Overview (4)

Mini Bio (2)

A graduate of the University of Minnesota, Eddie Albert was a circus trapeze flier before becoming a stage and radio actor. He made his film debut in 1938 and has worked steadily since, often cast as the friendly, good-natured buddy of the hero but occasionally being cast as a villain; one of his most memorable roles was as the cowardly, glory-seeking army officer in Robert Aldrich's World War 2 film, Ardennen 1944 (1956).

- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Eddie Albert's television career is the earliest of any other American performer. It began years before electronic television was introduced to the public. In June of 1936 Eddie appeared in RCA/NBC's first private live performance for their radio licensees in New York City. This was very early experimental all electronic television system. Due to the primitive nature of these early cameras it was necessary for him to apply heavy make-up and endure tremendous heat from studio lighting. The basic makeup was green toned with purple lipstick for optimal image transmission by RCA's iconoscope pick up cameras. Since television was experimental Eddie Albert applied his own make-up and even wrote the script for this performance. His co-star was Grace Bradt.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Steve Restelli

Spouse (1)

Trade Mark (3)

His gruff, yet gentle voice





The role of Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres (1965).

Always spoke about environmental causes.



Trivia (88)

Served in the United States Navy during WWII



He was an active participant in the battle of Tarawa (Nov. 1943). Tarawa was one of the many bloody island battles of World War II and in the history of the U.S. Marine Corp. Albert was credited with rescuing up to 70 wounded Marines while under enemy fire. He accomplished this while he was skippering a relatively large landing craft. He was part of the first wave of attack. And made several trips to and from the landing zone. He was awarded the Bronze Star with a combat "V" for his bravery on that day. He did not speak about this publicly until it was mentioned several times in the 1990's in television documentaries about the battle. At the start of the war he enlisted in the Coast Guard. But later resigned his Coast Guard commission to accept a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve. And that's what led to him being a part of Battle of Tarawa.





He and his wife Margo , a Mexican actress/singer, whom he married after the war, had a nightclub act.



An avid environmentalist, he shared his concerns on TV on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) and Today (1952) shows and lectured everywhere from high schools and industrial conventions. He produced films to aid in campaigns against pollution. He also helped to launch the very first "Earth Day" on April 22, 1970, his birthday.



His son, Edward Albert , was his primary caregiver during his last years battling Alzheimer's Disease. Eddie was physically healthy and physically active up to just one month before his death at age 99.

His father was a Minnesota real estate agent.



Attended the University of Minnesota where he studied drama and helped pay tuition by managing film theaters and emceeing weekly stage shows. At Minneota he joined a song, dance, and patter group with Herb Nelson and Grace Bradt.



Hired by the United States government, he went on what appeared to be pleasure sailing expeditions in Mexican waters. What he was actually doing was gathering reportable information on Nazi and Japanese activities in and around the two Mexican territories on the Baja California peninsula of Mexico (since 1953, the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur). As part of the same effort, he also joined a Mexican circus act, owned by the Escalante Brothers, as a clown and "flyer" in a trapeze act, and while touring with the circus, gathered intelligence for the U.S. government.



Also presided over a game show and two variety shows in the early 1950s.



His real name was Eddie Albert Heimberger. He changed his name early on while he was singing on radio with a trio. It seems the announcer kept introducing him as "Eddie Hamburger" so he dropped his last name and adopted his middle name as his last.





Turned down the lead series roles in Meine drei Söhne (1960) and Mister Ed (1958) in order to actively pursue his movie career.



Buried not too far from his Green Acres (1965) co-star Eva Gabor at Westwood Memorial in Los Angeles, California.

He wrote the first original drama for television in 1936 as well as writing dozens of small scripts for RCA.





Classmate (Minneapolis Central High School, 1926) of actress Ann Sothern , then known as Harriette Lake.



His son, Edward Albert , died just over a year after his father, from lung cancer.



Three of the surviving cast members of Green Acres (1965) attended his funeral, on 26 May 2005, co-star, Tom Lester was not present. Albert once stated Lester was his closest and best friend.

He had 12 hobbies: jogging, swimming, golfing, world travel, organic gardening, sculpting, beekeeping, wine making, sailing, boating, reading and playing guitar.



Began his career as a contract player for Warner Bros. in 1936.



Before he was a successful actor, he almost did everything at an early age, from working as a newspaper boy to that of an insurance salesman.





Best remembered by the public for his starring role as the big-city lawyer turned farmer Oliver Wendell Douglas in Green Acres (1965).

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 5-7. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale, 2007.





When his son Edward Albert was 18, he and his father sailed to Anacapa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park, located about 11 miles off the coast of Ventura County, California, to examine the effects of DDT on the pelican population.

While in elementary school, during World War I, he was taunted as "the enemy" by his classmates, due to his Germanic surname of Heimberger (later dropped, for professional reasons, in favor of his given middle name, Albert).





To hide the fact that he was born out of wedlock, his mother altered his birth certificate to read 1908. However, his son, Edward Albert , confirmed Eddie Sr. was actually born in 1906.

