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Meredith, Burgess obit News_Asbury Park Press19970911_

20260103GHLn-
Burgess Meredith, 89 Crusty Old Pug, Los Angeles
Asbury Park Press
Asbury Park, New Jersey •
Thu, Sep 11, 1997 p4
CLIPPED BY
wetzupdoc • 03 January 2026

• Burgess Meredith and Margo are seen in this 1936 file photo from the first of his many films, "Winterset." The actor died Tuesday at age 89 from melanoma and Alzheimer's disease.
Burgess Meredith, 89
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - Burgess Meredith, who played a crusty old pug in "Rocky" and d waddled with aristocratic elan as the Penguin on TV's "Batman," died Tuesday at 89 in his home in Malibu. He had melanoma and Alzheimer's disease.
"Rocky," in which Meredith played Sylvester Stallone's scowling, gravelly-voiced manager, was the actor's first smash hit in a 60-year film career filled with memorable roles.
He was guardian of the dimwitted giant in "Of Mice and Men," Ginger Rogers' suitor in "Tom, Dick and Harry," war correspondent Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe," James Madison in "Magnificent Doll."
Although twice nominated for Oscars, for supporting actor in "Day of the Locust" in 1975 and "Rocky" in 1976, he didn't win either.
During the 1960s, he was best known as Batman's foe the Penguin, a role he played in tuxedo with top hat, cigarette holder and pince-nez.
"I waddled like a penguin, which seemed rather obvious to do," he once said. "The touch I liked was that peculiar penguinlike quack I used in my lines.'
Mr. Meredith won a supportingactor Emmy in 1977 for the drama special "Tail Gunner Joe," as attorney Joseph Welch in the story of Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
A compact person with unruly, sandy hair, Mr. Meredith had a quirky, warm voice that was often heard on commercials for United Air Lines and Skippy peanut butter.
He sometimes wrote, directed or produced his films. In later years the stage-trained actor often took roles that seemed beneath his status as one of America's distinguished performers.
"If I spent all my time in Shakespearean companies and only did art movies like Olivier, my position would be more dignified and more serious," he said in 1967. "I might even be a better actor. But this is America, and I'm a man moved by the rhythms of his time, so I'll just take amusement at being a paradox."
Born in Cleveland, his son said he was 89 when he died, making the year of his birth 1907. Other references say he was born on Nov. 16, 1908, or 1909.
He was educated at Amherst College in Massachusetts before beginning his stage career in 1933 with Eva Le Gallienne's company in New York.
Maxwell Anderson's "Winterset" provided his star-making stage role as the tragic hero Mio. He repeated the role in the 1936 film version and thereafter divided his time between Broadway and Hollywood.
Mr. Meredith was married four times: to Helen Derby, actresses Margaret Perry and Paulette Goddard, and dancer Kaja Sundsten.
He is survived by his wife, Ms. Sundsten, his son, Jonathan, and his daughter, Tala..

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