Andy Robinson: Escaping Scorpio's Shooting Star

One of most memorable screen performances of 1971 belonged to an unknown actor named Andy Robinson.  The seemingly psychotic energy he put into his portrayal of the Scorpio Killer in Dirty Harry terrified audiences and nearly killed his career.

"It got so people thought that was me," he says.  Producers wouldn't let me into their offices to read for a part.  Directors were so impressed with the fact that (director) Don Siegel had found this unknown crazy out there on the streets that they all started looking for their own unknown crazy.  Everyone was convinced Siegel hired me out of an institution."

Robinson was amused by the reactions- until last year:

"Something happened that scared me very badly; I still have trouble comprehending it.  Someone showed me an article which reported that two kids were playing while they were watching Dirty Harry on TV.  One kid had a gun, and he was taking the Clint Eastwood part, and the other was the Scorpio Killer.  And one kid shot and killed the other kid!"

A powerful actor, Robinson has specialized in bringing a blend of pure mania and unadulterated evil to his portrayals of demented, dangerous men in a collection of low-budget features and TV episodes.  With his wife and children, the 35-year-old actor recently moved from Pacific Palisades to New York.  The geographical change mirrored an abrupt departure in Robinson's work as well.  He's currently on the soaper "Ryan's Hope".

"I just reached a dead end playing people with psychological problems and a gun," he says.  "At first I was very good at playing heavies.  I loved it.  I observed all the rules of TV:  the fact that there's little time to develop a character, the fact that the scripts are hastily written and indistinguishable, and knowing that you're cut way down in terms of depth and breadth of the humanity you can bring to any one role or character.  But you get tired of saying the same lines, like, 'You're a pig', 'Stick `em up' and all that."

"You can't have a drama without the villain," he claims.  "When the conflict between the villain and the hero is honestly laid out, you have a crack at getting to the truth that's in the story."

Robinson's career also illustrates another pitfall of being a heavy- playing opposite an even "heavier" leading man.  His exposure in Dirty Harry should have made him some sort of star.  But he had the misfortune of being cast opposite Clint Eastwood, whose own character was by far the more brutal and deadly of the two.  As a result, Dirty Harry went on to do two sequels, while the Scorpio Killer was left floating in a pond.  -David Lees

Original text appeared in Los Angeles Times, Feb. 5, 1978