Graduated from Central High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1924.



Born at 11:30 am, central time zone.



In high school, he joined the Drama Department.



Founder of City Children's Farms, a program for involving inner-city children in farming, and the Eddie Albert Trees Foundation.



Was a spokesperson for the National Arbor Day Foundation from 1985 to 1993.





Was a huge fan of Falcon Crest (1981) that starred his old friend Jane Wyman , and had a recurring role in 1987.



His wife, Margo , died in 1985, just five months before the couple's 40th wedding anniversary.



Met his future wife, Margo , while on leave of duty. They were married in December 1945, after Eddie's discharge from the U.S. Navy.

Before he was a successful actor, he was also a soda jerk and a singer in a pop band.





He was very disappointed when Green Acres was canceled at the end of the sixth season, due to the infamous "rural purge" of American television network programming (particularly on CBS). The "rural purge" was widespread series cancellations, beginning in 1969 and lasting until 1972, and due to the inclusion of new statistical demographics from television ratings agency Neilsen, and sponsors alarmed by the older, "more countrified" audiences for the shows canceled. Of the cancellations, almost all were still popular rural-themed shows with similarly skewed rural audiences, and took place at the end of the 1970-1971 television season. Included in the purge were all three of Paul Henning produced country comedies, The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963), and Green Acres (1965).

Was an active Democrat.





Was raised in the same city as Ann Sothern



Won the role of Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres (1965), because he knew and was hired by producer/creator Paul Henning

In 1946, he served as Executive Producer of Eddie Albert Productions.





After his guest-starring role on Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), he retired from acting at age 91.



Met Jane Wyman on the set of Brother Rat (1938), where the two began a lifelong friendship, from 1938, until Albert's own death in 2005. He would also have a recurring role opposite her on Falcon Crest (1981).

In 1933, he traveled to New York City, where he co-hosted on the popular radio show, The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show, which ran for three years.



His paternal grandfather, Jacob Henry Heimberger, was of German descent, and his paternal grandmother, Mary L. Frillman, was a German immigrant, from Lübeck.





Eddie Albert passed away on May 26, 2005. Just 1 day after his death, the remake of his 1974 movie Spiel ohne Regeln (2005) was released, which Burt Reynolds also appeared in this movie.



Guest starred on the first episode of Ein Colt für alle Fälle (1981).

Served as director of the U.S. Council on Refugees.



Appeared on the front cover of TV Guide five times.





Met Buddy Ebsen on the set of Ardennen 1944 (1956), where the two began a lifelong friendship, from 1956, until Ebsen's own death in 2003.

Began acting at a very early age.



Sang in the church choir.





Met a young, unfamiliar actress Shirley Jones on the set of Oklahoma (1955), where the two began a lifelong friendship, from 1955 until Albert's own death in 2005.

Prior to becoming a successful actor, he was a successful singer.



Was a spokesperson for Beltone Products in the 1980s.



Was also a popular conference speaker about birds.





His Green Acres (1965) co-star, Eva Gabor , who played his wife in the series, was thirteen years younger than Albert.

Served as National Chairman for the Boy Scouts of America's Conservation Program.





Met Oscar Hammerstein in 1939, starring in the Broadway smash, On Your Toes, adapted for the screen, and later starred in Oklahoma (1955).

Albert narrated and starred in a 1970 film promoting the views of Weyerhaeuser, a major international forestry products concern.



His father, Frank Daniel Heimberger, died in 1970. His father lived to be 96.



Resided in Pacific Palisades, California. His house was a Spanish-style house on an acre of land with a cornfield in the front yard.



Moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his family, when Eddie was age 1.





Attended the funeral of his former Green Acres (1965) co-star, Eva Gabor , when the actress passed away on July 4, 1995.

Was an enthusiastic agronomist and turned his front yard into a cornfield and his backyard into a vegetable garden.



Albert had a successful night club act in the mid-50s, playing Vegas, Miami, and New York's Waldorf-Astoria.



From 1945 through 1952 he produced a series of fourteen educational two-reelers in 16mm. Two sex-education films directed to pre-teens, "Human Beginnings" and "Human Growth," were still in use almost forty years later. Albert also produced industrial documentaries.





His home was previously owned by silent star Billie Dove

He served in the Naval Reserve during World War II and fought in the Battle of Tarawa. He was awarded the Bronze Star with a Combat "V" for valor after rescuing 47 stranded Marines while skippering a landing craft as an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve. He also supervised in the rescue of another 30 Marines later as part of one of the many trips he back to and from the landing zone.





On Green Acres (1965), his character owned a farm, in real-life, he embarked on a non-profit organization for inner-city children from all over the country, to give them a unique opportunity to live and work together for a week at a time on a real farm in the heart of the countryside.

12 years after his death, his former Pacific Palisades house has been placed on the market for $19.5 million. [23 October 2017].



Was attached to the Military Intelligence Service during World War II under the supervision of Hank Fine at the OSS.



