"Green Acres" star Eddie Albert dead at 99

Posted:
May 27, 2005

Actor Eddie Albert, whose half-century in movies and television was capped by his starring turn as Park Avenue lawyer-turned-farmer Oliver Douglas in Green Acres, died Thursday at 99.

Albert, the first bona fide TV performer in history, died of pneumonia at his home in the Pacific Palisades area, family friend Dick Guttman said Friday. He was in the presence of son Edward Laurence Albert and his longtime caregivers, Guttman told the Los Angeles Times.

Edward, an actor in his own right, was holding his hand at the time. "He died so beautifully and so gracefully that literally, this morning, I don't feel grief, I don't feel loss," Edward Albert (the star of such films as Butterflies Are Free) told the Associated Press.

Eddie Albert's television career began in June 1936, when he appeared in RCA/NBC's first private live performance for its radio licensees in New York. The experimental electronic television system, which used primitive cameras, forced Albert to don green makeup with purple lipstick. Albert applied his own makeup, even writing the script for his appearance with co-star Grace Brandt.

He narrated (and voiced the role of the Once-ler) in The Lorax, a 1972 DePatie-Freleng Enterprises animated special for CBS, which was based on the book by Dr. Seuss. The ecological theme of the special was well-suited for Albert, an outspoken environmentalist.

Albert also had a voice role in the animated Our Mr. Sun (1956). Directed, produced and written by Frank Capra, the Emmy-winning CBS program was the first show on Bell Telephone Science Hour, and was one of the first color programs on TV.

He voiced the leading role of Captain Miles Standish on The Mouse on the Mayflower, a Thanksgiving-themed Rankin-Bass special, which aired on NBC in 1968.

In Marvel Productions' Spider-Man: The Animated Series, he guested as Old Vulture on the 1995 episodes Neogenic Nightmare, Chapter XIII: Shriek of the Vultureand Neogenic Nightmare, Chapter XIV: The Final Nightmare, reprising the role in Partners In Danger, Chapter V: Partners(1997).

Albert was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease about a decade ago, but remained active and happy, staying at home since then, his son said.

Blond and blue-eyed, Albert was best-known for corn-fed comedy Green Acres, which aired on CBS from 1965 to 1971. He played befuddled New York lawyer Oliver Wendell Douglas, who decided to go back on the farm by quitting his practice and buying (sight unseen) an old 160-acre farm near "Hooterville." Glamorous Eva Gabor portrayed Lisa, his socialite wife. The spin-off of Petticoat Junction (also set in Hooterville) had a supporting cast which included con man Mr. Haney, who sold the big-city couple the fixer-upper.

Albert was nominated for two Academy Awards for best supporting actor. The first came after his appearance in 1953's Roman Holiday as Gregory Peck's news photographer friend.

For his role as Cybill Shepherd's wealthy father in 1972 Neil Simon-Elaine May comedy The Heartbreak Kid, he received his second Oscar nomination.

Albert appeared in nearly 100 films, including musicals and dramas as well as comedies. These included 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.

In director Robert Aldrich's 1974 comedy-drama The Longest Yard, starring Burt Reynolds, Albert turned villain as a sadistic warden. His roles in The Teahouse of the August Moon and The Longest Yard earned him Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actor -- Motion Picture.

"There's no actor working today who can be as truly malignant as Eddie Albert. He plays heavies exactly the way they are in real life. Slick and sophisticated," Aldrich told TV Guide in 1975, when Albert co-starred as a retired cop alongside Robert Wagner in private-eye drama Switch, which ran on CBS for three seasons.

Eddie Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger in Rock Island, Illinois, the son of a real estate agent.

His birthdate is often given as April 22, 1908. However, the younger Albert said, he actually was born in 1906, and his mother was unmarried at the time. After marrying, she changed her son's birth certificate to read 1908, Edward Albert said.

When Albert was a year old, his family moved to Minneapolis. He studied drama at the University of Minnesota, paying his way by washing dishes and managing a movie theater at nights. He emceed a weekly magic show and sang at amateur nights.

Leaving the university in his junior year, he joined a musical trio which performed on a local radio station. He dropped his last name and used his middle name for his last after announcers kept calling him "Eddie Hamburger" on the air.

Albert worked in summer stock, and landed his first Broadway role in O Evening Star (1935). Although the play closed in less than a week, he returned to Broadway in 1936, co-starring in George Abbott's hit military comedy Brother Rat. He reassumed in his stage role in the Warner Bros. film version of Brother Rat in 1938, which marked his movie debut.

During the Second World War, Albert served in the United States Navy. He was credited with braving enemy fire during 26 rescue missions saving wounded Marines during the battle of Tarawa, one of the bloodiest of the war. He was awarded the Bronze Star with a combat "V" for rescuing 70 Marines during the 1943 battle.

During the 1950s, Albert appeared on TV in such live dramas as Playhouse 90, Studio One and General Electric Theater. He also hosted variety series and a game show.

In 1960, he returned to Broadway, replacing Robert Preston in the title role in The Music Man.

Albert became active in ecology in the 1960s, forming a new company to produce films to aid in "international campaigns against environmental pollution." He helped launch the first Earth Day in 1970 and served as a special consultant at the World Hunger Conference in Rome in 1974.

He was also director to the United States Commission on Refugees, national conservation chairman for the Boy Scouts of America and chairman of the Eddie Albert World Trees Foundation. He was a trustee of the National Recreation and Parks Association and a consumer advisory board member of the U.S. Department of Energy.

He was a semi-regular on TV's Falcon Crest in 1988.

Eddie Albert was married to former dancer-actress Margo for 39 years until her death in 1985. In addition to his son, Albert is survived by daughter Maria Albert Zucht, and by two granddaughters. Private services are planned.




Eddie Albert and co-star Grace Brandt apply makeup in preparation for The Love Nest, an experimental NBC telecast on November 6, 1936. TV's first original drama, it was written by Albert himself.