Burgess Meredith
Oliver Burgess Meredith (born November 16, 1907 in Cleveland , Ohio , † September 9, 1997 in Malibu , California ) was an American actor , director and writer . In the course of his over 60-year acting career, he had numerous successes in film, television and theater.
biography
Oliver Burgess Meredith was born to the American Ida Beth, née Burgess, and the Canadian doctor William George Meredith. He graduated from Hoosac School in Hoosick Falls in 1926 and graduated from Amherst College in 1931 . In 1930 Meredith made his Broadway debut in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet as Peter. In 1933 Meredith became a member of Eva Le Gallienne's theater company Civic Repertory Theater in New York City . In 1935 he had his breakthrough on Broadway in the hit piece The Barretts of Wimpole Street on the side of Katharine Cornell , with whom he also played in other plays. For the next several decades, Meredith appeared on Broadway in a wide variety of theater roles. Meredith starred in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett, and other writers. He became a member of the legendary Actors Studio by invitation.
In his film debut, the drama A Charming Villain (1935), Meredith only had a minor supporting role; but already in his next film Winterset (1936) he was allowed to play the leading role. However, he did not make the breakthrough to become a great Hollywood star, mostly he had to be content with supporting roles in larger film projects, while he also took on leading roles more often in B films. In 1939, directed by Lewis Milestone , he played the role of ranch worker George Milton in the critically acclaimed literary adaptation Of Mice and People, based on the novel by John Steinbeck . During World War II , he served in the United States Army Air Forces and achieved the rank of captain. He was fired in 1944 to play the famous war reporter Ernie Pyle in the war film The Story of GI Joe . His Hollywood career came to an abrupt end when he was suspected of communism during the McCarthy era in the early 1950s and was placed on one of the notorious black lists. In the following years he had to switch to theater and television work.
He has received multiple nominations and awards for his television roles, including an Emmy nomination for Hallmark Hall of Fame and an Emmy award for Tail Gunner Joe . In the television series Batman , he played the role of the villain penguin in 21 episodes between 1966 and 1968, as well as in the feature film Batman Keeps the World in Breath . A return to the big screen was made possible for Meredith in the 1960s not least by director Otto Preminger , who cast him in films such as the political drama Storm over Washington and the war epic First Victory . In his late career, Meredith was nominated twice for Best Supporting Actor for an Oscar : At the 1976 Academy Awards , he received the nomination for his portrayal of the dead and terminally ill actor Harry Greener in the film drama The Day of the Locust , at the 1977 award ceremony for his character the coach Mickey Goldmill alongside Sylvester Stallone in the hit film Rocky . He played the latter role in the sequels Rocky II , Rocky III - Eye of the Tiger and Rocky V . Since Mickey dies in the middle of the third film, archive footage was filmed for Rocky IV - The Fight of the Century and flashbacks for Rocky V , while for the sixth part Rocky Balboa again, due to the death of Meredith, archive footage was used.
One of his last roles was great-grandfather Gustavson in the movie Crazy Couple and the sequel Third Spring - Friends, Enemies, Fish & Women , in which he plays the father of Jack Lemmon . For these two appearances he received great critical acclaim. In addition to his acting, Meredith has also repeatedly worked as a writer and director. He wrote several plays and was awarded a Tony Award for his production of A Thurber Carnival together with James Thurber in 1960 . As a film director, he directed The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949) with Charles Laughton in the lead role and the fantasy film The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1970) with James Mason .
On September 9, 1997, Meredith died two months before his 90th birthday of complications from Alzheimer's disease and black skin cancer . He was married four times. The marriages with Helen Derby Berrien (1932-1935), the actress Margaret Perry (1936-1938) and Paulette Goddard (1944-1949) remained childless, while he was with his last wife Kaja Sundsten, with whom he was from 1951 until his death Married in 1997 with two children. In 1994 he had his autobiography So Far, So Good. released. In obituaries, the award-winning Meredith was praised, among other things, as a “virtuoso actor” who credibly portrayed both kind-hearted characters and villains with apparent simplicity.
His German dubbing voice was lent to him by Hans Hessling , among others in Rocky and Rocky II and Friedrich W. Bauschulte , as in Battle of the Titans .
There were at Max Factor color name for a make-up primer called "Burgess Meredith." It is claimed that Max Factor composed this color for the extraordinary complexion of Burgess Meredith and then added it to the range.
