Eddie Albert

Edward Albert Heimberger (April 22, 1906 – May 26, 2005) was an American actor and humanitarian.

Edward Albert Heimberger was born in Rock Island, Illinois, on April 22, 1906, the eldest of the five children of Frank Daniel Heimberger, a real estate agent, and his wife, Julia Jones.

His year of birth is often given as 1908, but this is incorrect.

His parents were not married when Albert was born, and his mother altered his birth certificate after her marriage.

When he was one year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Young Edward secured his first job as a newspaper boy when he was only six.

During World War I, his German surname led to taunts as "the enemy" by his classmates.

He studied at Central High School in Minneapolis and joined the drama club.

His schoolmate Harriet Lake (later known as actress Ann Sothern) graduated in the same class.

Finishing high school in 1926, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business.

When he graduated, Albert embarked on a business career.

However, the stock market crash in 1929 left him essentially unemployed.

He then took odd jobs, working as a trapeze performer, an insurance salesman, and a nightclub singer.

Albert stopped using his last name professionally because it invariably was mispronounced as "Hamburger".

In the 1930s, Albert performed in Broadway stage productions, including Brother Rat, which opened in 1936.

He moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show, The Honeymooners – Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years.

At the show's end, he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros.

In 1936, Albert had also become one of the earliest television actors, performing live in one of RCA's first television broadcasts in association with NBC, a promotion for their New York City radio stations.

Performing regularly on early television, Albert wrote and performed in the first teleplay, titled The Love Nest, written for television.

Done live (not recorded on film), this production took place November 6, 1936 and originated in Studio 3H (now 3K) in the GE Building at Rockefeller Center (then called the RCA Building) in New York City and was broadcast over NBC's experimental television station W2XBS (now WNBC-TV).

Hosted by Betty Goodwin, The Love Nest starred Albert, Hildegarde, The Ink Spots, Ed Wynn, and actress Grace Bradt.

Before this time, television productions were adaptations of stage plays.

He had lead roles in Room Service (1937–1938) and The Boys from Syracuse (1938–1939).

Albert landed the starring role in the 1938 Broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse, and met Burl Ives, who had a small role in the play.

The two later briefly shared an apartment in the Beachwood Canyon community of Hollywood after Ives moved west the following year.

Also in 1938, Albert made his feature-film debut in the Hollywood version of Brother Rat with Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman, reprising his Broadway role as cadet "Bing" Edwards.

The next year, he starred in On Your Toes, adapted for the screen from the Broadway smash by Rodgers and Hart.

On September 9, 1942, Albert enlisted in the United States Coast Guard and was discharged in 1943 to accept an appointment as a lieutenant in the U.S. Naval Reserve.

He was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his actions during the invasion of Tarawa in November 1943, when, as the coxswain of a US Navy landing craft, he rescued 47 Marines who were stranded offshore (and supervised the rescue of 30 others), while under heavy enemy machine-gun fire.

During the war years, Albert returned to films, starring in ones such as The Great Mr. Nobody, Lady Bodyguard, and Ladies' Day, as well as reuniting with Reagan and Wyman for An Angel from Texas and co-starring with Humphrey Bogart in The Wagons Roll at Night.

After the war, he resumed appearing in leading roles, including 1947's Smash-Up, the Story of a Woman, with Susan Hayward.

From 1948 on, Albert guest-starred in nearly 90 television series.

He made his guest-starring debut on an episode of The Ford Theatre Hour.

This part led to other roles such as Chevrolet Tele-Theatre, Suspense, Lights Out, Schlitz Playhouse of Stars, Studio One, Philco Television Playhouse, Your Show of Shows, Front Row Center, The Alcoa Hour, and in dramatic series The Eleventh Hour, The Reporter, and General Electric Theater.

He was twice nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; the first nomination came in 1954 for his performance in Roman Holiday, and the second in 1973 for The Heartbreak Kid.

In 1959, Albert was cast as businessman Dan Simpson in the episode "The Unwilling" of the series Riverboat.

In the story, Dan Simpson attempts to open a general store in the American West despite a raid from pirates on the Mississippi River, who stole from him $20,000 in merchandise.

He starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas in the 1960s television sitcom Green Acres and as Frank MacBride in the 1970s crime drama Switch.

He also had a recurring role as Carlton Travis on Falcon Crest, with Jane Wyman.

Other well-known screen roles of his include Bing Edwards in the Brother Rat films, traveling salesman Ali Hakim in the musical Oklahoma!, and the sadistic prison warden in 1974's The Longest Yard.