Sitcom fans who watched "Green Acres" religiously may remember Eddie Albert best as Oliver Douglas,
the city lawyer turned farmer.
A peak into his life would be enough to know he was a man of many talents.
Eddie had a long and interesting life, and his film career was only one part of it.
Come along as we delve into the world of Eddie Albert and what he made of his uniqueness.
EARLY LIFE AND LIFE IN THE ARMY Eddie Albert Heimberger, the eldest of five
children, was born on April 22, 1906.
He was born and raised in Minnesota and began his career as a paperboy at the tender age
of six.
When Albert was in school, it was around the period of World War I, and he was constantly
teased about having a German surname.
Later, he abandoned the name as members of the entertainment business repeatedly misheard
it and referred to it as "Hamburger."
After receiving his business degree from the University of Minnesota, Albert tried his
hand at the business world.
The 1929 stock market crash, however, made it extremely difficult for him to make headway.
Albert was a guy of many talents, and he made ends meet by performing as a trapeze artist,
selling insurance, and singing in nightclubs.
While living in New York in 1933, he became one half of the radio duo Grace and Eddie,
who hosted the show The Honeymooners.
Soon after, he was acting on Broadway and on television shows.
In 1938, Albert made his way to Hollywood with the release of "Brother Rat," his first
feature film.
In contrast to many other well-known soldiers, Albert enlisted in the military after achieving
fame in the entertainment industry.
His skills happened to be exactly what the military was looking for at the time.
Before World War II, Albert posed as a clown and high-wire performer while touring Mexico
for Army intelligence, where he photographed U-boats.
He later joined the Navy in 1942.
Eddie Albert, newly enlisted in the Navy, went to Tarawa not as a marine but as a salvage
officer on the ship Sheridan.
His initial assignment was to deliver a squad of marines and a supply of supplies to the
shore.
Unbeknownst to him, many marines had been left stranded offshore earlier that day because
of an error in the tidal calculations.
Due to a tidal calculation error, the only landing craft that could get past the encircling
reefs of the island were the LVTs (Landing Vehicle Tracked).
However, a large number of LVTs were disabled when machine gun fire from enemies blew holes
in their unarmored hulls.
The Higgins boats, which were originally intended for usage, would have been better suited for
the mission because they gave more cover for the soldiers in the boat and could take small
arms fire, but they were unable to clear the reef.
After the bulk of the shooting had stopped, Eddie was ordered back in an attempt to retrieve
any useful equipment that had been left behind.
Because of the presence of coral reefs, the Marines had to land around 500 yards away
from the shore.
Enemy soldiers began picking them off one by one, and soon the waterways were clogged
with over a hundred injured and many more dead.
Albert abandoned his task of retrieving equipment and instead began rescuing marines.
In total, he captured 47 and supervised the rescue of another 30.
Albert was awarded a Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his efforts at the Battle of Tarawa.
He was eventually let out of the Navy so that he could become an officer in the Naval Reserve.
HOW HE BECAME PART OF GREEN ACRES Before serving in the Coast Guard during World
War II, Eddie Albert began his Hollywood career in the late 1930s, after having investigated
Nazi operations in Mexico as a spy for the United States government.
Throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, he served in the military while still making
many film appearances year.
He had been in films like Roman Holiday, The Sun Also Rises, and Oklahoma!
before making the transition to the new medium of television, but he never stopped considering
himself a film actor.
In reality, Albert was shying away from unfit roles, according to a 1966 piece in TV Guide.
When offered parts in My Three Sons and Mr. Ed, he declined them because he initially
believed that television was soo mediocre.
However, it was more that.
He really hadn't yet encountered a character with whom he could identify deeply.
After the success of Petticoat Junction and The Beverly Hillbillies, CBS gave prolific
producer Paul Henning a blank check to create a third series.
He turned to writer Jay Sommers, who had previously created a radio show in 1950 called Granby's
Green Acres about a banker who tries his hand at farming.
One of the most popular television series of the 1960s was created when creator Stephen
J. Sommers reduced the original title and transformed the banker into a lawyer.
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In Eddie Albert's words, all it took was hearing about the new show in one line for him to
sign up.
After hearing his agent's pitch, Albert responded well with the theme of the show, which was
about a city slicker moving to the countryside to escape the aggravations of city existence.
Obviously, this is a fundamental concept, and he was glad to be a part of it.
As TV Guide reports, Albert even waxed philosophical, citing the works of Aristophanes, a Greek
playwright, and Henry David Thoreau, an American writer, and naturalist.
