A native of Houston, Robinson has been performing since the 1960s, is a member of the Actors Studio, and is considered by playwright Lyle Kessler to be "one of the great American Actors".[citation needed] In his early career, he was a singer; as a teenager with the group Archie Bell and the Drells, and later with a group called Southern Clouds of Joy.[1] In the late 1960s, Charlie attended, and was enrolled in, Studio 7, an acting school operated by Chris Wilson at the Houston Music Theatre.