Eric Roberts, the First Movie Star in the Family, Before Becoming "Julia Roberts' Brother"

Sometimes, when I wonder "Whatever happened to X?", especially if X is an actress, the answer is that she retired. Almost as common (Karen Black or Louise Fletcher, for instance), is that the actor or actress has been working away in tv movies, or direct-to-DVD movies unbeknownst to me until I look at his or her filmography on IMDB.

I did notice Eric Roberts a few years back in "The Dark Knight," having not seen him since his excellent turn as a terminally ill PWA throwing a wake for himself before he dies in "It's My Party" in 1995.

Born on April 18, 1956 in Biloxi, Mississippi, growing up in Atlanta, Eric Roberts performed on daytime-tv soap operas, "How to Survive a Marriage" and "Another World" during the mid-1970s. I only just saw the movie with "introducing Eric Roberts" in the opening credit, the 1978 "King of the Gypsies," adapted by Frank Pierson (Soldier's Girl) from Peter Maas's best-selling account of three generations of the "royal family" of American gypsies. ("Romani" is the now politically correct term, but "gypsies" is used throughout the movie)

Roberts played Daniel, the grandson of the reigning gypsy king (Sterling Hayden) and queen (Shelly Winters), the son of an alcoholic, abusive, compulsive gambler, Groffo (Judd Hirsch) and a resilient abused mother (Susan Sarandon). Daniel is quite Americanized: he even has a job (as a singing waiter) and a very blonde girlfriend (Annette O'Toole). Daniel's grandfather has almost as low an opinion of his son as Daniel does and, before he dies, passes on the royal regalia, a ring and a pendant, to Daniel.

Daniel does not want to be "king of the gypsies," a position of honor with responsibilities for others but no control over anyone: it's likened to being in charge of herding cats. Groffo, who thrives on deference, is very miffed his father passed him over and chose Daniel, who remains physically weaker than Groffo. Daniel intervenes to keep his father from selling David's sister (Brooke Shields!) and violence escalates.

Roberts was nominated for a "Best Motion Picture Acting Debut - Male" Golden Globe (losing to Brad Davis, convicted of drug trafficking in Turkey in "Midnight Express"). Though badly injured (in a coma for three days) in a 1981 accident, Roberts turned in a series of memorably performances in good movies: a charmer opposite Sissy Spaceck in "Raggedy Man" (1981), an increasingly psychotic hustler who eventually kills his wife as her career takes off in "Star 80" (1983), another petty criminal with pretensions in "The Pope of Greenwich Village" (1984) with Mickey Rourke, a rather charming strait-laced "Coca Cola Kid" withstanding humiliations in Australia (a romantic comedy directed by Dusan Makavejev, with the radiant Greta Scacchi, and on "Runaway Train" (, directed by Andrey Konchalovskiy) with Jon Voight, both of them escaped convicts-and with both performances Oscar nominated and Golden Globe nominated. (Roberts's Paul Snider in "Star 80" was also Golden Globe-nominated.)

And then? Then, three things: (1) major cocaine problems, (2) some combination of bad choices and bad offers of roles, and (3) the ascent to superstardom of his younger sister, Julia, born in 1967, making her feature film in "Mystic Pizza" in 1988, and Oscar nominated the next year playing the diabetic bride in "Steel Magnolias." She attempted to try to alleviate #1, including opposing him gaining custody of his daughter (Emma, who has also become an actor) in 1993.*

Though remembering the compelling early work of Eric Roberts, and seeing some of the coverage of his drug addiction and violent episodes, I thought he had gone the way of Paul Snider, though not all the way to murder. He resurfaced in my consciousness briefly in "It's My Party," and around then gave up drugs, eventually acknowledging that his sister was right that he was a drug addict in need of rehabilitation.

He has been out of the headlines as well as out of the casts of talked-about movies (with the exception of "The Dark Knight"), but continues to work. He's quoted as saying, "I've had people say to me, 'It's such a shame what happened to your career.' I just smile and say I've had a blast. I really have."* His considerable talent may yet be harnessed to a vehicle that will be noticed crossing the world's screens.

*http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000616/bio