Born in November 16, 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, Burgess Meredith is a two-time Oscar-nominated actor best known for his role as Rocky Balboa’s trainer in the Rocky films and the Penguin in the Batman series. Meredith graduated from Hoosac School in 1926 then eventually attended Amherst College and graduated in 1931. He became a member of a theater company in New York in 1933 and played considerable attention in a 1939 adaptation of Of Mice and Men.
Burgess Meredith’s career blossomed in the 1940s. Most memorable of which are On Our Merry Way, Second Chorus and Diary of a Chambermaid. It was also right this time when he started playing the role of Batman. He became the show’s standard villain as his performance was so well-received. During the outbreak of the war, he served in the United States Army Air Forces. He was blacklisted in the 1950s amidst the Communist scare in the U.S.
Moreover, it is said that Burgess Meredith is one of those rare people who can play both dramatic and comedic roles, either hero or villain. He appeared in the iconic The Twilight Zone four times, a record which he shares only with Jack Klugman. In a production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, Meredith was able to combine his comedic and dramatic skills in the philosophical field. In 1977, he won an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting-Actor in a Comedy or Drama Special. He claimed that he suffered from violent mood swings courtesy of cyclothimia, which is a form of bipolar disorder. He died of Alzheimer’s disease and melanoma on September 9, 1997. He was 89.