Biography
Originally a newspaper reporter, Burgess Meredith came to the screen in 1936, repeating his stage role in
Winterset, a part written for him by
Maxwell Anderson. Meredith has had a long and varied film career, playing everything from George in
Of Mice and Men (1939) to Sylvester Stallone)'s trainer in
Rocky (1976). He received Oscar nominations for
The Day of the Locust (1975) and
Rocky. As comfortable with comedy as with drama, Meredith also appeared in
Idiot's Delight (1939);
Second Chorus (1940), with
Fred Astaire;
Diary of a Chambermaid (1942), which he also wrote and produced; The Story of G.I. Joe (1945); and
Mine Own Executioner (1947). He also directed
Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949). On television, he made countless guest appearances in dozens of dramatic and variety productions, including one of the first episodes of
The Twilight Zone, the touching Time Enough at Last, and as host on the first episode of
Your Show of Shows. He was a regular on Mr. Novak (1963-64) and
Search (1972-73), hosted Those Amazing Animals (1981), co-starred with
Sally Struthers in
Gloria (1982-83), and made classic appearances as the Penguin on
Batman (1966-68). He won an Emmy in 1977 for Tailgunner Joe and has done voiceover work for innumerable commercials, notably Volkswagen. Meredith made his final feature film appearance playing crusty Grandpa Gustafson in
Grumpier Old Men (1995), the sequel to
Grumpy Old Men (1993) in which he also appeared. In 1996, he played a role in the CD-rom video game
Ripper. He was briefly married to
Paulette Goddard in the 1940s. Meredith died in his Malibu home at the age of 88 on September 9, 1997. ~ All Movie Guide