Robert Arden

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Robert Arden 11 December 1922 25 March 2004 was an American film television and radio actor born in London who worked and lived mostly in the United Kingdom Arden was born from an American father and an English mother His father had a successful career as a professional boxer after World War I He attended a combination of English and American schools Ardens most famous film appearance was as lead character Guy Van Stratten in Mr Arkadin 1955 written and directed by Orson Welles Welles had worked with Arden on the Harry Lime radio series produced in London and later cast the littleknown actor in Mr Arkadin in the central role of the investigator who uncovers Arkadins past Reportedly Arden was shocked that Welles might consider him for the part and initially thought that the directors phone inquiry was a crank call Ardens performance in Mr Arkadin was panned by some critics The New York Times called it hopelessly inadequate Film historian Jonathan Rosenbaum has defended Ardens performance locating the problem not in the actors work but in the unsavoriness and obnoxiousness of the character who was intended by Welles to be unattractive even though he occupied in the film the space normally reserved for charismatic heroes The credits of one the films Spanish versions misspelled Ardens name as Bob Harden Another Spanish print actually credited him as Mark Sharpe Mr Arkadin did poorly at the boxoffice Afterwards Arden played a few other lead roles in films such as The Depraved 1957 or The Child and the Killer 1959 but he worked mostly as a character actor appearing in film television and stage productions he worked mostly as a character actor appearing in film television and stage productions