- For his son, See Edward Albert.
Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005), better known as Eddie Albert, was an American actor, gardener, humanitarian, activist and World War II veteran. In an acting career that spanned nearly seven decades, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday and again in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid. Among his other well-known roles are Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, Oliver Wendell Douglas in the popular 1960s television situation comedy Green Acres and Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch. He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest opposite Jane Wyman.
Early life
Edward Albert Heimberger was born on April 22, 1906 in Rock Island, Illinois, the oldest of five children born to Julia M. (née Jones), a homemaker, and Frank Daniel Heimberger, a realtor.[1] His year of birth was frequently shown as 1908, but this is incorrect. While many Hollywood figures have often given years of birth later than their true ones (in order to present themselves as being younger than they are), the motivation in this case was that Albert's parents were unmarried when Albert was born but had married by 1908.[2] His mother altered his birth certificate to 1908 at some point.
Just one year after he was born, Albert and his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota. They had a difficult time adjusting to life in the city, and tempers flared between Eddie and his family. When he was six, he was forced to get his first job as a newspaper boy. During World War I, due to his German name, he was taunted as "the enemy" by his classmates in the third grade. At age 14, he enrolled at Central High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he joined the school's drama department. He also went to the same school with a then-unknown actress named Harriette Lake (better known later as Ann Sothern), who was a few years Albert's junior. His interests were restricted to the stage, but he had a strong appetite for reading – everything from philosophy to science. After graduating from high school in 1924, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business, and subsequently looked for a business job. However, all that changed when the stock market crashed in 1929. He took several odd jobs, working as an amateur singer, a trapeze performer, an insurance salesman, and a nightclub singer.
He dropped his last name because it was almost invariably mangled into "Hamburger". In 1933, he traveled to New York City, where he co-hosted the popular radio show The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years. Due to his success on the show, in 1936 he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros.
Career
In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937–1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938–1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations.
In 1938, he made his feature film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. His contract with Warner Bros. was abruptly terminated in 1941, purportedly because of an affair he was having with studio head Jack L. Warner's wife. (Warner had previously pulled him off a picture as it was being shot and kept him under contract for a period afterwards, primarily as a way of preventing him from getting other work.) The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart. Another example of the pictures he was doing during this period is Treat 'Em Rough (1942) with William Frawley and Peggy Moran, in which he played a boxer called "the Panama Kid".
Military
Prior to World War II, and before his film career, Albert toured Mexico as a clown and high-wire artist with the Escalante Brothers Circus, but secretly worked for U.S. Army intelligence, photographing German U-boats in Mexican harbors.[3] On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Navy and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve. A genuine war hero, he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November, 1943, when, as the pilot of a U.S. Coast Guard landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.[4]
Prolific character actor
Since 1948, Albert enjoyed being both a popular and beloved character actor and guest-starred in nearly ninety TV series.[5] He made his guest-starring debut on an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour. This part led to other roles such as Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Suspense, Lights Out, Somerset Maugham TV Theatre, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Studio One, Danger, Philco Television Playhouse, The Phillip Morris Playhouse, Your Show of Shows, General Electric Theater, Front Row Center, The Eleventh Hour, The Reporter, The Alcoa Hour, among others.
Stage actor
The 1950s also saw a return to Broadway for Albert, including roles in Miss Liberty (1949-1950) and The Seven Year Itch (ran 1952-1955). In 1960, Albert replaced Robert Preston in the lead role of Professor Harold Hill, in the Broadway production of The Music Man. Albert also performed in regional theater. He performed at The Muny Theater in St. Louis, reprising the Harold Hill role in The Music Man in 1966 and playing Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady in 1968.
1950s and 1960s movie career
The 1950s saw Albert appear in film roles, such as Lucille Ball's fiancee in The Fuller Brush Girl (1950), as Bill Gorton in The Sun Also Rises (1957) and a traveling salesman in Carrie (1952). He was nominated for his first Oscar as Best Supporting Actor with Roman Holiday (1953). In Oklahoma! (1955), he played a womanizing peddler, and in Who's Got the Action? (1962), he portrayed a lawyer helping his partner (Dean Martin) cope with a gambling addiction. In Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) he played a psychiatrist with an enthusiasm for farming. He appeared in several military roles, including The Longest Day (1962), about the Normandy Invasion. The film Attack! (1956) provided Albert with his most serious role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company. In a similar vein he played a psychotic United States Army Air Force colonel in Captain Newman, M.D. (1963), opposite Gregory Peck.
Television series
Green Acres
Albert's first television series was Leave It to Larry, a CBS sitcom that aired in the 1952-1953 season, with Albert as Larry Tucker, a shoe salesman who lives with his young family in the home of his father-in-law and employer, played by Ed Begley, Sr..
