Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born November 21, 1920 in Minneapolis , † August 5, 1988 in Los Angeles ; actually Ralph Rathgeber ) was an American actor .
Life
Ralph Meeker grew up in Chicago . After graduating from Leelanau School in Michigan , he studied music and acting at Northwestern University in Evanston from 1938 to 1942 . Then he went to the Navy .
Meeker made his acting debut in 1943 in the play The Doughgirls . After his dismissal he moved to New York . As part of the USO program, he traveled to Italy in early 1945 and played in front of American soldiers. In 1947 he received a Theater World Award for his appearance in the play Mister Roberts (he was the understudy for Henry Fonda's role) . Two years later he replaced Marlon Brando in Elia Kazan's stage version of the drama Endstation Sehnsucht . Meeker made his film debut in 1951 in the Swiss post-war production Die Vier im Jeep , which received a Golden Bear at the first Berlinale . In the same year he was seen in the Hollywood production Teresa by director Fred Zinnemann . He signed a contract with MGM and subsequently appeared in films such as Glory Alley by Raoul Walsh , Nude Violence by Anthony Mann and Seconds of Fear by John Sturges .
In 1953 he played the lead role in William Inge's play Picnic on Broadway and received a New York Critics Circle Award for his performance . Meeker declined to participate in the film because he did not want to be bound by a contract with Paramount Pictures . In 1955 he took on the leading role in Robert Aldrich's crime film Rattennest . This was followed by appearances in Hell of a Thousand Martyrs by Samuel Fuller , Paul Henreid's second directorial work Unter Mordverdacht and the first episode of the television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents . In addition, Meeker acted temporarily as the host of the program Toast of the Town , which was later renamed The Ed Sullivan Show . Stanley Kubrick cast him in 1957 for the role of a condemned soldier in Roads to Fame . On July 20, 1964, Meeker married the actress Salome Jens, from whom he divorced in 1966.
In the 1960s and 1970s , Meeker was mostly seen in television productions. At the theater he played in two plays from 1964 under the direction of Elia Kazan. In 1967 there was a second collaboration with Robert Aldrich and the third with Charles Bronson for the film The Dirty Dozen . In 1968 Meeker played the gangster George Moran in Roger Corman's film adaptation of the Valentine's Day Massacre . In 1970 he worked in John Frankenheimer's The Sheriff and Sidney Lumets The Anderson Clan , 1979 in The Philadelphia Clan . He made his last film appearance in 1980 in The Secret of the Flying Devils .
Ralph Meeker died of a heart attack on August 5, 1988 in Woodland Hills . He left behind his second wife, Colleen Meeker.
Filmography (selection)
- 1951: The four in the jeep
- 1951: Teresa (Teresa)
- 1952: Glory Alley
- 1953: The Naked Spur
- 1953: Seconds of Fear (Jeopardy)
- 1955: Blood Money (Big House, USA)
- 1955: Rattennest (Kiss Me Deadly)
- 1955: Settlement in Fort Valeau (Desert Sands)
- 1956: Under suspicion of murder (A Woman's Devotion)
- 1956: Hell of a Thousand Tortures (Run of the Arrow)
- 1957: Paths of Glory (Paths of Glory)
- 1957: Dream in Pink (The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown)
- 1961: Ada - woman with a past (Ada)
- 1961: Something Wild
- 1963: Two women around Joe (Wall of Noise)
- 1967: The Dirty Dozen (The Dirty Dozen)
- 1967: Chicago Massacre (The St. Valentine's Day Massacre)
- 1968: The Detective (The Detective)
- 1969: The Devil's 8
- 1970: The Sheriff (I Walk The Line)
- 1971: The Anderson Clan (The Anderson Tapes)
- 1972: A Wire in Your Head (The Happiness Cage)
- 1973: Duel of Helicopters (Birds of Prey)
- 1975: Brannigan - A Man of Steel (Brannigan)
- 1976: The Island of the Monsters (The Food of the Gods)
- 1978: My Boys Are Good Boys (also producer)
- 1979: The Philadelphia Clan (Winter Kills)
- 1980: The Secret of the Flying Devils (Without Warning)
Web links
- Ralph Meeker in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ralph Meeker at Great Character Actors
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Meeker, Ralph |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Rathgeber, Ralph (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | US-American actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 21, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Minneapolis , Minnesota |
| DATE OF DEATH | 5th August 1988 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |