Burgess Meredith.

Burgess Meredith arrived on November 16, 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Dr. William George Meredith, a Canadian physician, and Ida Beth Burgess, a Methodist revivalist. He attended the Cathedral School of St. John the Divine and Hoosac School before enrolling at Amherst College in Massachusetts. After dropping out, he worked in journalism, retail, and as a clerk, and spent a brief stint in the merchant marine. In 1929, he joined Eva Le Gallienne’s Student Repertory stage company, launching his acting career.

Meredith made his film debut in Winterset 1936, a play by Maxwell Anderson that he had performed on stage. He had already become a Broadway star with Little ‘Ol Boy in 1934, tying with George M. Cohan as Best Performer of the Year. During World War II, he served in the US Army Air Corps, reaching the rank of captain by 1945. In the early 1950s, he was named an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee and placed on the Red Channel list, which caused studio work to disappear.

The 1960s brought a career revival through television roles, especially The Penguin on Batman 1966, a role he developed with a distinctive grunting laugh. He later gained widespread recognition as Mickey Goldmill in Rocky 1976 and its sequels, and as Grandpa Gustafson in Grumpy Old Men 1993. Meredith also worked extensively in voiceovers, including Skippy Peanut Butter and United Air Lines.

Meredith married four times: to Helen Derby Berrien in 1932 divorced 1935, Margaret Perry in 1936 divorced 1938, actress Paulette Goddard in 1944 divorced 1949, and Kaja Sundsten in 1951, who remained his wife until his death. With Sundsten, he had two children: Jonathon Meredith, a musician, and Tala Meredith, a painter. In 1994, he revealed he suffered from cyclothymia, a form of bipolar disorder. He relied on cue cards during the filming of Grumpier Old Men 1995 due to the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

On November 5, 1987, Meredith received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie. His Penguin on Batman and Mickey Goldmill in Rocky became defining roles. The National Board of Review named him Best Supporting Actor for Advise & Consent 1962, and he won two Saturn Awards. He is remembered for Batman, the Rocky series, and Grumpy Old Men.