While Albert's use of jargon-filled vocabulary left viewers scratching their heads like farmhand
Eb Dawson, his message was well delivered.
HIS POST-WAR CAREER AND ENDEAVORS Now that he was done with his government job,
Eddie could focus on his acting career without any interruptions.
By the time he finally retired, he had already made an appearance in over 100 films.
He has both a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the National Society of Film Critics
award for his performance.
His own show, The Eddie Albert Show, premiered in 1953.
His most famous parts were in "Oklahoma!"
(1955) and "The Teahouse of the August Moon" (1957), but his depiction as a cowardly Army
Captain in "Attack" (1956) is often considered his best work (1956).
Likewise, "The Longest Yard," starring Burt Reynolds, features a remarkable performance
from Albert as the film's icy jail warden (1974).
When asked why he didn't receive bigger parts, he would always say that he never wanted to
be the star, just the best friend of the star.
This tactic paid off when he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his
role as Gregory Peck's pal in "Roman Holiday" (1953).
Even before it was cool, Albert was an environmentalist and social crusader who often voiced his opinions
on talk shows in the 1960s and 1970s.
His involvement with Meals for Millions led to his appointment as the organization's special
envoy.
Meals for Millions was an initiative that provided nutritional resources for underdeveloped
nations at a cost of roughly three cents per meal.
In total, 129 countries have received food totaling 6.5 million pounds so far, and the
distribution continues.
To provide urban youth with access to farming, he also established City Children's Farms.
As a fellow environmentalist, Eddie battled against toxins like DTT.
DTT is hazardous to a wide variety of marine organisms and has been shown to reduce eggshell
thickness in birds like the Bald Eagle.
In addition to his work with the Cub Scouts, Eddie Albert was also the national head of
the Boy Scouts of America.
The environmental awareness campaigns' films he helped create were used in his speeches
at venues ranging from high schools to industry conventions.
On his 22nd birthday, April 22, 1970, Albert spoke at the first ever "Earth Day" celebration.
Despite having a wide variety of passions, Albert's acting career continued unabated.
With age, he became better and more powerful looking.
In "The Heartbreak Kid" (1972), he earned his second Oscar nomination for his act as
Cybill Shepard's irascible father.
His family Eddie married Mexican actress Margo in 1945.
There were also those who judged Margo harshly because of her alleged affiliation with the
American Communist Party.
Both Margo and Eddie were included in the pamphlet Red Channels, which tried to expose
communist inclinations.
They had a son named Edward Jr. and then adopted a daughter named Maria.
Following in his father's footsteps, Edward Jr. also became an actor, and his performance
in Butterflies Are Free earned him a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year.
More than that, he continued his father's legacy of environmental activism and advocacy
for Native American rights.
Maria is now in charge of Eddie's company.
Eddie Albert's family was horrified by his Alzheimer's disease diagnosis in his later
years.
On the 26 of March 2005, at the age of 99, he lost his fight against pneumonia.
He and his wife have a grave in Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery.
Throughout his life, Eddie never once complained that his life's work had been overshadowed
by a comedic but occasionally ridiculous television show in which he frequently appeared alongside
a neighbour's pig.
Eddie Albert on Letting God Lead In January 1962, Eddie recounted the story
of how he and his wife followed their faith during the adoption of Maria.
According to the details of the story, Eddie had dinner in Paris with Art Buchwald in 1959.
The first time he was ever away from his wife and son, he began to worry that his family
wasn't big enough.
However, After the birth of Edward, Eddie's son, they had a hard time conceiving another
child.
They eventually submitted their information to adoption agencies around the country, but
after several years, they still had not been matched with a kid.
He complained to Art about how challenging and time-consuming the adoption procedure
was.
Through that, he learned about the Spanish orphanage that had over 2000 children.
Eddie planned to visit the orphanage in Madrid, which houses over 2,000 children, the following
day.
As he walked, he tried to figure out how he was going to select one child out of 2,000.
His attempts to describe the indefinable bond between humans fell short.
When he couldn't think of anything else to do, he remembered to pray.
As soon as he posed the question, "How will I know if God has chosen this person to be
a part of my family?"
the answer came to him.
The first kid he saw was the one God had chosen.
After that, he was able to put his worries to rest and have a decent night's rest.
When he entered the orphanage director's office, Maria, the roughest, most stubborn, and dirtiest
four-year-old he had ever seen, was the first girl brought before him.
From that moment on, Maria was known to her family as Maria Albert, and she was nothing
short of a blessing.
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