final credits - eddie albert
While most will remember Albert for playing the fish-out-of-water Oliver Wendell Douglas on TV's "Green Acres," he was also a singer, spy, sex educator, trapeze artist, circus clown and environmental crusader. In fact, Earth Day (April 22) is his birthday. Albert died May 26, 2005 at the age of 99 from pneumonia, following a decade afflicted by Alzheimer's disease.
From 1965 to 1971, Albert appeared as the bewildered Park Avenue lawyer who settled in a rural town with his glamourous wife (played by Eva Gabor, who died July 4, 1995 at age 76) and found himself perplexed by the town's cast of unusual characters. In the highly rated CBS comedy, Albert's Douglas bought a sight-unseen rundown farm near the fictional town of Hooterville. Not only did he have to put with his malaprop-dropping socialite wife Lisa, his legally-honed logic was challenged by the always shady Mr. Haney, the con man who sold him the nightmare of a farm, store-owner Sam Drucker, and fellow-farmer Fred Ziffel, who lived with a pig named Arnold who watched a lot of television (and was a frequent scene-stealer). The resulting dialogue was some most elliptical and loopy defiance of logic heard on television prior to the arrival of Monty Python.
"Green Acres" was the reverse of "The Beverly Hillbillies," and the shows (in addition to "Petticoat Junction") were the creation of Paul Henning, who died March 25, 2005. The three comedies were among the CBS Network's highest rated ever, and characters frequently crossed over from one series to another. Albert also sang the "Green Acres" theme song.
Albert had previously turned down offers to appear in situation comedy (including successful shows such as "My Three Sons" and "Mister Ed") saying he was unwilling to forgo a movie career for a medium that he felt was "geared to mediocrity" (ironically, Albert actually appeared on one of the very first TV broadcasts when NBC and RCA first applied for experimental licenses in 1936). For some reason, the concept of a city slicker moving to the country to escape city life tickled his fancy. Albert later appeared on other TV shows. From 1975 to 1978, he co-starred as a retired bunko cop with Robert Wagner, as a former con man, in the private-eye drama "Switch." Albert was also a semi-regular on the prime-time soap "Falcon Crest" during the 1988 TV season.
During a movie career that lists over 100 credits, Albert was nominated for Academy Awards as supporting actor in 1953's "Roman Holiday," and 1972's "The Heartbreak Kid."
When Albert was born in 1906, his mother was not married. After marriage, she changed his birth certificate to read 1908 to reflect a more honourable past. After graduating from the University of Minneapolis, he worked as an insurance salesman until two friends persuaded him to join them in St. Louis in a radio singing act. His break in show business came during the 1930s while appearing in the Broadway hit "Brother Rat." Warner Bros. signed him to a contract and cast him in the play's 1938 film version (billed third after Ronald Reagan). In reports widely circulated at the time, Albert became involved with the wife of Jack L. Warner. The studio head then froze Albert under contract, not allowing him to appear in any film for any studio. It wasn't until 1974 that Albert performed again for Warner Bros., playing a police officer in the John Wayne thriller "McQ."
In 1939, while sailing off Baja California, Albert saw unusual activity on the waters and heard dockside rumours of secret submarine fueling stations being surveyed for by Japanese "fishermen." He reported what he heard to Army intelligence, which encouraged Albert to keep listening. While cooling his jets under Jack Warner's ban, he joined the Escalante Brothers Mexican circus as a clown and the 'flyer' in a six-man trapeze act. While touring Mexico, Albert gathered even more intelligence photographing German U-boat activity.
Albert served out the time limit on his studio contract by joining the U.S. Navy in World War II. He received a Bronze Star for his heroic rescue of wounded Marines caught in a deadly triple cross-fire during the bloody battle for Tarawa in the South Pacific. Inspired by his experience with military training films, he launched Eddie Albert Productions in 1946 and made 16mm industrial training films and educational films for schoolchildren. Two of his sex-education films, made in collaboration with the University of Oregon, drew the ire of Catholic leaders who contended that "Human Growth," a sex-education film for 11-year-olds, and "Human Beginnings," for 6-year-olds, might better be shown at home than in the classroom.
Albert eventually managed to rehabilitate his film career, beginning with "Smash-up" with Susan Hayward in 1947. He soon moved to the bright lights of television, appearing in shows such as "Playhouse 90," "Studio One" and "General Electric Theater." Albert earned critical praise for his portrayal of Winston Smith in a "Studio One" adaptation of George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," broadcast in September 1953. He starred in a short-lived situation comedy for CBS-TV titled "Leave It to Larry," was the host of the live variety shows "Nothing But the Best" and "Saturday Night Revue," and was host of a game show called "On Your Account."
His film credits include "Oklahoma!" "I'll Cry Tomorrow," "Teahouse of the August Moon," "The Sun Also Rises," "The Joker Is Wild," "Beloved Infidel," "The Young Doctors," "The Longest Day," "Captain Newman, M.D." and "Escape to Witch Mountain."
Albert continued to appear in films throughout the 1980s. Among his final appearances were roles in "Brenda Starr" and "The Big Picture" in 1989. In 1990, he appeared in "Return to Green Acres," a TV movie reunion. His last appearance before retiring was in 1995 in the TV movie "The Barefoot Executive" with Yvonne de Carlo.
Albert's son, Edward, became a prominent actor and was seen in "Butterflies Are Free," "40 Carats" and other films. Edward said he set his career aside for the past decade to aid his father. A lifelong fitness enthusiast, Albert was still active despite battling Alzheimer's. He was doing push-ups as recently as last month, and was shooting baskets from his wheelchair three days prior to his death.
Outside of the spotlight, Albert was active in humanitarian and environmental concerns. In the 1950s, he visited the Congo to discuss malnutrition with Dr. Albert Schweitzer. He stayed with Schweitzer for several months and later wrote about the experience. In 1963, Albert served as an envoy for Meals for Millions, a philanthropic project set up to provide nutritious, low-cost food to underprivileged people around the world.
In 1969, he flew to the Klondike in Canada's Yukon to find the cabin where Jack London searched for gold and did some of his writing. The cabin was found, dismantled and then reassembled in Oakland, California's Jack London Square. In the late 1960s, Albert's attention turned to ecology. In 1969, he accompanied a molecular biologist to observe the nesting of pelicans. What they found were thousands of collapsed pelican eggs due to the runoff of DDT which had been consumed by fish, and the fish in turn had been eaten by the pelicans.
Albert shared his ecological concerns on the "Tonight" and "Today" shows, and the TV appearances led to speaking invitations from high schools, universities, and industrial and religious groups. He formed a company to produce films to aid in "international campaigns against environmental pollution."
In 1970, Albert helped launch the first Earth Day on April 22 -- his birthday -- and later served as a consultant at the World Hunger Conference in Rome. He was also director of the U.S. Commission on Refugees, national conservation chairman for the Boy Scouts of America and chairman of the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation. In addition, he was a trustee of the National Recreation and Parks Association, and a consumer advisory board member of the U.S. Department of Energy.
For more about the environmental concern that share's Eddie Albert's birthday, visit Earth Days's official site. For more about the wacky world of "Green Acres," visit the show's entry at the Museum of Broadcast Communications.