Robby the Robot is a fictional character and science fiction icon who first appeared in the 1956 film Forbidden Planet. He made a number of subsequent appearances in science fiction films and television programs, which has given him the distinction as "the hardest working robot in Hollywood".
Robby the Robot in a scene from Forbidden Planet
Robby the Robot in a poster for the original release of Forbidden Planet. (The lurid presentation does not accurately reflect the character in the film.)
Robby the Robot in a poster for the original release of The Invisible Boy
Robby replica at the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story by Allen Adler and Irving Block. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s, a precursor of contemporary science fiction cinema. The characters and isolated setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and the plot contains certain happenings analogous to the play, leading many to consider it a loose adaptation.
Theatrical release poster
Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis in Forbidden Planet
Drive-in advertisement from 1956
Warren Stevens (Doc Ostrow), Richard Anderson (Chief Quinn), and Earl Holliman (Cookie) at San Diego's Comic-Con International, July 2006.