Burgess Meredith - Wikipedia

Thank you my friend Maj Marty Hogan for making us aware that November 17 is the anniversary of the birth of American actor, director, producer, and writer in theater, film, and television Oliver Burgess Meredith.
He was a wonderful actor.
"In 1942 Meredith entered the US Army, writing, directing, co-producing and appearing in several government orientation films, most notably Welcome to Britain (1943), which he co-directed with Anthony Asquith, which prepared England-bound GIs for the unfamiliar accents and warm beer ahead of them."
Rest in peace Burgess Meredith!
I first became aware of Burgess Meredith as Penguin in the Batman TV series.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS3fBA-dN0g




Images:
1. Burgess Meredith as Mickey Goldmill with Sylvester Stallone as Rocky from Rocky V.jpg
2. Burgess Meredith as the Penguin in the television series Batman.
3. Burgess Meredith 'I'll just take amusement at being a paradox.'
4. Burgess Meredith in The Twilight Zone Time Enough At Last episode.

Biographies
1. independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-burgess-meredith
2. imdb.com/name/nm0580565/bio

1. Background from independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/obituary-burgess-meredith-1238735.html
Obituary: Burgess Meredith by Dick Vosburgh on Friday 12 September 1997 00:02
"I was born a character actor," maintained Burgess Meredith. "I was never really a leading man type." Despite or probably because of this, Meredith's acting talent kept him, for seven decades, in demand in nearly every branch of the entertainment industry.
He had been a boy soprano, college student, merchant seaman, tie salesman, reporter and Wall Street runner before making his first stage appearances with Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre in New York (1929-33). On Broadway in Little Ol' Boy (1933) he played a prizefighter, and, although the play only achieved 12 performances, he tied with the legendary George M. Cohan for Best Performance of the Year. He was next offered the role of a college student called Buzz Jones in the farce She Loves Me Not (1933). As Meredith's nickname had always been "Buzz", this seemed (and was) fortuitous; it was his first box-office hit.

Clearly echoing the Sacco-Vanzetti case, Maxwell Anderson's acclaimed verse play Winterset (1935) concerned the efforts of Mio Romagna (Meredith) to clear the name of his father, a radical electrocuted for a murder he hadn't committed, Anderson wrote three more plays for Meredith: High Tor (1936), The Star-Wagon (1937), and Knickerbocker Holiday (1938). Their working relationship ended when Meredith rejected the latter play, accepting instead the role of Prince Hal opposite Orson Welles's Falstaff in Five Kings (1939), a cumbersome disaster that never reached Broadway.
Meredith again played Mio in the screen version of Winterset (1936), the first of over a hundred films, including Idiot's Delight (1939) and Second Chorus (1941), in which he lost Paulette Goddard to Fred Astaire, but won her off screen; she became his third wife. That same year he was the "Harry" in Tom, Dick and Harry, one of his few "A" features in which he got the girl - in this case Ginger Rogers. I once asked the director Lewis Milestone how he managed to draw such a splendid performance from Lon Chaney Jnr as the simple-minded giant, Lennie, in his Of Mice And Men (1939). Milestone said, "It was Meredith who did it. Nearly all their scenes were together, and Buzz's acting was so true, Lon's just couldn't not be."

In 1942 Meredith entered the US Army, writing, directing, co-producing and appearing in several government orientation films, most notably Welcome to Britain (1943), which he co- directed with Anthony Asquith, which prepared England-bound GIs for the unfamiliar accents and warm beer ahead of them. The army placed him on inactive status to play the war correspondent Ernie Pyle in The Story of GI Joe (1945), one of the few distinguished Hollywood films about the American fighting man. He played an ancient, flower-eating eccentric as well as writing and producing Jean Renoir's Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), which starred Paulette Goddard.

In 1947, when the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) subpoenaed a group of film writers because of alleged Communist affiliations, Meredith was one of the film personalities protesting that the action was unconstitutional. After the all-star comedy A Miracle Can Happen (1948), which he also co- produced, Meredith suddenly went mysteriously cold at the major studios. To escape HUAC's long shadow, he came to England to play a neurotic psychiatrist in the screen version of Nigel Balchin's novel Mine Own Executioner (1947). Richard Winnington wrote in the News Chronicle: "Burgess Meredith plays this part with a nervous power he has not equalled since the first appearance in Winterset." In Paris, Meredith appeared in and directed The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1943), an efficient thriller in which Charles Laughton played Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret.
Back in America, Meredith acted in five plays and directed another five between 1950 and 1956. He was also busy in radio and television until the publication of an infamous paperback called Red Channels - Communist influence in radio and TV. The book listed his name alongside various left-wing organisations, and he had to take legal action to get back on the air.

As a theatre director, he was particularly proud of three productions: Joyce's Ulysses in Nighttown (1958), starring his fellow blacklistee Zero Mostel as Leopold Bloom, the compilation A Thurber Carnival (1960) and James Baldwin's Blues For Mr Charlie (1964).