In 1965, after turning down lead roles in Mister Ed and My Three Sons,[citation needed] Albert was approached by producer Paul Henning to star in a new sitcom for CBS called Green Acres. His character, Oliver Wendell Douglas, was a lawyer who left the city to enjoy a simple life as a farmer. The character had similarities to his 1956 role in the movie Teahouse of the August Moon. Co-starring on the show was Eva Gabor. Also starring on the show were familiar actors such as Frank Cady, who played the role of storekeeper Sam Drucker (also a recurring role on the parent show, Petticoat Junction); Sid Melton, who had a recurring role as the incompetent carpenter Alf Monroe; and Mary Grace Canfield, in the recurring role of Alf's sister, Ralph Monroe. Tom Lester was cast in the role of Oliver's and Lisa's farmhand, Eb Dawson, who referred to them as his parents. The show was an immediate hit, achieving fifth place in the ratings in its first season. By 1971, Green Acres was still reasonably popular but was canceled when CBS decided to discontinue their lineup of rural-themed programs due to changing tastes and because they were sensitive to the fact that they had been disparagingly referred to in the press as the "Country Broadcasting System".
Switch
After a four-year-absence from the small screen, and upon reaching age 69 in 1975, Albert signed a new contract with Universal Television, and starred in the popular 1970s adventure/crime drama, Switch for CBS, as a retired police officer, Frank McBride, who goes to work as a private detective with a former criminal he had once jailed. Co-starring on the show was another veteran movie and television star, Robert Wagner, who played the former con man and now McBride's friendly partner, Pete T. Ryan. Sharon Gless as Frank's and Pete's classy and charismatic receptionist, Maggie. New York comedian Charlie Callas played the role of restaurant owner, Malcolm Argos, an informant for the private eyes and another former crook. In its first season, Switch was a hit. By late 1976, the show had become a more serious and traditional crime drama. At the end of its third season in 1978, ratings began to drop, and the show was canceled after 70 episodes.
Eddie Albert's friendship with Robert Wagner's family began in the early 1960s, when they co-starred in The Longest Day. Wagner said of his idol and friend, "The first impression I ever had of Eddie was when I was a kid and went to see 'Brother Rat,' and he was absolutely fantastic in that picture. His humor and his wit and the things that he did were so profound for that time that they kept growing and growing." Wagner also said of his tenure on Switch how much he respected Albert after years of watching his mentor's classic movies. "It the show was an interesting premise: I was always doing it in an illegitimate way and he was doing it in a legitimate way. He always was striving to do better and more and take another look at it, and approached it in a different way, and I learned a lot from him. He was one of the highlights of my life, because I liked him so much. We became friends, as it [working together] was a very joyful experience." The year following the demise of Switch, Wagner was reunited with Albert in The Concorde: Airport '79. Albert and Wagner remained friends until Albert's death.
Later work
In 1972, Albert resumed his film career and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as an overprotective father, in The Heartbreak Kid (1972) and delivered a memorable performance as an evil prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard. In a lighter vein, Albert portrayed the gruff though soft-hearted Jason O'Day in the successful Disney film Escape to Witch Mountain in 1975.
Albert appeared in such '80s films as How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980), Yesterday (1981), Take This Job and Shove It (1981), Goliath Awaits (1981 TV movie), Yes, Giorgio (1982), and as the U.S. president in Dreamscape (1984). His final feature film role was a cameo in The Big Picture (1989).
In the mid-1980s, Albert was reunited with longtime friend and co-star of the Brother Rat and An Angel from Texas movies Jane Wyman in a recurring role as the villainous Carlton Travis in the popular 1980s soap opera Falcon Crest. He also guest-starred on an episode of the '80s television series Highway to Heaven, as well as Murder She Wrote and Columbo, and in 1990 he reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return To Green Acres. In 1993, he guest-starred for several episodes on the popular ABC daytime soap opera General Hospital as Jack Boland, and also made a guest appearance on the Golden Girls spin-off The Golden Palace the same year.
Activism
Albert was active in social and environmental causes especially from 1970s onward. Beginning in the 1940s, his Eddie Albert Productions produced films for various U.S. corporations, as well as documentaries such as Human Beginnings (a for-its-time controversial sex education film) and Human Growth.[6] Albert also narrated and starred in a 1970 film promoting views of the Weyerhaeuser company, a major international logging concern.[7][8][9]
He was special envoy for Meals for Millions and consultant for the World Hunger Conference.[10] He joined Albert Schweitzer in a documentary about African malnutrition [11][12] and fought agricultural and industrial pollution, particularly DDT.[10] Albert promoted organic gardening and founded City Children's Farms for inner-city children,[13] while supporting eco-farming and tree planting[14]. He was national chairman for the Boy Scouts of America's conservation program and founded the "Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation." Albert was a trustee of the National Recreation and Park Association and a member of the U.S. Department of Energy's advisory board. This notable activism led TV Guide magazine to call him "an ecological Paul Revere."[15]
Albert was also a director of the U.S. Council on Refugees[16][17] and participated in the creation of Earth Day and spoke at its inaugural ceremony in 1970.[10] (Despite rumors that Earth Day was designated to occur on Albert's birthday, April 22, sources suggest that the date was coincidental.)
