Burgess Meredith Biography, Burgess Meredith's Famous Quotes

Burgess Meredith's Profile

Brief about Burgess Meredith: By info that we know Burgess Meredith was born at 1907-11-16. And also Burgess Meredith is American Actor.

Burgess Meredith Biography

Oliver Burgess Meredith (November 16, 1907 - September 9, 1997), was a known American actor in theatre, film and television as well as director. He is referred to as "a virtuosic actor" and "one of the most accomplished actors of the Century" He is a lifetime member of The Actors Studio by invitation and won numerous Emmy's, was the first man to win nthe Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor twice and was jominated for Academy Awards.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio to Ida Beth and Canadian-born William George Meredith, M.D. and studied at Hoosac School. After graduation in 1926, he attended Amherst College and served in the United States Army Air Forces in World War I, reaching the rank of captain. He was discharged in 1944 to work on the movie The Story of G.I. Joe, in which he starred as the popular war correspondent ernie Pyle.
As a threatre actor, he started as a member in Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repetory Theatre company in New York. He made his debut as Peter in Romeo and Juliet (1930) and became a star in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset (1935), which became his film debut the following year. He received acclaimed reviews in the 1935 revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street starring Katherine Corneli. He also appeared as Vanvan Dorn in High Tor in 1937, Liliom in Liliom in 1940, Christy mahon in The Playboy of the Western World in 1946 and Adolphus Cusins Major Barbara in 1857.He created the role of Ernie Smith in hughie at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England in 1963 and played Hamlet in avant-garde theatrical and radio productions of the play. As a distinguished stage director, he won a Tony Award nomination for his 1974 Broadway staging of Ulysses in Nighttown and on A Thurber Carnival in 1960 which he shared with James Thurber.
In the Cinema, Meredith started hi scareer with favorable attention in his role as George in 1939 Of Mice and Men and as a war correspondent Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I.Joe (1945). He was also featured in many movies in the 1940's including Second Chorus in 1940, Diary of a Chambermaid in 1946 and On Our Merry Way in 1948, which he co-starred with then-wife Paulette Goddard. However, in the 1950's Meredth undergone a seven-year drought because he was placed on the Hollywood Blacklist as a result of the House Committe on UN-American Activities investigation to Communist. Through the help of director Otto Preminger, he was given a comeback by the Hollywood and was casted in Preminger's films like Advise and Consent in 1962, In Harm's Wayin 1965, Hurry Sundownin 1967, Skidoo in 1968 an Such Good Friends in 1971. He also played Peguin in the Batman movie of 1966 and Stay Away Joe in 1968 as Elvis Presley's father. Meredith played Rocky Balboa's trainer, Mickey Goldmill, in the first three Rocky films (1976, 1979 and 1982) and apperaed briefly in a flashback in the fifth film, Rocky (1990). He also played an old Korean War veteran Captain J.G. Williams in The Last Chase with Lee Majors. He appeared in Ray Harryhausen's last stop-motion feature Clash of the Titans (1981), in a supporting role and in 1985 he appeared in Santa Claus: The Movie. In his last yaers, he played Jack Lemmon's character father in Grumpy Old Men (1993) and its sequel, Grumpier Old Men in 1995. He was nominated for Academy Awards in the Bets Supporting Actor category with his performance in The Day of the Locust in 1975 and Rocky in 1976. He directed the movie The Man on the Eiffel Tower in 1949 starring Charles Laughton and produced by Irving Allen. in 1970 he directed, co-write and palyed a supporting role in The Yin and The Yang of Mr. Go, an espionage caper starring James Mason as a Hong Kong crime lord and Jeff Bridges a an ambitious amoral draft dodging novelist.
As an actor in the television, he appeared in four different starring roles in the acclaimed anthology TV series The Twilight Zone, typing him with Jack Klugman for the most appearances on the show in a starring role. In The wtilight Zone he played numerous roles like the bank teller in "Tine Enough at Last" episode, a timid weakling whi was subject to space alien's expriment in the 1961 "Mr, Dingle, The Strong" episode, the Devil himself in the "Printer's Devil" episode and a librarian sentenced to death in the "The Obsolete Man". He was the narrator for Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1983. He did not receive on-screen credit for his narration. He appeared in various television programs, including the role of Chris, III, in the 962 episode "Hooray, Hooray, the Circus is Coming to Town" of the NBC medical drama about psychiatry. The Eleventh Hour starring Wendell Corey and Jack Ging. He also guest starred in the ABC drama about psychiatry, Breaking Point in the 1963 episode titled "Heart of Marble, Body of Stone". He also appeared in Rawhide, The Virginian, Wagon Train, Branded, The Wild Wild West, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters, Ladero, Bonanza and Daniel Boone
He played the Peguinin the television series Batman from 1966 to 1968. his role as the Peguin was so well-received that the show's riters always had a script featuring the Penguin ready whenever Meredith was availble. He and Cesar Romero's Joker are tied for number of appearance on the show.
From 1972 to 1973, meredith played V.C.R. Cameron, director of Probe Control, in the television movie/piloyt Probe and then in Search, the subsequent TV series. He won Emmy Award as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy or DRama Special for the 1977 television film Tail Gunner Joe, a fictitious study of U.S. Senator Joseph R. Mc Carthy, the anti-communist leader of the 1950s. He was cast as crusading lawyer Joseph Welch.
in the early 1980s, he cwas a co-host of the ABC program, Those Amazing Animals and co-starred in the hort lived CBS sitcom Gloria, a spin-off of All in the Family.
In 1994, Meredith published his autobiography, So Far, So Good, In the book he confessed that he suffered from violent mood swings which were caused by cyclothymia, a form of Bipolar disorder. Meredith had four wives, including actresses Margaret Perry and Paulette Goddard. His last marriage to Kaja Sundsten lasted 46 years,a nd produced two children, Jonathon, a misician and Tala, a painter. He died from complications of Alzheimer's disease and melanoma on September 9, 1997, at his Malibu home. Adam West spoke briefly at his memorial service. His remains cremated. His contribution to the motion picture industry, Burgess has a star on teh Hollywood Walk of Fame.