Jeff Corey


Jeff Corey was an American actor, television director, and teacher. After being blacklisted in the 1950s, he became one of the most prominent and influential acting coaches in Hollywood, whose students included the likes of Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, James Coburn, Leonard Nimoy, Cher, Barbra Streisand and Rob Reiner. He returned to film and television work in the 1960s, playing many character roles.
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Early life and education

Corey was born Arthur Zwerling in Brooklyn, New York to working-class Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Nathan Zwerling, was from Austria-Hungary, and his mother, Mary, was from Russia. He attended New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and was active in the school's Dramatic Society. He received a scholarship to the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, where he furthered his studies. Prior to his acting career, he worked as a salesman of sewing machines.

Career

Corey made his professional stage debut in Leslie Howard's 1936 production of Hamlet, playing a spear-carrier and understudying for Rosencrantz. In the mid-1930s, he acted with the Clare Tree Major Children's Theater of New York. He worked with Jules Dassin, Elia Kazan, John Randolph, and other politically progressive and left-wing theatrical personalities in the Federal Theatre Project. Although he attended some meetings of the Communist Party, Corey never joined.

Hollywood

When Corey began making films in 1937, his agent suggested that he change his name from Arthur Zwerling, and he did so. His first roles were for Columbia Pictures, which usually offered a promising actor steady work as a contract player in the studio's stock company. If Corey was offered a contract, he declined it and worked in only two Columbia features. He then began freelancing for various studios, playing nondescript "everyman" parts. In RKO's Kay Kyser musical comedy You'll Find Out, he appears near the beginning as a quiz-show contestant. His steadiest work during this period was at 20th Century-Fox, where he played a variety of minor roles from 1941 to 1943. This became a hallmark of his screen work: he could fill any role a script called for, with a quiet manner and an undistinguished, almost anonymous face. As Corey himself reflected, "I'm glad there has been such a diversity of roles in my career. I think I'm one actor who has not been pigeonholed or typecast." Corey might have gone farther at Fox but his career was interrupted by military service in the U. S. Navy during World War II.
He resumed movie work in 1946, back at Fox, but he also accepted freelance jobs at other studios. He also worked in network radio. Corey portrayed Detective Lieutenant Ybarra on the crime drama The Adventures of Philip Marlowe on NBC and CBS.
One of his more prominent screen credits was the feature film Superman and the Mole Men, which was later edited as "The Unknown People", a two-part episode of the television series The Adventures of Superman. His portrayal of a xenophobic vigilante coincidentally reflected what was about to happen to him.

Blacklisted and teacher

Corey's career was again interrupted in the early 1950s, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to give names of alleged Communists and subversives in the entertainment industry and went so far as to ridicule the panel by offering critiques of the testimony of the previous witnesses. That led to his being blacklisted for 12 years. "Most of us were retired Reds. We had left it, at least I had, years before," Corey told Patrick McGilligan, the co-author of Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist, who teaches film at Marquette University. "The only issue was, did you want to just give them their token names so you could continue your career, or not? I had no impulse to defend a political point of view that no longer interested me particularly... They just wanted two new names so they could hand out more subpoenas."
While blacklisted, Corey drew upon his experience in various actors' workshops by seeking work as an acting teacher. He soon became one of the most influential teachers in Hollywood. His students, at various times, included Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, Robert Blake, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Richard Chamberlain, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Michael Forest, James Hong, Luana Anders, Pat Boone, Sally Kellerman, Shirley Knight, Bruce Lee, Cher, Roger Corman, Anthony Perkins, Leonard Nimoy, Rita Moreno, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Perkins, Rob Reiner, and Robert Towne.
Corey was also a Professor of Theatre Arts at California State University, Northridge, and at various times was an artist-in-residence at Ball State University, Chapman University, University of Texas at Austin, and New York University. He also conducted acting seminars at Emory University and the Vancouver Film School.

Back to work in the 1960s

In 1962, Corey began working in films again, and remained active into the 1990s. He played Hoban in The Cincinnati Kid ; Tom Chaney, the principal villain in True Grit ; and Sheriff Bledsoe in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, who says to the title characters, "I never met a soul more affable than you, Butch, or faster than the Kid, but you're still nothing but two-bit outlaws on the dodge. It's over, don't you get that? Your times is over and you're gonna die bloody, and all you can do is choose where." In Seconds, a science-fiction drama film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson, Corey with Will Geer and John Randolph played wealthy executives who opt to restart their lives with new identities.
Corey played a police detective in the psychological thriller The Premonition and he reprised the role of Sheriff Bledsoe in the prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days. He also played Wild Bill Hickok in Little Big Man. Corey directed some of the screen tests for Superman, which can be seen in the DVD extras, and played Lex Luthor in several tryouts.

Television

Corey made guest appearances on many television series. He appeared as murder victim Carl Bascom in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Reckless Rockhound". He was featured on science-fiction series, too, including an episode of The Outer Limits in which he played Byron Lomax; Star Trek in which he played High Advisor Plasus; as Caspay in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, and Babylon 5 in which he played Justin.
Corey played Dr. Miles Talmadge on Rod Serling's Night Gallery season-one episode one, "The Dead Man", on December 16, 1970. He discussed his television work on Night Gallery in an interview in February 1973 aboard the SS Universe Campus of Chapman College. He was proudest of this work, for which he received an Emmy nomination.
During the 1970s, Corey also played Dr. Scott Rivers, an older man with whom Carol Kester becomes romantically involved, in 1973 in "Old Man Rivers," episode 31 of the Bob Newhart Show. In 1974, he appeared in "Murder on the 13th Floor," episode 6 of the James Stewart legal drama Hawkins. He also appeared in the short-lived 1974 series Paper Moon, a comedy about a father and his presumed daughter roaming through the American Midwest during the Great Depression based on the 1973 film of the same name.
In the 1980s, Corey was in a 1984 episode of Bob Newhart's show Newhart playing a judge. He also worked with writer-producer Reinhold Weege: two guest roles in Barney Miller and two more in Night Court. Corey was the voice of the villain Silvermane in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in 1994.

