Burgess Meredith


Oliver Burgess Meredith was an American actor and filmmaker whose career encompassed radio, theater, film, and television.
Active for more than six decades, Meredith has been called "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the century". A lifetime member of the Actors Studio, he won a Primetime Emmy Award, was the first male actor to win the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice, and was nominated for two Academy Awards.
Meredith established himself as a leading man in Hollywood with critically acclaimed performances as Mio Romagna in Winterset, George Milton in Of [Mice and Men (1939 film)|Of Mice and Men], and Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe.
Meredith was known later in his career for his appearances on The Twilight Zone and for portraying The Penguin in the 1960s TV series Batman and boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the Rocky film series. For his performances in The [Day of the Locust (film)|The Day of the Locust] and Rocky, he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He later appeared in the comedy Foul Play and the fantasy film Clash of the Titans. Meredith also narrated numerous films and documentaries during his long career.
"Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in The New York Times, "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others."

Early life

Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth and William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a religion to which he adhered throughout his lifetime.
Known informally to his friends as "Buzz", Burgess Meredith graduated from Hoosac School in 1926 and then attended Amherst College. He left Amherst and became a reporter for the Stamford Advocate.

Career

Theatre

In 1929, he became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre company in New York City. Although best known to the larger world audience for his film and television work, Meredith was an influential actor and director for the stage. He made his Broadway debut as Peter in Le Gallienne's production of Romeo and Juliet and became a star in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset, which became his film debut the following year. His early life and theatre work were the subject of a New Yorker profile. In 1935, he starred along with Hugh Williams at the Martin Beck Theatre in John Van Druten's Flowers of the Forest.
Meredith's performance in the 1935 Broadway revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street starring Katharine Cornell generated enthusiastic positive reviews from a number of critics. Cornell subsequently cast him in several of her later productions. Some of Meredith's other Broadway roles included Van van Dorn in High Tor, Liliom in Liliom, Christy Mahon in The Playboy of the Western World, and Adolphus Cusins in Major Barbara. He created the role of Erie Smith in the English-language premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England in 1963. He played Hamlet in avant garde theatrical and radio productions of the play.
A distinguished theater director, Meredith earned 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. In the late 1970s, he directed Fionnula Flanagan's one-woman multi-role play James Joyce's Women, which toured for several years.

Film

Burgess Meredith's stage performances attracted the attention of several Hollywood film producers. Unlike most other movie actors, Meredith never signed a long-term contract with a single studio, preferring to work on individual film projects. Also, unlike some other former stage actors, Meredith successfully adjusted his performances to the film medium. Instead of playing to the audience in the balcony, Meredith now played to the camera, with his performances more controlled and intimate. This gave his screen characters great sensitivity, as he demonstrated in three bravura performances for which he is remembered: as Mio Romagna in Winterset ; as George Milton in Of Mice and Men ; and as Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe. He starred only occasionally in pictures, as in San Francisco Docks and Street of Chance. Meredith was featured in many 1940s films, including three co-starring his then-wife Paulette Goddard: Second Chorus, Diary of a Chambermaid (1946 film)|Diary of a Chambermaid], and On Our Merry Way.
As a result of the House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation, Meredith was placed on the Hollywood blacklist and was largely absent from film for the next decade, though he remained involved in stage plays and radio during this time.
Meredith was a favorite of director Otto Preminger, who cast him in Advise and Consent, The Cardinal, In Harm's Way, Hurry Sundown, Skidoo, and Such Good Friends. He was in Madame X and Stay Away Joe, appearing as the father of Elvis Presley's character. He was acclaimed by critics for his performance as Harry Greener in The Day of the Locust and received nominations for the BAFTA, Golden Globe, and Academy Award for best supporting actor. Meredith then played Rocky Balboa's trainer Mickey Goldmill in the first three Rocky films. Though his character died in the third Rocky film, Meredith returned briefly in a flashback in the fifth film, Rocky V. His portrayal in the first film earned him his second consecutive nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Meredith had a role in Foul Play with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn. He played an old Korean War veteran Captain J. G. Williams in The Last Chase with Lee Majors. He appeared in Ray Harryhausen's last stop-motion feature Clash of the Titans in a supporting role. Meredith appeared in Santa Claus: The Movie and was the voice of Golobulus in G.I. Joe: The Movie. In his last years, he played Jack Lemmon's character's sex-crazed 95-year-old father in Grumpy Old Men and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men.
Meredith directed the movie The Man on the Eiffel Tower ''The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go'', an espionage caper starring James Mason and Jeff Bridges.