Filmography (selection)
- 1935: A charming villain ( The Scoundrel )
- 1936: winter set
- 1939: Idiot's Delight
- 1939: Of Mice and Men ( Of Mice and Men )
- 1940: Second Chorus
- 1941: Marriage Comedy (That Uncertain Feeling)
- 1941: Tom, Dick and Harry ( Tom, Dick and Harry )
- 1944: Hymn of the Nations
- 1945: Battle storm on Monte Cassino (The Story of GI Joe)
- 1946: The wonderful doll ( Magnificent Doll )
- 1946: Diary of a maid ( Le journal d'une femme de chambre )
- 1948: The man from the Eiffel Tower ( The Man on the Eiffel Tower ), also directed
- 1949: Jigsaw
- 1957: The Rose of Tokyo ( Joe Butterfly )
- 1961: Storm over Washington ( Advise & Consent )
- 1963: The Cardinal ( The Cardinal )
- 1964: First Victory ( In Harm's Way )
- 1966: Highest stakes in Laredo ( A Big Hand for the Little Lady )
- 1966: Batman holds the world in suspense ( Batman )
- 1967: The torture garden of Dr. Diabolo ( Torture Garden )
- 1967: Tomorrow is a New Day (Hurry Sundown)
- 1968: Hard Fists, Hot Songs ( Stay Away, Joe )
- 1968: Mackenna's Gold ( Mackenna's Gold )
- 1968: Skidoo
- 1969: The Rogue ( The Reivers )
- 1969: The Killer and the Whore ( Hard Contract )
- 1970: Two dirty scoundrels (There Was a Crooked Man ...)
- 1971: So good friends (Such Good Friends)
- 1972: The Blob (Beware! The Blob) (not mentioned)
- 1974: The Bull of Hong Kong (Golden Needles)
- 1974: The Hindenburg ( The Hindenburg )
- 1975: B. must die ( Hay que matar a B. )
- 1975: The Day of the Locust ( The Day of the Locust )
- 1975: The avenger of California ( The Master Gunfighter )
- 1976: Country House of Dead Souls ( Burnt Offerings )
- 1976: Rocky
- 1977: Witches' Sabbath (The Sentinel)
- 1977: Rendezvous with Death ( Golden Rendevouz )
- 1977: Tail Gunner Joe
- 1977: Death Flight ( Death Flight )
- 1978: A very crooked tour (Foul Play)
- 1978: Today we steal our bank (The Great Bank Hoax)
- 1978: The Devil's Loose in Texas (Kate Bliss and the Ticker Tape Kid)
- 1978: Magic ( Magic )
- 1978: The Manitou (The Manitou)
- 1979: Rocky II
- 1980: The Iron Curtain (Final Assignment)
- 1981: The Shackles of Power ( True Confessions )
- 1981: Clash of the Titans ( Clash of the Titans )
- 1982: Rocky III - The Tiger's Eye ( Rocky III )
- 1985: Santa Claus
- 1987: King Lear
- 1988: Hot to Trot ( Hot to Trot )
- 1990: In the forecourt to hell ( State of Grace )
- 1990: Rocky V
- 1991: The Night of the Hunter ( Night of the Hunter )
- 1993: A Crazy Couple - Old Crazy And Newly In Love ( Grumpy Old Men )
- 1995: The Third Spring - Friends, Enemies, Fish & Women ( Grumpier Old Men )
- 1995: So Close to the Moon (Across the Moon)
TV Shows
- 1959–1963: Incredible Stories - Twilight Zone ( Twilight Zone , four episodes)
- 1961–1964: A Thousand Miles of Dust ( Rawhide , four episodes)
- 1963: 77 Sunset Strip (five episodes)
- 1965: Crazy Wild West ( Wild Wild West , an episode)
- 1966–1968: Batman (21 episodes)
- 1967: Bonanza ( Six black horses , one episode)
- 1968–1971: The People at Shiloh Ranch ( The Virginian , two episodes)
- 1993: In the Heat of the Night ( In the Heat of the Night , three episodes)
Awards
- 1962: National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actor for Storm Over Washington
- 1976: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Grasshopper Day
- 1976: Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Grasshopper Day
- 1977: Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor for Rocky
- 1977: Emmy award as Outstanding Supporting Actor for the TV film Tail Gunner Joe
- 1979: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for Magic - An Eerie Love Story
- 1982: Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for Clash of the Titans
- 1987: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his film work
literature
- Burgess Meredith: So far, so good: a memoir. Little Brown & Co., Boston 1994, ISBN 978-0316567176 .
Web links
- Burgess Meredith in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Burgess Meredith in the German synchronous file
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Burgess Meredith, 89, Who Was at Ease Playing Good Guys and Villains, Dies , The New York Times , September 11, 1997.
- ↑ Burgess Meredith obituary , CNN.com, September 10, 1997.
- ^ Burgess Meredith genealogy by Robert Battle, hosted at freepages.rootsweb
- ↑ TCM / AFI Notes: The Story of GI Joe . Turner Classic Movies / TCM.com. Retrieved September 16, 2011.
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/11/movies/burgess-meredith-89-who-was-at-ease-playing-good-guys-and-villains-dies.html
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Meredith, Burgess |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Meredith, Oliver Burgess (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-American actor |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 16, 1907 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Cleveland , Ohio , United States |
DATE OF DEATH | September 9, 1997 |
Place of death | Malibu , California , United States |