Cover of Charly

Cliff Robertson was John Kennedy in “P.T. 109” (he was reportedly Kennedy’s personal choice for the role) when he was young, and Peter Parker’s (Spiderman‘s) Uncle Ben when he got older.

But he won an Oscar as best actor for his 1968 role as “Charly,” a mentally challenged adult who, through a medical experiment, became a genius… for a while. John Lithgow‘s character in today’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is, in essence, an abbreviated version “Charly.”

Robertson died today at 88 in Southampton, N.Y.

For now, you can see “Charly” on YouTube. Here’s the first part:

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• Oscar Winner Cliff Robertson Dies in NY at 88 (abcnews.go.com)