Burl Ives
Actor
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American singer and actor of stage, screen, radio and television.
Ives began as an itinerant singer and banjoist, and launched his own radio show, The Wayfaring Stranger, which popularized traditional folk songs. In 1942 he appeared in Irving Berlin's This Is the Army, and then became a major star of CBS radio. In the 1960s he successfully crossed over into country music, recording hits such as "A Little Bitty Tear" and "Funny Way of Laughin'". A popular film actor through the late 1940s and '50s, Ives's best-known film roles included parts in So Dear to My Heart (1949) and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), as well as Rufus Hannassey in The Big Country (1958), for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Ives is often remembered for his voice-over work as Sam the Snowman, narrator of the classic 1964 Christmas television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which continues to air annually around Christmas.
Filmography
East of Eden
as Sam the Sheriff 1955
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
as Sam the Snowman (voice) 1964
The Ewok Adventure
as Narrator (voice) 1984
The Big Country
as Rufus Hannassey 1958
White Dog
as Carruthers 1982
Two Moon Junction
as Sheriff Earl Hawkins 1988
Our Man in Havana
as Dr. Hasselbacher 1960
Day of the Outlaw
as Jack Bruhn 1959
Summer Magic
as Osh Popham 1963
So Dear to My Heart
as Uncle Hiram Douglas 1948
Jules Verne's Rocket to the Moon
as Phineas T. Barnum 1967
Wind Across the Everglades
as Cottonmouth 1958
Station West
as Hotel Clerk (uncredited) 1948
The Bermuda Depths
as Dr. Paulis 1978
The Brass Bottle
as Fakrash 1964
Desire Under the Elms
as Éphraïm Cabot 1958