Meredith's film career was reactivated by Otto Preminger, who cast him in the Washington melodrama Advise and Consent (1962). In his memoirs, Preminger wrote, "Burgess gave one of the greatest performances I have ever seen, in the short but important role of Herbert Gelman, a witness who lies. I didn't direct him, he did it all himself." Preminger also cast him in The Cardinal (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), Hurry Sundown (1967), Skidoo (1968) and Such Good Friends (1971).
Meredith's shade may not forgive me, but mention must be made of his splendidly villainous Penguin in television's Batman (1966). "It may have done me more harm than good," he wrote in his auto- biography, "but it made an impact. I thought it had a Dickensian quality. . . Recently a newspaper qualified me as `best known as the Penguin'. It's an idiot's game to get yourself into." Meredith much preferred his Emmy-winning role in Tail Gunner Joe (1977), a semi- documentary about Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, in which Meredith played Joseph N. Welch, the Boston lawyer who represented the army in the televised hearings that sealed McCarthy's political doom. It was Welch who, after a young legal assistant had been groundlessly accused of Communist sympathies, rounded on the ignoble Senator with "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" As Meredith later wrote, "When I played Welch I was getting a splendid revenge. I had been placed on the `Red Channels' list by the McCarthy gang and this was a fair response."

His performance as Harry, the alcoholic ex-vaudeville hoofer in John Schlesinger's The Day of the Locust (1975) earned him a nomination for Best Supporting Actor, but he lost to George Burns in The Sunshine Boys. The following year his performance as Mickey the trainer in Rocky won him another Best Support nomination, but he lost to Jason Robards in All the President's Men. He repeated his trainer role in Rocky II (1979) and Rocky III (1982), in which Mickey died of a heart attack. None the less, he turned up again in Rocky V (1990), returning from the beyond to remind Rocky of the sacred principles of the fight game. He played Jack Lemmon's 94-year old, sex-obsessed father in Grumpy Old Men (1993), a role he repeated in Grumpier Old Men (1995).
In his 1994 autobiography, Meredith made it clear that retirement was not for him. "I always have an ear cocked for the clarion call, an eye for the next role," he wrote. "I'm a worker and I like to keep working. As best and as long as I am physically able."

George Burgess Meredith, actor, director, writer, producer: born Cleveland, Ohio 16 November 1908; married 1932 Helen Derby (marriage dissolved 1935), 1936 Margaret Perry (marriage dissolved 1938), 1944 Paulette Goddard (marriage dissolved 1949), 1952 Kaja Sundsten (one son, one daughter); died Malibu, California 9 September 1997."


2. Background from imdb.com/name/nm0580565/bio
Burgess Meredith Biography
Overview
Born November 16, 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, USA
Died September 9, 1997 in Malibu, California, USA (melanoma and Alzheimer's disease)
Birth Name Oliver Burgess Meredith
Nickname Buzz
Height 5' 5½" (1.66 m)
ini Bio
One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century, who often suffered lesser roles, Burgess Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio. He was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts, before joining Eva Le Gallienne's stage company, Civic Repertory Company, in New York City in 1933. He became a favorite of dramatist Maxwell Anderson, premiering on film in the playwright's Winterset (1936). Meredith served in the United States Army Air Corps in World War II, reaching the rank of captain. He continued in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles until being named an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, whereupon studio work disappeared. His career picked up again, especially with television roles, in the 1960s, although younger audiences know him best for either the Rocky (1976) or Grumpy Old Men (1993) films. Meredith also did a large amount of commercial work, serving as the voice for Skippy Peanut Butter and United Air Lines, among others. He was also an ardent environmentalist who believed pollution one of the greatest tragedies of the time, and an opponent of the Vietnam War. Burgess Meredith died at age 89 of Alzheimer's disease and melanoma in his home in Malibu, California on September 9, 1997.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: < [login to see] >

Spouse (4)
Kaja Sundsten (8 January 1951 - 9 September 1997) ( his death) ( 2 children)
Paulette Goddard (21 May 1944 - 8 June 1949) ( divorced)
Margaret Perry (10 January 1936 - 19 July 1938) ( divorced)
Helen Derby Berrien (1932 - 20 August 1935) ( divorced)

