Burgess Meredith

Oliver Burgess Meredith was born on November 16, 1907, in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess) and William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a faith Meredith maintained throughout his life. Known to friends as "Buzz," he graduated from Hoosac School in 1926 and attended Amherst College before leaving to work as a reporter for the Stamford Advocate. An actor and filmmaker whose career spanned more than six decades, Meredith worked across theater, film, radio, and television, earning a Primetime Emmy Award, two Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor, and a Special Tony Award, among other distinctions. He was a lifetime member of the Actors Studio.

Meredith's stage career began in 1929 when he joined Eva Le Gallienne's Civic Repertory Theatre company in New York City. He made his Broadway debut the following year, in 1930, playing Peter in Le Gallienne's production of Romeo and Juliet. He rose to prominence on Broadway in 1935 with Maxwell Anderson's Winterset, a production that also served as the basis for his film debut the following year. That same year, he starred alongside Hugh Williams at the Martin Beck Theatre in John Van Druten's Flowers of the Forest, and his performance in the 1935 Broadway revival of The Barretts of Wimpole Street, starring Katharine Cornell, drew enthusiastic reviews from critics. Cornell subsequently cast him in several of her later productions.

Among Meredith's other Broadway roles were Van van 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 in Major Barbara in 1956. He appeared in The Teahouse of the August Moon, The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, and I Was Dancing, with his Broadway activity spanning from 1930 to 1964. In 1963, he created the role of Erie Smith in the English-language premiere of Eugene O'Neill's Hughie at the Theatre Royal in Bath, England. He also played Hamlet in avant-garde theatrical and radio productions.

As a director, Meredith earned 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. He also shared a Special Tony Award with James Thurber in 1960 for their collaboration on A Thurber Carnival. In the late 1970s, he directed Fionnula Flanagan's one-woman play James Joyce's Women, which toured for several years.

Meredith's stage work attracted Hollywood producers, and he built a reputation as a leading man in film without ever signing a long-term contract with a single studio. Three performances in particular defined his early screen career: Mio Romagna in Winterset (1936), George Milton in Of Mice and Men (1939), and war correspondent Ernie Pyle in The Story of G.I. Joe (1945). He appeared in numerous 1940s films, including three alongside his then-wife Paulette Goddard: Second Chorus (1940), Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), and On Our Merry Way (1948). Following an investigation by the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Meredith was placed on the Hollywood blacklist and remained largely absent from film for roughly a decade, though he continued working in stage and radio during that period.

He became a favored collaborator of director Otto Preminger, appearing in Advise and Consent (1962), The Cardinal (1963), In Harm's Way (1965), Hurry Sundown (1967), Skidoo (1968), and Such Good Friends (1971). His portrayal of Harry Greener in The Day of the Locust (1975) earned him nominations for the Academy Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. The following year, his performance as boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in Rocky (1976) brought him a second consecutive Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He reprised the role in Rocky II (1979) and Rocky III (1982), and appeared briefly in a flashback in Rocky V (1990). Additional film credits include Foul Play (1978) with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, Clash of the Titans (1981), Santa Claus: The Movie (1985), Grumpy Old Men (1993), and Grumpier Old Men (1995). Meredith also directed The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), starring Charles Laughton, and co-wrote and directed The Yin and the Yang of Mr. Go (1970).

On television, Meredith appeared in four episodes of The Twilight Zone, tying him with Jack Klugman for the most starring appearances on the series. His episodes included "Time Enough at Last" (1959), "Mr. Dingle, the Strong" (1961), "The Obsolete Man" (1961), and "Printer's Devil" (1963). He later appeared in two additional roles in Rod Serling's Night Gallery. Meredith is also widely recognized for portraying the villain The Penguin in the 1960s television series Batman. Burgess Meredith died on September 9, 1997.