Eddie Albert 1906-2005: Amiable actor, best known for Green Acres, was also devoted environmentalist

Actor Eddie Albert, who delivered memorable performances in everything from lightest comedy to darkest drama, died on May 26 at his home in Pacific Palisades. Albert, who in recent years he had been battling Alzheimer’s disease, succumbed to complications from pneumonia. He was 99 years old.

Although he was nominated for two Academy Awards, Albert was best known for his television work, especially the 1960s comedy Green Acres, in which he starred as Oliver Wendell Douglas, a New York City attorney who, along with his pampered wife Lisa, played by Eva Gabor, abandons the comforts and conveniences of Manhattan for the fictitious rural backwater of Hooterville. Green Acres, for which Albert sang the catchy theme song, aired from 1965-1971.
Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger on April 22, 1906, in Rock Island, Ill. When he was an infant, his family moved to Minneapolis, where he began performing as a young man. After leaving the University of Minnesota in his junior year to pursue his show-business career, Albert, who had already begun performing on the radio, dropped his last name because he was frequently introduced on the air as Eddie Hamburger.

A singer as well as an actor in his early years, Albert made his Broadway debut in 1935 in the play O Evening Star, which closed in less than a week. A year later he was back on stage in the Broadway production Brother Rat, a long-running military-themed comedy, that eventually brought him to Hollywood when he was cast in Warner Brothers' movie version. He continued to act in films until the outbreak of World War II, when he joined the U.S. Navy and served in the South Pacific. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his valor in the Battle of Tarawa, during which his actions saved dozens of lives.

Upon his return to civilian life, he established Eddie Albert Productions in 1946. The company made educational films for schoolchildren, including two early sex-education films. Albert also resumed his acting career, and went on to appear in such films as Oklahoma!, I’ll Cry Tomorrow, Teahouse of the August Moon, The Sun Also Rises and Roman Holiday, for which he earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor as Gregory Peck’s photographer chum. His second nomination came in 1972 for the cynical comedy The Heartbreak Kid, in which he co-starred as Cybill Shepherd’s WASP father. Two years later, Albert, who was best known for easygoing humor, scored with critics in a baldly contemptible role as the sadistic prison warden who torments Burt Reynolds in The Longest Yard. Coincidentally, Albert passed away the weekend a remake of the football-themed comedy was released in theaters.

For all of his big-screen success, however, Albert’s most enduring professional legacy remains Green Acres, the folksy charm and fish-out-of-water premise of which directly inspired the current Fox reality series The Simple Life. Albert’s other television work included the series Switch, in which he starred as a former cop who starts a detective agency with a con man he once sent to jail, played by Robert Wagner.

Apart from his work as an actor, Albert was a committed philanthropist and environmental activist. His work on behalf of Meals for Millions, a nonprofit venture devoted to combating global hunger, helped to spur the first Earth Day in April 22 of 1970—a date selected in part to honor Albert’s birthday. He also campaigned against the use of DDT, fought for the preservation of endangered species and worked to abate the contamination of Santa Monica Bay.
Albert was married to the single-named Mexican-born actress and dancer Margo from 1945 until her death in 1985. He is survived by their two children—his son, the acclaimed actor Edward Albert, and daughter, Maria Albert Zucht—as well as two granddaughters.