Actors - Eddie Albert

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	Actors - Eddie Albert

Eddie Albert (April 22 1906 – May 26 2005) was an American stage, film, character actor and gardener, perhaps best known for starring as Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, and as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the television sitcom Green Acres.

Early life

Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger in Rock Island, Illinois to Frank and Julia Heimberger, Christian German immigrants. He spent his early years in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After graduating from University of Minnesota, Albert pursued a show business career through jobs as a stage actor, nightclub singer and trapeze performer in a Mexican circus.

Albert's year of birth was frequently given as 1908, but this is incorrect. While many Hollywood figures have often given years of birth later than their true ones (in order to present themselves as being younger than they are), the motivation in this case was provided by Albert's mother, who began the practice because she was unmarried when Albert was born, but was married by 1908. Albert also stated that he dropped his last name, "Heimberger", not so much out of a desire to have a stage name, but rather because it was almost invariably mangled into "Hamburger".

Career

In the 1930s Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936. He had lead roles in Room Service (1937-1938)and The Boys from Syracuse (1938-1939). In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations. In 1938, he made his feature film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards. His contract with Warner Bros. was abruptly terminated in 1941, purportedly because of an affair he was having with studio head Jack L. Warner's wife. (Warner had previously pulled him off a picture as it was being shot and kept him under contract for a period afterwards primarily as a way of preventing him from getting other work).

Albert served in the United States Navy during World War II as a lieutenant. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his actions during the Battle of Tarawa in 1943, when he rescued a group of wounded Marines under enemy fire. He later described some of these events during a short interview, in a segment of a show about the war, which appeared on the History Channel. Albert returned from the war a different actor with a darker screen persona, although it would take another ten years before he became better-known to audiences. The film Attack! (1956) provided Albert with his most serious role as a cowardly, psychotic Army captain whose behavior threatens the safety of his company, including a wounded lieutenant played by Jack Palance.

The 1950s also saw a return to Broadway for Albert, including roles in Miss Liberty (1949-1950) and The Seven Year Itch (ran 1952-1955). In 1960, Albert replaced Robert Preston in the lead role of Professor Harold Hill, in the Broadway production of The Music Man.

In 1965, Albert took the role of Oliver Wendell Douglas in the sitcom Green Acres, which ran through 1971. Albert played the straight man to his co-stars, including Eva Gabor. Of the many roles Albert took after the run of this very successful program, he is probably best remembered for his part as the warden in the 1974 film The Longest Yard
.

After a four-year-absence from the small screen, he returned to series television in 1975, this time as Frank MacBride in the television crime drama Switch; he played a retired police officer. Co-starring on the series was Robert Wagner, who once saw Albert in the movie, Brother Rat, with Wagner's own family. He played con artist, Pete Ryan, and the two finally had the best chemistry together, after all these years of Wagner watching him on the big screen, and had his first impression of his co-star dating back to his younger years in the 1930s. Like Green Acres, this proved to be Albert's second hit series. The show was cancelled in 1978 due to lower ratings, but Albert was not particularly disappointed at the show's cancellation.

In the mid-1980s, Albert was also best known for endorsing the popular public service message, the National Arbor Day Foundation, and was reunited with co-star of the Brother Rat and An Angel from Texas movies, Jane Wyman, in a recurring role as Carlton Travis in the popular 1980s soap opera, Falcon Crest. He also guest starred on a popular episode of the 80s television series, Highway to Heaven. In 1990, he reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return To Green Acres television movie.

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Actors - Eddie Albert

Early life

Career

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