Everything about Burgess Meredith totally explained
Oliver Burgess Meredith (
November 16,
1907 He graduated from Hoosac School in 1926. He then attended Amherst College as a member of the Class of 1931. In
1933, he became a member of
Eva Le Gallienne's theatre company in
New York. He attracted favorable attention for playing George in a
1939 adaptation of
John Steinbeck's
Of Mice and Men and as war correspondent
Ernie Pyle in
The Story of G.I. Joe (
1945). Interestingly, the comic strip on which the latter film was based later begat a range of action figures which themselves became popular and in the 1980s featured in their own movie, the animated in which Meredith also starred as the voice of villain
Golobulus.
Meredith was featured in many 1940s films, including three (
Second Chorus (
1940),
Diary of a Chambermaid (
1946) and
On Our Merry Way (
1948) ) co-starring then-wife
Paulette Goddard. Among later roles, he became known for playing
The Penguin on the
television series Batman. 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. He appeared on the show more times during its run than any other villain.
Meredith served in the
United States Army Air Forces in
World War II, reaching the rank of captain. As a result of the
House Committee on Un-American Activities investigation into
Communist influence in Hollywood, Meredith was placed on the
Hollywood blacklist in the 1950s.
Breadth of acting
Burgess Meredith was adept playing both
dramatic and
comedic roles, and with his rugged looks and gravelly voice, he could convincingly play either an everyman hero or a sinister villain. He appeared in four different starring roles in the acclaimed anthology TV series
The Twilight Zone; only
Jack Klugman had as many leading guest appearances. In the famous "
Time Enough at Last", a
1959 episode of
The Twilight Zone, Meredith plays a henpecked bank teller who only wants to be left alone with his
books. In the 1961 episode "
Mr. Dingle, the Strong", Meredith plays the title character, a timid weakling who, as the subject of a space
alien's experiment on human nature, suddenly acquires superhuman strength. In "
Printer's Devil," Meredith portrayed the
Devil himself, and in "
The Obsolete Man" he portrayed a deeply religious man, sentenced to death in a future,
dystopic totalitarian society. He would later play two more roles in
Rod Serling's other anthology series,
Night Gallery. Meredith was the narrator for in 1983.
Meredith achieved iconic status for playing
The Penguin in the
television series Batman.
In 1972 - 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 (the name was changed to avoid conflict with a program on PBS). The series involved "World Securities Corporation," a private agency which, among other activities, fielded a number of detectives equipped with high-tech equipment including a tiny TV transmitter (the "Scanner") which allowed Probe Control to see what was going on where the agents were working. One episode centered around Cameron being kidnapped and having to escape from a torture chamber, without any of the tools carried by Probe agents.
Movie roles of note
Meredith was a favorite of director
Otto Preminger, who cast him in
Advise and Consent (
1962),
In Harm's Way (
1965),
Hurry Sundown (
1967),
Skidoo (
1968) and
Such Good Friends (
1971). (Interestingly, both Preminger and Meredith portrayed villains on
Batman.) He appeared in
Ray Harryhausen's last stop-motion feature
Clash of the Titans, in a supporting role. He played
Rocky Balboa's trainer,
Mickey Goldmill, in the first three
Rocky films (
1976), (
1979) and (
1982), to great acclaim. Even though his character died in the third Rocky film, he returned briefly in the fifth film,
Rocky V (
1990). (
1981) He played an old Korean War veteran Captain J.G. Williams in
The Last Chase with Lee majors. Meredith also appeared in (
1985). In his twilight years, he played
Jack Lemmon's character's father in
Grumpy Old Men (
1993) and its sequel,
Grumpier Old Men (
1995). He was
the Penguin in the original
Batman movie. As a nod to his longtime association with
The Twilight Zone, he served as narrator for the 1983 film based on the series. He was
Academy Award-nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category for his roles in
The Day of the Locust (
1975) and
Rocky (
1976). Another notable role was as
Goldie Hawn's landlord in
Foul Play.
Additional roles of note
A somewhat more mixed (comedy/dramatic) role was his portrayal of the philosophical (yet hapless) tramp,
Vladimir, in a notable production of
Beckett's
Waiting for Godot.
Meredith also did voiceover work. He was the TV commercial voice for
Honda,
Stokley-Van Camp,
United Airlines, and
Freakies cereal. He supplied the narration for the 1974-1975
ABC Saturday morning series and was the voice of Puff in the series of animated adaptations of the
Peter, Paul, and Mary song
Puff, the Magic Dragon.
He won an
Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special for the 1977 television film
Tail Gunner Joe.
His last role before death was the portrayal of both Hamilton Wofford and Covington Wofford characters in the 1996 video game,
Ripper, by
Take-Two Interactive.
Theatre work
While best known for his film work, Meredith was also an influential actor and director for the stage. He made his
Broadway debut as Peter in
Eva Le Gallienne's production of
Romeo and Juliet (
1930) and became a star in
Maxwell Anderson's
Winterset (
1935), which became his film debut the following year. His early life and theatre work were the subject of a
New Yorker profile.
Other
Broadway roles of note included Van van Dorn in
High Tor (
1937), Liliom in
Liliom (
1940), Christy Mahon in
The Playboy of the Western World (
1946), and Adolphus Cusins
Major Barbara (
1957). He created the role of Erie Smith in the
English-language premiere of
Eugene O'Neill's
Hughie at the Theater Royal in
Bath, England in
1963, and was an acclaimed
Hamlet.
Meredith was also a distinguished theatre director, winning 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 (
1960).
Autobiography and personal life
In 1994, Meredith published his autobiography,
So Far, So Good. In the book he states that he suffered from violent mood swings which were caused by
cyclothymia, a form of
bipolar disorder.
Death
Meredith died of
Alzheimer's disease and
melanoma on
September 9 1997, at the age of 89.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Meredith has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6904 Hollywood Blvd.
Filmography
Television work
Faerie Tale Theatre: ThumbelinaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Burgess Meredith'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://burgess_meredith.totallyexplained.com">Burgess Meredith Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
