Eddie Albert

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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.

1 Early life
2 Career
3 Private life
4 Filmography
5 External links

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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".

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Career

In 1936, Albert became one of the first television actors, performing live in RCA's first television broadcast, a promotion for their New York City radio stations. In 1938, Albert made his feature film debut in Brother Rat, playing cadet "Bing" Edwards, a role he had originally performed on Broadway. 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 would describe 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.

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. 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 reunited with Eva Gabor for a Return To Green Acres television movie a few years later.

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Private life

Albert married actress María Marguerita Guadalupe Boldao y Castilla O'Donnell (better known by her stage name Margo) on December 5, 1945, and they remained together until her death on July 17, 1985. The couple had two children: Edward Albert, an actor like his parents, and Maria, a businesswoman.

Albert was active in a number of causes. He and his family helped support Plaza de la Raza, a center for Hispanic arts and education. Albert produced a number of educational films for children and also organized City Children's Farms, a program for creating gardens in inner cities. Albert was also very active in environmental concerns. He was one of the first people who called for a ban on DDT. International Earth Day was designated on April 22, partly in honor of his birthday.

Eddie Albert suffered from Alzheimer's disease, but he was reported to have been doing regular exercise almost until the day he died, which Alzheimer's patients are usually not able to do.

He died at the age of 99 at his home in Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles, California, of pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. His death coincided with the release of the remake of The Longest Yard, starring Adam Sandler and Burt Reynolds.

For his contribution to the television industry, Eddie Albert has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6441 Hollywood Boulevard.

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