Burgess Meredith

Burgess Meredith
Meredith in Second Chorus
Born	Oliver Burgess Meredith November 16, 1907(1907-11-16)[1][2] Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.
Died	September 9, 1997 (aged 89) Malibu, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, singer, producer, director, screenwriter
Years active	1936–1996
Spouse(s)	Helen Derby (1933–1935) Margaret Perry (1936–1938) Paulette Goddard (1944–1950) Kaja Sundsten (1950–1997)

Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907^[1][2] – September 9, 1997), known professionally as Burgess Meredith, was an American actor. He was best-known for portraying Rocky Balboa's trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky films and The Penguin in the television series Batman. He was one of only two people to star in four episodes of The Twilight Zone.

Early life and career

Meredith was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess) and Canadian-born William George Meredith, M.D.^[1][2][3] He graduated from Hoosac School in 1926. He then attended Amherst College as a member of the Class of 1931. In 1933, he became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's theatre company in New York. He attracted favorable attention for playing George in a 1939 adaptation of John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and as war correspondent Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). Meredith was featured in many 1940s films, including three (Second Chorus (1940), Diary of a Chambermaid (1946) and On Our Merry Way (1948)) co-starring then-wife Paulette Goddard. He also played alongside Lana Turner in Madame X. Among later roles, he became known for playing The Penguin on the television series Batman. His role as the Penguin was so well-received that the show's writers always had a script featuring the Penguin ready whenever Meredith was available. He appeared on the show more times during its run than any other villain.

Meredith served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War II, reaching the rank of captain. He was discharged in 1944 to work on the movie "The Story of GI Joe", in which he starred as the popular war correspondent Ernie Pyle. He also provided the narration for A Walk in the Sun.

As a result of the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation into Communist influence in Hollywood, Meredith was placed on the Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s.

Breadth of acting

Burgess Meredith was adept playing both dramatic and comedic roles, and with his rugged looks and gravelly voice, he could convincingly play either an everyman hero or a sinister villain. He appeared in four different starring roles in the acclaimed anthology TV series The Twilight Zone; only Jack Klugman had as many leading guest appearances. In the famous "Time Enough at Last", a 1959 episode of The Twilight Zone, Meredith plays a henpecked bank teller who only wants to be left alone with his books. In the 1961 episode "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith plays the title character, a timid weakling who, as the subject of a space alien's experiment on human nature, suddenly acquires superhuman strength. In "Printer's Devil," Meredith portrayed the Devil himself, and in "The Obsolete Man" he portrayed a deeply religious man, sentenced to death in a future, dystopic totalitarian society. He would later play two more roles in Rod Serling's other anthology series, Night Gallery. Meredith was the narrator for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. He did not receive on-screen credit for his narration (this was so that he could do the job for scale rather than charge his usual minimum fee); as compensation for Meredith's uncredited work, his name was inserted into the dialogue in a scene between Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks.

He appeared in various television programs, including the role of Chris, III, in the 1962 episode "Hooray, Hooray, the Circus Is Coming to Town" of the NBC medical drama about psychiatry, The Eleventh Hour starring Wendell Corey and Jack Ging. He also guest starred in the ABC drama about psychiatry, Breaking Point in the 1963 episode entitled "Heart of Marble, Body of Stone".

Meredith appeared in various western series too, such as Rawhide (four times), The Virginian (twice), Wagon Train, Branded, The Wild Wild West, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Laredo and Daniel Boone.

In 1963, he appeared as Vincent Marion in a five-part episode of the last season of the Warner Brothers ABC detective series 77 Sunset Strip. He starred three times in Burke's Law in 1963-1964, starring Gene Barry, also on ABC.

Meredith achieved iconic status for playing The Penguin in the television series Batman, before he originated the role of Mickey Goldmill in the original Rocky, the first of the four Rocky films in which he appeared. These were the characters for whom he was best known.

In 1972 - 1973, Meredith played V.C.R. Cameron, director of Probe Control, in the television movie/pilot Probe and then in Search, the subsequent TV series (the name was changed to avoid conflict with a program on PBS). The series involved "World Securities Corporation," a private agency which, among other activities, fielded a number of detectives equipped with high-tech equipment including a tiny TV transmitter (the "Scanner") which allowed Probe Control to see what was going on where the agents were working. One episode centered around Cameron being kidnapped and having to escape from a torture chamber, without any of the tools carried by Probe agents.

