiliations) and the selling of his extensive art collection as a condition of his divorce settlement. He remained busy in both semi-leads and prominent character roles as he aged, his rich, sharp, rat-a-tat line delivery and incisive acting style lending a bracing edge even to material unworthy of him. By the time he made his final film in 1973 ("Soylent Green"), he had become one of the most identifiable and imitated stars of all time.