The actor who won the Oscar for Charly (1968) and later challenged the Hollywood system by suing a studio boss, was active for five decades on screens large and small. Robertson’s first film role was in Picnic (1955), and although he never attained prominence as a star and, by his own admission, appeared in quite a few clinkers, his resume includes solid work in films by important directors: Robert Aldrich’s Autumn Leaves (1956) and Too Late the Hero (1970), Raoul Walsh’s The Naked and the Dead (1958), Samuel Fuller’s Underworld U.S.A.(1961), Franklin J. Schaffner’s The Best Man (1964), Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s The Honey Pot (1967), Frank Perry’s Man on a Swing (1974), Sydney Pollack’s Three Days of the Condor (1975), Biran De Palma’s Obsession (1975), Bob Fosse’s Star 80 (1983). He also played John F. Kennedy in PT 109 (1963), and tried his hand at directing a couple of times, the first being the accomplished J.W. Coop (1971).  Cliff Robertson, who was last seen in the  three Spider-Man films directed by Sam Raimi (2002, 2004, 2007), died yesterday in New York.