Television

Meredith appeared in four episodes of the anthology TV series The Twilight Zone, tying him with Jack Klugman for the most appearances on the show in a starring role.
In his first appearance in 1959 in "Time Enough at Last", Meredith portrayed a henpecked bookworm who finds himself the sole survivor of an unspecified apocalypse that leads him to contemplate suicide until he discovers the ruins of the library. In 1961's "Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith played the title character, a timid weakling who receives superhuman strength from an extraterrestrial experiment in human nature. Also that year in "The Obsolete Man", Meredith portrayed a librarian sentenced to death in a dystopic totalitarian society. Lastly, in 1963's "Printer's Devil", Meredith portrayed the Devil himself. Meredith later played two additional roles in Rod Serling's other anthology series, Night Gallery. Meredith was the narrator for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983.
Meredith also appeared in various western series, such as Rawhide, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Branded, The Wild Wild West, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Laredo, Bonanza, and Daniel Boone. In 1963, he appeared as Vincent Marion in a five-part episode of the last season of the Warner Bros. ABC detective series 77 Sunset Strip. He appeared three times in Burke's Law, starring Gene Barry.
Meredith was also well known for his portrayal of the Penguin in the television series Batman from 1966 to 1968 and in the 1966 film based on the TV series. 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. Meredith made 21 appearances on the series as the Penguin. He also made a brief cameo appearance as the Penguin in the 1968 episode of The Monkees titled "Monkees Blow Their Minds".
From 1972 to 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.
Meredith won an Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for portraying crusading lawyer Joseph Welch in the 1977 television film Tail Gunner Joe, a fictionalized study of the career of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, the controversial anticommunist politician active in the 1950s.
In 1992, Meredith narrated The Chaplin Puzzle, a television documentary that provides a rare insight into Charles Chaplin's work circa 1914 at Keystone Studios and Essanay, where Chaplin developed his Tramp character. Coincidentally, Meredith married actress Paulette Goddard in 1944 following her divorce from Chaplin.

Military service

In 1942, Meredith enlisted in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, reaching the rank of captain. After transferring to the Office of War Information, he made training and education films for the U.S. armed forces.
In 1943 he performed in the USAAF's recruiting short The Rear Gunner and the U.S. Army training film A Welcome to Britain for troops heading to the UK in preparation for the liberation of Europe.
He was released from duty in 1944 to work on the movie The Story of G.I. Joe, in which he played the war correspondent Ernie Pyle. He was discharged from the USAAF in 1945.

Other work

Meredith also performed voice-over work. He provided the narration for the war film A [Walk in the Sun (1945 film)|A Walk in the Sun]. As a nod to his longtime association with the original Twilight Zone series, he served as narrator for the 1983 film based on the series. He was a TV commercial voice for such clients as Bulova, Honda, Pioneer, Stokely-Van Camp, United Airlines, and Freakies breakfast cereal. He also produced and narrated Works Of Calder, a 1950 film directed by Herbert Matter with a soundtrack by the composer John Cage.
He supplied the narration for the 1974–75 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, which focused on courageous journalists. In 1991, he narrated a track on The Chieftains' album of traditional Christmas music and carols, The Bells of Dublin.
He acted in the Kenny G music video of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", which was released in 1994. He played the main character, a projectionist at a movie theater. In 1994, he published his autobiography, So Far, So Good.
His last role before his death was the portrayal of both the Hamilton Wofford and Covington Wofford characters in the 1996 video game Ripper by Take-Two Interactive. Meredith was considered to play the Penguin's father in the 1992 Tim Burton film Batman Returns, but illness prevented him from appearing and the role was taken by Paul Reubens.

Personal life

Meredith was married four times. His first wife, Helen Derby Berrien Meredith—the daughter of American Cyanamid president Harry L. Derby—died by suicide in 1940, nearly five years after their divorce. His next two wives, Margaret Perry (actress) and Paulette Goddard, were actresses; Goddard suffered a miscarriage in 1944. Meredith's last marriage, to Kaja Sundsten, lasted 46 years and produced two children, Jonathan and Tala.
Meredith was a lifelong Democrat and donor to the party. He wrote in his 1994 autobiography So Far, So Good that he had violent mood swings caused by cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder.
In 1937, Meredith moved to Rockland County, New York where he bought land named High Tor Ranch. He would sponsor popular horse shows, the funds from the first were used as seed money to pay for legal fees to incorporate the area into the village of Pomona. His shows were popular enough that he would entertain guests dressed in his Penguin costume and invite fellow actors and celebrities to join him.
On September 9, 1997, Meredith died at age 89 from complications of Alzheimer's disease and melanoma in his home in Malibu, California, and his remains were cremated.

Awards and nominations

Honors

Book

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