Personal life
Albert was married to Mexican actress María Marguerita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado Castilla y O'Donnell (better known by her stage name Margo). Albert and Margo married on December 5, 1945, and they remained together until her death from a brain tumor on July 17, 1985.
Eddie and Margo Albert lived in Pacific Palisades, California. Their home was a Spanish-style house on 1-acre (4,000 m2) of land with a cornfield in the front yard. Albert grew organic vegetables in a greenhouse he had in the back yard and fondly recalled how his parents had a "liberty garden" at home during World War I.
The Alberts had two children, Edward and Maria.
- Edward Albert (1951–2006) was an actor, musician, singer, and linguist/dialectician.[18] He put his acting career aside for eight years to care for his father in his last years. He died at age 55, only one year after his father. He had been suffering from lung cancer for 18 months.
- His adopted daughter, Maria Albert Zucht, who is married and has one daughter, Mia, worked as her father's business manager.
Albert suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his last years. Despite his illness, he exercised regularly until shortly before his death. His hobbies included boating, jogging, swimming, wine making, beekeeping, sculpting, organic gardening and world travel.
For contributions to the television industry, Eddie Albert was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.[19]
On May 26, 2005, Albert died of pneumonia at the age of 99 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California. He was interred at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles, California, next to his wife, Margo and his Green Acres co-star Eva Gabor. Eddie's family was joined by many mourners at a private funeral, including Nanette Fabray, Shirley Jones, Jane Wyman, Robert Wagner, Charlie Callas, Sharon Gless, and several of Eddie's Green Acres co-stars, including Sid Melton, Mary Grace Canfield, and Frank Cady.
Quotes
- "I don't really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people." (Source: IMDB.com)
- "By the time I leave this Earth, I hope to have improved our relationships here and now, so that in the next generation my son, daughter and friends have my shoulders on which to stand, so it's easier to make their contribution." (Source: ABC News)
- "I always thought I was a singer, but I really am not." (Source: BrainyQuote.com)
- "Right now in California, we gain 40,000 new acres [160 km²] of desert every year, with all the building and the people coming in... housing going up like crazy." (Source: BrainyQuote.com)
- Edward Jr. about his father: "With Papa, the thing that was most important was the quality of love and, almost equal to love, growth. Since I was little, he emphasized growth. That's something he passed on to me." (Source: Grandtimes.com)
- "What's the most important thing in the world? It's love, and I look at that as an energy, not a sentiment." (Source: BrainyQuote.com)
- On why he accepted the role on Green Acres: "Everyone gets tired of the rat race. Everyone would like to chuck it all and grow some carrots. It's basic. Sign me. I knew it would be successful. Had to be. It's about the atavistic urge, and people have been getting a charge out of that ever since Aristophanes wrote about the plebes and the city folk." (Source: IMDB.com)
- When asked about delivering newspapers at an early age: "You throw a paper on the porch, but you don't sit down and have a talk...and that's where the real education comes from. And so I missed those best years and I find it difficult for me, in groups, to be comfortable. It's a little late to find that out." (Source: Grandtimes.com)
Filmography
See also
References
- ^ Eddie Albert Biography (1908?-)
- ^ USATODAY.com - 'Green Acres' star Eddie Albert dies at 99
- ^ "Organic Eddie," Grand Times, 1996. http://www.grandtimes.com/eddie.html
- ^ http://thunderaway.com/worldwar/pdfwar/WW2hollywood.pdf
- ^ http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0000734/
- ^ Fort Walton Beach, Florida Playground Daily News, March 20, 1970
- ^ http://www.wflc.org/inthenews/nso/weyerhaeuser/NSOedit
- ^ http://issuu.com/boxoffice/docs/boxoffice_090770/22
- ^ Ted Williams "The Insightful Sportsman" (Camden, Me., Down East Books, 1996) Also available at |http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/hardtoget/myth5/pg25-29.html
- ^ a b c Congressional Record, July 18, 2005, Section 22
- ^ http://childoftv.blogspot.com/2005/05/eddie-albert-1906-2005.html
- ^ portions may be seen at http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3382029653866127786
- ^ Pacific Palisades Post, June 2, 2005
- ^ Walters, Charles. "The Last Word," Acres USA, July, 2005, Vol. 35, No. 7
- ^ Los Angeles Times, May 27, 2005
- ^ http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=440744&page=106
- ^ http://marriage.about.com/od/entertainmen1/p/eddiealbert.htm
- ^ Edward Albert, Internet Accuracy Project http://www.accuracyproject.org/cbe-Albert,Edward.html "Edward Albert was also a photographer, sculptor, singer/songwriter, musician (guitar), and a linguist/dialectician who was fluent in French, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin Chinese."
- ^ "Hollywood Walk of Fame database". HWOF.com. http://www.hwof.com/stars?recipient=Eddie_Albert.
External links