Movie roles of note

Burgess Meredith as the Penguin

Meredith was a favorite of director Otto Preminger, who cast him in Advise and Consent (1962), In Harm's Way (1965), Hurry Sundown (1967), Skidoo (1968) and Such Good Friends (1971). (Both Preminger and Meredith portrayed villains on Batman.) He appeared in Ray Harryhausen's last stop-motion feature Clash of the Titans, in a supporting role. He played Rocky Balboa's trainer, Mickey Goldmill, in the first three Rocky films (1976), (1979) and (1982), to great acclaim. Even though his character died in the third Rocky film, he returned briefly in the fifth film, Rocky V (1990). (1981) He played an old Korean War veteran Captain J.G. Williams in The Last Chase with Lee Majors. Meredith also appeared in Santa Claus: The Movie (1985). In his twilight years, he played Jack Lemmon's character's father in Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men (1995). He was the Penguin in the original Batman movie. As a nod to his longtime association with The Twilight Zone, he served as narrator for the 1983 film based on the series. He was Academy Award-nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his roles in The Day of the Locust (1975) and Rocky (1976). Another notable role was as Goldie Hawn's landlord in Foul Play.

Work as director

Meredith also directed a movie in 1949 starring Charles Laughton: "The Man on the Eiffel Tower", which was produced by Irving Allen. He also was billed in a supporting role in this film.

Additional roles of note

A somewhat more mixed (comedy/dramatic) role was his portrayal of the philosophical (yet hapless) tramp, Vladimir, in a notable production of Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Meredith also did voiceover work. He was the TV commercial voice for Honda, Stokley-Van Camp, United Airlines, and Freakies cereal. He supplied the narration for the 1974-1975 ABC Saturday morning series Korg: 70,000 B.C. and was the voice of Puff in the series of animated adaptations of the Peter, Paul, and Mary song Puff, the Magic Dragon. In the mid-1950s, he was one of four narrators of the NBC and syndicated public affairs program, The Big Story (1949-1958), which focuses on courageous journalists.

He won an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for the 1977 television film Tail Gunner Joe, a fictitious study of U.S. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, the anti-communist leader of the 1950s.

In 1991, he narrated a track on the The Chieftains' album of traditional Christmas music and carols, The Bells of Dublin.

His last role before his death was the portrayal of both Hamilton Wofford and Covington Wofford characters in the 1996 video game, Ripper, by Take-Two Interactive.

Theatre work

While best known for his film work, Meredith was also an influential actor and director for the stage. He made his Broadway debut as Peter in Eva Le Gallienne's production of Romeo and Juliet (1930) and became a star in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset (1935), which became his film debut the following year. His early life and theatre work were the subject of a New Yorker profile.^[4]

Other Broadway roles of note included Van van Dorn in High Tor (1937), Liliom in Liliom (1940), Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World (1946), and Adolphus Cusins Major Barbara (1957). He created the role of Erie Smith in the English-language premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie at the Theater Royal in Bath, England in 1963, and was an acclaimed Hamlet.

Meredith was also a distinguished theatre director, winning a Tony Award nomination for his 1974 Broadway staging of Ulysses in Nighttown, a theatrical adaptation of the "Nighttown" section of James Joyce's Ulysses. Meredith also shared a Special Tony Award with James Thurber for their collaboration on A Thurber Carnival (1960).

Autobiography and personal life

In 1994, Meredith published his autobiography, which he titled So Far, So Good. In the book he confessed that he suffered from violent mood swings which were caused by cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder.^[5]

Death

Meredith died of complications due to Alzheimer's disease and melanoma on September 9, 1997. He was cremated. For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Burgess has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard.

Filmography

Television work

• Batman (as The Penguin)
• Search as V.C.R Cameron (1972-1973)
• Those Amazing Animals (co-host with Jim Stafford and Priscilla Presley)
• Faerie Tale Theatre: Thumbelina
• The Twilight Zone (four separate episodes)
• Tales of Tomorrow The Great Silence - 1953
• The Return of Captain Nemo (as Prof. Waldo Cunningham) - 1976
• The Monkees (Cameo as The Penguin)

References

External links

• Burgess Meredith at the Internet Movie Database
• Burgess Meredith at the TCM Movie Database
• Burgess Meredith at the Internet Broadway Database
• Burgess Meredith at the Internet off-Broadway Database
• Burgess Meredith at Find a Grave
• Burgess Meredith as the Penguin