This Military Service Page was created/owned by
A3C Michael S. Bell (Unit Historian)
to remember
Meredith, Oliver Burgess, Capt.
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Contact Info
Home Town Cleveland, OH
Last Address Malibu, CA
Date of Passing Sep 09, 1997
Wall/Plot Coordinates Cremated, Ashes given to family or friend
Burgess Meredith (Actor)
(Oliver Burgess Meredith)
b. 16 Nov 1907 – d. 9 Sep 1997 US Army Air Force1942-1945 (World War II)
Already an established actor, on 27 Feb 1942, Burgess put his career on hold during and joined the United States Army Air Corps, where he eventually reached the rank of Captain. He transferred to the Office of War Information and was involved in making films for GIs. He was discharged in 1945 to work on the movie The Story of G.I. Joe, in which he starred as the popular war correspondent Ernie Pyle.
During his service, in 1943, Meredith starred in the military short film, Rear Gunner. A rousing recruitment film for the Army Air Corps where a young rural enlistee is initially disappointed with his job as an air mechanic, but his great marksmanship skills make him an ideal tail gunner . (Warner Brothers, 4/10/43 - 20 min.)
One of the truly great and gifted performers of the century who often suffered lesser roles, Meredith was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1907 and educated in Amherst College in Massachusetts before joining Eva Le Gallienne's stage company in New York City in 1933. He bcame a favorite of dramatist Maxwell Anderson, premiering on film in the playwright's Winterset (1936). Served in the Air Force in WWII. He continued in a variety of dramatic and comedic roles until being named an unfriendly witness by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the early 1950s, whereupon studio work disappeared. His career picked up again, especially with television roles, in the 1960s, although younger audiences know him best for either the Rocky (1976) or Grumpy Old Men (1993) films. Meredith also did a large amount of commercial work, serving as the voice for Skippy Peanut Butter and United Air Lines, among others. He was also an ardent environmentalist who believed pollution one of the greatest tragedies of the time, and an opponent of the Vietnam War.
