Though he began singing as a soprano, Burgess Meredith’s recognizable voice won him a scholarship to the St. John Choir in New York City . Yet, in roles such as the Penguin in Batman and Rocky Balboa’s trainer in the Rocky movies, it’s that gravelly voice that we love and know so well. 

Born as Oliver Burgess Meredith on November 16, 1907, in Cleveland, Ohio , Meredith grew up the son of quarreling parents. He left his family’s home for New York City to sing in the St. John Choir and never returned. He attended Amherst College in Massachusetts , but never finished, having difficulty with his studies. In 1933 he joined Eva LeGallienne’s theatre company in New York , and spent the next three years on the stage. 

Meredith reprised the role of Mickey on three of the Rocky sequels and also voiced the part of Puff in the cartoon of Puff, the Magic Dragon. That famous voice gave him the chance to do voiceover work for commercials too, such as for United Airlines and Skippy Peanut Butter. Although he was well into his 70s, he continued to work filming the movies Clash of the Titans with Laurence Olivier, Twilight Zone: The Movie, and Santa Claus: The Movie with Dudley Moore. His last movie role was that of the father of Jack Lemmon in Grumpy Old Men and its sequel. 

Marrying a total of four times, it was Meredith’s last marriage to Kaja Sundsten that lasted for forty-seven years, until his death. They had two children together. He wrote an autobiography in his later years, So Far, So Good; in it he stated the reason he had been somewhat difficult to work with was because of his mood swings that were attributable to a form of bipolar disorder. Meredith died on September 9, 1997, from melanoma and Alzheimer’s disease. 

YUDDY