Trade Mark : Distinctive raspy voice; Often worked with director Otto Preminger.
Trivia (32)
1. Former son-in-law of Antoinette Perry.
2. Was placed on the "Red Channel" list of the HUAC.
3. Otto Preminger was instrumental in restoring his film career.
4. His character, the Penguin, was so popular as a villain on the television series Batman (1966), the producers always had a Penguin script ready in case Meredith wanted to appear as a guest star.
5. Had two children (with fourth wife Kaja Sundsten): Jonathon Meredith (musician) and Tala Meredith (painter).
6. On the television series Batman (1966), he developed his grunting Penguin laugh out of necessity. Meredith had given up smoking some twenty-odd years earlier, but his character was required to smoke with a cigarette holder. The smoke would get caught in his throat and he would start coughing. Rather than constantly ruin takes in this matter, he developed the laugh to cover it up. "Actually, it was a pretty funny noise for a penguin to make," said Meredith. "I sounded more like a duck." Needless to say, Meredith gave up smoking again immediately after the series ended.
7. Suffered from melanoma and other ailments, including Alzheimer's disease, at the time of his death.
8. Was only seventeen years older than Jack Lemmon when he played his father in Grumpy Old Men (1993).
9. In 1960, he received a special Tony Award, along with James Thurber, for "A Thurber Carnival". He was also nominated for a 1974 Tony Award as best director (dramatic) for Ulysses in "Nighttown".
10. Was the second choice for the role of the Penguin on Batman (1966). Producers had originally wanted Spencer Tracy in the role, but Tracy would not sign unless his character was allowed to kill Batman. Obviously, they did not want to kill the main character, so the role went to Meredith.
11. Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 406-407. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
12. He was fascinated by the subject of non-human intelligence, particularly dolphins. He once believed that a dolphin somehow called to him for help in the middle of the night while he was staying at a friend's home on the beach. He ran out and found the dolphin, caught in a net under a dock down the beach, although there was no way he should have been able to know it was there. He released it, saving its life. He believed it had made some sort of connection with him, perhaps telepathic, to call for help.
13. Was offered the role of the Penguin's father in Batman Returns (1992) (which eventually went to Paul Reubens), but could not film it because of his delicate health.
14. Once narrated a Gaelic Christmas Carol in English for The Chieftains on their CD "The Bells of Dublin".
15. Relied on cue cards during the filming of Grumpier Old Men (1995), contributed from being in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease.
16. Despite his character dying in Rocky III (1982), he has appeared in every Rocky film, as either the real character, a flashback, or through archive footage.
17. Nephew of comedian and character actor, Jay "Handsome Danny Mann" Burgess (1856-1937).
18. After dropping out of Amherst College, Meredith held down various jobs in journalism, retail, as a clerk, and as an editor. He also had a brief spell in the merchant marine and as a runner on Wall Street.
19. His father was a doctor, and his mother a Methodist revivalist.
20. Loved to cook and was a noted connoisseur of fine wine and good cuisine.
21. Served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and held the rank of captain by 1945.
22. His father, William George Meredith, was Canadian (born in Toronto, Ontario). His mother, Ida Beth (Burgess), was from Ohio.
23. Was friends with French avant-garde composer Edgard Varese (1883-1965) who wrote "Dance for Burgess" for him in 1949.
24. He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6904 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on November 5, 1987.
25. He died only one day after his Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) co-star, Helen Shaw.
26. He played the Devil in both The Twilight Zone: Printer's Devil (1963) and Torture Garden (1967).
27. He revealed in 1994 that he suffered from Cyclothymia, a form of Bipolar Disorder.
28. Was good friends with Adam West.
29. In March 1937 movie industry Trade Papers it was announced that Burgess Meredith had been signed for a leading role in the movie "Stage Door" (RKO Radio, 1937). He ultimately did not appear in the movie.
30. He suffered from Cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder.
31. In the 1986 book "Son of Golden Turkey Awards" by Harry and Michael Medved, Burgess won the award for "The Most Embarrasing Nude Scene in Hollywood History" for the 1971 movie "Such Good Friends".
32. He directed a stage production of 'Ulysses in Night Town'.

Personal Quotes (7)
1. I did Batman (1966) for two reasons, one of which was the salary. The other was that, after the first few episodes, Batman became the in-thing to do. Everybody... would either play a villain or appear as himself in that cameo showcase where a celebrity would poke his head through the window of a building that Batman and Robin were climbing. Actually, we didn't get as much money from the show as you might think, although we were paid decent money for the feature film version. The main impetus to continue appearing on Batman - beyond the desire to get some TV work - was that it was fashionable.
2. I was born a character actor. I was never really a leading man type.
3. Like the seasons of the year, life changes frequently and drastically. You enjoy it or endure it as it comes and goes, as it ebbs and flows.
4. I'll just take amusement at being a paradox.
5. [on his childhood] All my life, to this day, the memory of my childhood remains grim and incoherent. If I close my eyes and think back, I see little except violence and fear. In those early years, I somehow came to understand I would have to draw from within myself whatever emotional resources I needed to go wherever I was headed. As a result, for years, I became a boy who lived almost totally within himself.
6. Franchot Tone is nuttier than a fruitcake, so don't let the genteel frosting fool you.
7. [on Otto Preminger]: I haven't done anything of importance with Preminger - I just go in with him because he's a friend of mine, and he astonishes me, always. I play cameo roles, which is always a mistake. He's an amazing man - a kind of Jekyll and Hyde. In his life, he's one of the most charming, articulate and kind, loving of men, and on the set he gets foam-flecked, you know? He doesn't bother me, he won't yell at - we'll say - Fonda [Henry Fonda] or Wayne [John Wayne], but then I was never in his films for very long.
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Old Mickie and the Penguin

Two great films and least we forget he was Rocky's trainer and corner man.