Oliver Burgess Meredith

1909 - 1997  (87 years)    Has 3 ancestors and 2 descendants in this family tree.

• Name	Oliver Burgess Meredith
  Relationship	with Francis Fox
  Born	16 Nov 1909	Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH
  Gender	Male
  Died	9 Sep 1997
  Person ID	I372642	Geneagraphie
  Last Modified	1 Apr 2002

  
  

  Father	Dr. William George Meredith,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Mother	Ida Beth Burgess,   b. Fitchville, Ohio ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Siblings	1 sibling
  1. Virginia Meredith
  Family ID	F147655	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Helen Derby
  Married	1933
  Divorced	1935
  Last Modified	1 Apr 2002
  Family ID	F147651	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Margaret Perry,   b. 23 Feb 1913, Denver, Colorado, USA ,   d. Yes, date unknown
  Married	10 Jan 1936
  Divorced	Jul 1938
  Last Modified	1 Apr 2002
  Family ID	F147649	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 3	Paulette Goddard,   b. 3 Jun 1911, Whitestone Landing, New York ,   d. 23 Apr 1990, Ronco, CH  (Age 78 years)
  Married	21 May 1944
  Divorced	1950
  Last Modified	1 Apr 2002
  Family ID	F147647	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 4	Kaja Sundsten
  Married	1950
  Children	1. Johnathon Meredith   2. Tala Meredith
  Last Modified	1 Apr 2002
  Family ID	F147650	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  372642.jpg

  
  

• Notes

  former child soprano One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century who often suffered lesser roles, Meredith was educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts before joining Eva Le Gallienne's stage company in New York City in 1933. He bcame a favorite of dramatist Maxwell Anderson, premiering on film in the playwright's Winterset (1936). Served in the Air Force in WWII. 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 0107050 film series. 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. A veteran of stage and film whose numerous accomplishments in dramatic roles will, alas, probably be forever overshadowed by his portrayal of "The Penguin" on the 1960s TV series "Batman" (and the 1966 theatrical feature of the same name). After toiling in many odd jobs during the 1920s, Meredith joined Eva LeGallienne's Student Repertory Group and became a prominent Broadway actor in the 1930s. He made his film debut in Maxwell Anderson's Winterset (1936), recreating his own acclaimed stage performance, and followed with memorable work in Of Mice and Men (as George), Idiots Delight (both 1939), Second Chorus (1940, with wife-to-be Paulette Goddard), Tom, Dick and Harry (1941), The Story of G.I. Joe (1945, as fabled war correspondent Ernie Pyle), Diary of a Chambermaid (1946, with Goddard, which he also produced and wrote), Mine Own Executioner (1947), and On Our Merry Way (1948, which he also coproduced). Meredith, whose lively countenance and intensity of performance compensated for his "shortcomings" as a Hollywood leading man (i.e., his lack of matinee-idol looks), enjoyed two early starring roles in the B melodramas San Francisco Docks (1940) and Street of Chance (1942, as an amnesiac murder suspect in an early exercise in film noir based on a Cornell Woolrich novel). He directed and performed in The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949), a fascinating, seldom-seen thriller based on one of the popular "Maigret" novels by Georges Simenon. Meredith's film roles thinned out during the 1950s after he was considered an unfriendly witness during the McCarthy era, but he continued to do stage work (winning a Tony for directing "The Thurber Carnival"), returned to films in Otto Preminger's Advise and Consent (1962) and The Cardinal (1963), and thereafter never let up. He snared Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations for The Day of the Locust (1975) and for his most popular latter-day characterization, that of the trainer Mickey in the first Rocky (1976), a role he repeated in the 1979, 1982, and 1990 sequels. He has appeared in scores of TV shows (winning an Emmy for his performance in 1977's Tail Gunner Joe) and has lent his distinctive voice to innumerable commercials, documentaries, and feature films (including, memorably, 1969's The Reivers). He published his autobiography, "So Far, So Good," in 1994. OTHER FILMS INCLUDE: 1938: Spring Madness 1940: Castle on the Hudson 1941: That Uncertain Feeling 1946: Magnificent Doll (as President James Madison); 1957: Joe Butterfly 1966: Madame X, A Big Hand for the Little Lady 1967:Hurry Sundown 1970:There Was a Crooked Man 1975:92 in the Shade 1978:Foul Play, Magic 1981:True Confessions 1987:King Lear 1988:Full Moon in Blue Water 1990:State of Grace 1993: Grumpy Old Men 1995: Tall Tale.