Memoir

His memoir, Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How To Act, which he wrote with his daughter, Emily Corey, is published by the University Press of Kentucky. His longtime friend and former student Leonard Nimoy wrote the book's foreword.

Personal life

Corey married his wife Hope in 1938. They had three children.

Death

Corey died on August 16, 2002, aged 88, after a fall.

Filmography

Film

I Am the Law as Thug ...One Third of a Nation... as Man in Crowd at Fir Third Finger, Left Hand as Johann Bitter Sweet as Second Man on Stairs You'll Find Out as Mr. Corey Petticoat Politics as Henry TrotterThe Lady from Cheyenne as Reporter Mutiny in the Arctic as The CookThe Devil and Daniel Webster as Tom Sharp You Belong to Me as Mr. Greener Paris Calling as Secretary North to the Klondike as Lafe JordanRoxie Hart as Orderly Who Is Hope Schuyler? as Medical ExaminerThe Man Who Wouldn't Die as Coroner Tim LarsenSmall Town Deb as HectorSyncopation as Kit's Attorney The Postman Didn't Ring as Harwood GreenGirl Trouble as Mr. Mooney Tennessee Johnson as Captain Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man as Crypt Keeper The Moon Is Down as Albert Aerial Gunner as Flight Crew Member My Friend Flicka as Tim MurphySomewhere in the Night as Bank Teller Joe Palooka, Champ as Reporter It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog as Sam Black Rendezvous with Annie as Howard The Killers as "Blinky" Franklin The Shocking Miss Pilgrim as Stenographer California as Clem Ramrod as BiceMiracle on 34th Street as Reporter Brute Force as Freshman StackHoppy's Holiday as JedUnconquered as Trapper The Flame as Stranger The Gangster as Karty's Brother-in-Law Alias a Gentleman as ZuThe Wreck of the Hesperus as Joshua HillLet's Live Again as BartenderHomecoming as Cigarette Smoker I, Jane Doe as Immigration Officer Canon City as Carl SchwartzmillerA Southern Yankee as Union Cavalry Sergeant Joan of Arc as Prison GuardKidnapped as ShaunWake of the Red Witch as Mr. LoringHideout as BeechamCity Across the River as Police Lieutenant Louie MaconRoughshod as Jed GrahamHome of the Brave as DoctorFollow Me Quietly as Police Sgt. Art CollinsScene of the Crime as Man Arrested with Switchblade Bagdad as Mohammed JaoThe Nevadan as BartSinging Guns as RichardsThe Outriders as KeeleyRock Island Trail as Abraham LincolnBright Leaf as John BartonThe Next Voice You Hear... as Freddie DibsonFourteen Hours as Police Sgt. FarleyRawhide as Luke DavisOnly the Valiant as Joe HarmonyNew Mexico as CoyoteSirocco as Feisal The Prince Who Was a Thief as Emir MokarNever Trust a Gambler as Lou BreckerRed Mountain as Sgt. SkeeSuperman and the Mole Men as Luke BensonThe Balcony as BishopThe Yellow Canary as Joe PyleLady in a Cage as George L. Brady Jr. aka RepentThe Treasure of the Aztecs as Abraham LincolnPyramid of the Sun God Once a Thief as Lt. Kebner SFPDMickey One as Larry FryerThe Cincinnati Kid as HobanSeconds as Mr. RubyIn Cold Blood as Mr. HickockThe Boston Strangler as John AsgeirssonImpasse as WombatTrue Grit as Tom ChaneyButch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as Sheriff BledsoeBeneath the Planet of the Apes as CaspayGetting Straight as Dr. Edward WillhuntThey Call Me Mister Tibbs! as Captain MardenCover Me Babe as PaulLittle Big Man as Wild Bill HickokClay Pigeon as Clinic DoctorShoot Out as TrooperCatlow as MerridewSomething Evil as GehrmannPaper Tiger as Mr. KingBanjo Hackett: Roamin' Free as Judge JanewayThe Premonition as Lieutenant Mark DenverThe Last Tycoon as DoctorRooster: Spurs of Death! as KinkMoonshine County Express as HagenCurse of the Black Widow as Aspa SoldadoOh, God! as Rabbi SilverstoneCaptains Courageous as SaltersJennifer as Luke BaylorThe Wild Geese as Mr. MartinThe Pirate as Prince FeiyadButch and Sundance: The Early Days as Sheriff Ray BledsoeUp River as BagshawBattle Beyond the Stars as ZedThe Sword and the Sorcerer as CraccusConan the Destroyer as Grand VizierCreator as Dean HarringtonFist of the North Star as Ryuuken / Narrator Tajna manastirske rakije as Colonel FrazierMessenger of Death as Willis BeechamBird on a Wire as Lou BairdThe Judas Project as PonerasRuby Cairo as Joe DickBeethoven's 2nd as Gus, the JanitorColor of Night as AshlandSurviving the Game as HankAmerican Hero Ted as Professor

Television

The Outer Limits – season one, episode seven – "O.B.I.T." – Byron Lomax The Wild Wild West – two episodes:

Other credits

The Adventures of Philip Marlowe – radio series – Lieutenant Ebarra Inside Magoo – animated short – voice of Doctor Alias Smith and Jones – director – episodes – "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg" and "The Day the Amnesty Came Through"

General sources

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