Marietta native Robert Patrick honored at Cobb International Film Festival

Marietta native and actor Robert Patrick is coming back to his hometown to be honored for a lifetime achievement award at the Cobb International Film Festival Sunday evening at the Strand Theatre.

“They were looking for a Marietta native and I was tickled they thought of me,” said Patrick on a call Thursday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution from his mother’s home in Cleveland. “It made my mama so happy. She used to walk to that theater when she was 12 years old and watch movies. From that point, I was intrigued.”

Patrick, 65, is riding a Harley across the country to get to Georgia in time for the awards ceremony. He owns a Harley-Davidson shop in Santa Clarita, Californi a.

“I ride a lot because I love seeing the United States of America,” Patrick said. “It’s my way to escape. It’s adventure. I love it and I’ll be sad one day when I can’t do it anymore.”

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Over four decades, Patrick has specialized in playing corrupt bad guys with an extensive resume going back that includes 174 acting credits on imdB. He began his career in the 1980s in Roger Corman B movies and broke out in 1991 as the intense cyborg T-1000 in “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.” Over the years, he has worked with Sean Penn, Clint Eastwood, Reese Witherspoon and Samuel L. Jackson.

He is proud of the legacy of T-1000 and recently voiced a version of the character for a new “Mortal Kombat” video game. “He’s as handsome as ever,” Patrick cracked.

His latest role is a sheriff in Paramount+’s “1923″ with Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford. He said he’s also working on a “secret project” that will take him in and out of Atlanta in the near future.

Patrick said he snapped his ACL after falling off a ladder last December and is still recuperating.

“I’m getting fatter by the minute,” he said. “It’s hard. I walk as much as I can. I’m very healthy, but it did set me back. What I say is, ‘Tough [expletive]! I’m a character actor!’ But I’m sure Harrison Ford will call me lumpy” when they return to production for season two in September.

Credit: PARAM

Credit: PARAM

Marietta, he said, has always meant a lot to him. “It fueled my childhood dreams and imagination,” he said. “We ran around the woods of Georgia back in the day. You grab a baseball glove and just pick up a game. You rode around. It was a very healthy childhood. Kids today are fat and soft.”

He was once at the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally and ran into Jackyl lead singer Jesse James Dupree. They discovered they were both born in the same hospital: Kennestone in Marietta. “That night, I got to see Travis Tritt perform,” he said. “I found out he was also born there. So there were three boys from Marietta having a good time at Sturgis!”

Patrick is currently working on an IMAX documentary called “Ride for America” chronicling a group of veterans who go on an annual motorcycle ride from Hollywood to the Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC to honor the soldiers who sacrificed their lives.

“I want to explore what a soldier’s place is in eternity if he kills for his country,” Patrick said. “That’s a big moral question.” He is also lobbying to help widows receive benefits from the U.S. Veterans Administration after they remarry.

IF YOU GO

Cobb International Film Festival

August 1-4, various films, different times including awards show at 7 p.m. Sunday, $15-$50, Earl and Rachel Smith Strand Theatre, 17 N Park Square, Marietta, www.cobbfilmfestival.com

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