Personal Quotes (26)

I don't really care how I am remembered as long as I bring happiness and joy to people.



What's the most important thing in the world? It's love, and I look at that as an energy, not a sentiment.





[on why he accepted the role on Green Acres (1965)]: Everyone gets tired of the rat race. Everyone would like to chuck it all and grow some carrots. It's basic. Sign me. I knew it would be successful. Had to be. It's about the atavistic urge, and people have been getting a charge out of that ever since Aristophanes wrote about the plebes and the city folk.



[on his post-war career]: I took everything they could throw at me, pictures like Abenteuer im wilden Westen (1948) and Seine Frau hilft Geld verdienen (1950). I worked myself back up, but I never wanted to be a star. I was aiming to play the star's best friend.

[When asked about doing newspapers at an early age, and missed some of the people he kept in contact]: You throw a paper on the porch, but you don't sit down and have a talk...and that's where the real education comes from. And so I missed those best years and I find it difficult for me, in groups, to be comfortable. It's a little late to find that out.



[In a personal journal he has written]: By the time I leave this Earth, I hope to have improved our relationships here and now, so that in the next generation my son, daughter and friends have my shoulders on which to stand, so it's easier to make their contribution.





[on Green Acres (1965)]: The comedy is like "Pickwick Papers", or "Gulliver's Travels", or Voltaire . It's so far out that it becomes truth, deep truth.



[About Green Acres (1965)]: The show is a comment on how insane our society is. The writing was very light and very weird, but it had a profound base under it that none of us knew. Come to think of it, neither did we.

Our priority today, as I see it, is not just conservation, but survival. Not the moon or Mars or even Vietnam, but keeping ourselves alive!



Mankind must survive, the extinction of our national forestry, birds and fish must be stopped. For without it, we face total disaster. We must try to clean up this country's air and water system.





[While having a recurring role as Oliver Wendell Douglas on Petticoat Junction (1963), he continues to play the same character on its spin-off show, Green Acres (1965)]: But that doesn't mean that the work must be monotonous. Monotony is within one's self. Certainly Thoreau didn't find it monotonous in his little shed at Walden Pond.

[In 1965]: I'm allergic to monotony, not to work.



[In 1966]: You can't just push a button and turn on a blaze of family happiness, you must feel close all the time, every day.



[In 1987]: I said I shouldn't really discuss that, because if we really did, she'd faint. But I said, 'The lady of the house here, she lets me sleep with her.' And she kind of went, 'umph mumph' and left.



[on turning 82 in 1988]: I'm happy to be alive. I've had three pieces of cake otherwise I'm looking after my health.



I've always had it. I have a little garden where I grow vegetables. And I always wanted to own a small piece of land, near the woods - not to make a buck, but to watch things grow.



[Of his interest lying with ecology]: I've been a conservationist all my life, but in the last four years, times have changed, and the problem is not so much conservation as it is human survival.



[Who asked and answered London's question in 1969]: You remember London's story, 'To Build a Fire'? He wrote it in that cabin. Another man and I started to walk the 18 miles from the cabin to Henderson's Creek. It was about 32 below, but it began growing colder. I remembered how London wrote about testing the temperature - if your spit exploded on the ice, it was 50 below; if it exploded in midair, it was 75 below. That story haunted me as we walked. It was about a miner who stepped in an alkaline stream and got his foot wet and desperately tried to build a fire before the foot froze. A lot of London's writing was hurried and awkward, but this was beautifully written - sheer poetry.





[on starring in Die Zwei mit dem Dreh (1975)]: The power of television is so great that I know it's making an impression. But it's difficult to say which impression it is. If you ask me if television and newspapers are creating an attitude of apathy. I'd have to say yes there, too. People are just so surfeited.

[In 1975]: People don't know how good vegetables taste, until they grow their own, and it's also very comforting to know you can still provide for yourself in this day and age.



[In 1976]: You have to recognize that some of these shows are mainly for diversion and laughs, and not wear out your welcome or take advantage of their courtesy. But I get a couple of points in there. If I talk for five minutes about gardens for children, I can make it entertaining and at the same time, hopefully do some good. And this has become my bag.





[Of Robert Wagner 's Die Zwei mit dem Dreh (1975) character]: Pete is a ex-con man, a man who lives against the law. He knows a fellow who can get into the safe at midnight. Mac doesn't want to know about that, but Pete gets the information and he's in no position to complain.

My real concentration is the development of bluegreen algae. It is an organic substance which he says will act as a fertilizer and allow farming with only a small amount of water.



[on his popularity while playing the seventy-something Frank MacBride on Switch]: What else is there? It can't be the plots. They're the same as for every other detective show on the air.



Because I couldn't get work in pictures, I put a club act together with my wife and it caught on pretty well. Finally, Ed Sullivan invited us to appear on Toast of the Town.



[on reviving "Room Service" with son Edward] Comedy is the most difficult thing to play, and I wanted to give Edward a lesson in doing farce.

