Burgess Meredith: Comedy, Drama and Dragons
9/9/2012
Burgess Meredith was no one-trick pony – he was an actor with a range that was hard to match.
 Burgess Meredith is shown at the Emmy Awards in this 1977 photo. Meredith, the raspy-voiced actor whose film roles over 60 years included the fated hero in ``Winterset,'' the tragic caretaker in ``Of Mice and Men'' and the crusty boxing manager in ``Rocky,'' died Tuesday Sept. 9, 1997 at his home in Malibu; he was 89.(AP Photo/file)
Movies and television, dramas and comedies, westerns and war pics, science fiction and fantasy and sports stories… Meredith tackled and mastered it all. On the 15th anniversary of his death, here are a few of our favorite film and TV clips of Burgess Meredith at work.
Coach: Meredith was inspiring – albeit in a gritty way – as trainer Mickey Goldmill in the first three Rocky movies.
Villain: Meredith played one of our favorite Batman villains, The Penguin, in the 1960s TV series and in the 1966 movie Batman.
Bookworm to Beelzebub: Meredith starred in four Twilight Zone episodes, tying with Jack Klugman for the most roles on the show. He played a nerdy book lover in the classic “Time Enough at Last.” And in another episode, he played the devil himself.
Grumpy Old Man: As Jack Lemmon's father in Grumpy Old Men and Grumpier Old Men, Meredith made us laugh.
Dragon: Yes, Burgess Meredith even played a dragon – one named Puff. In the Puff, the Magic Dragon animated movies of the 1970s and '80s, Meredith provided the voice of one of our all-time favorite dragons.
Written by Linnea Crowther
|
