Burgess Meredith Ernie Pyle in "The Story of G.I. Joe" (1945), and the narrator of "A Walk in the Sun" (1945). Meredith was known later in his career for his appearances on "The Twilight Zone" and for portraying arch-villain The Penguin on the 1960s TV series "Batman" and boxing trainer Mickey Goldmill in the "Rocky" film series. For his performances in "The Day of the Locust" (1975) and "Rocky" (1976), he received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. He later starred in the comedy "Foul Play" (1978) and the fantasy film "Clash of the Titans" (1981). He narrated numerous
Burgess Meredith films and documentaries during his long career, including "" (1983). "Although those performances renewed his popularity," observed Mel Gussow in "The New York Times", "they represented only a small part of a richly varied career in which he played many of the more demanding roles in classical and contemporary theater—in plays by Shakespeare, O'Neill, Beckett and others." Meredith was born in 1907 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Ida Beth (née Burgess) and Dr. William George Meredith, a Canadian-born physician, of English descent. His mother came from a long line of Methodist revivalists, a religion to which he adhered throughout