The Actors Who Played Penguin

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By the time Burgess Meredith appeared as the Penguin in the 1966 version of Batman, he already had over 70 movies under his belt despite having spent time in the Army during WWII and having been on the Hollywood Blacklist during the fifties due to the HCUA (House Committee on Un-American Activities). Since his Penguin days, Meredith made 100 more movies and tv shows, his last one being the father to Jack Lemmon in Grumpier Old Men in '95, the sequel to Grumpy Old Men in '83. Burgess Meredith will probably be remembered more so for his role in the Rocky ('76, '79, '82) series where he played Rocky's trainer Mickey. Because he was so adept at playing both dramatic and comedic roles, he was cast in 4 different episodes of The Twilight Zone, a henpecked bank teller who just wanted to be left alone in Time Enough At Last ('59), a timid weakling who, as the subject of a space alien's experiment on human nature, suddenly acquires superhuman strength in Mr Dingle, The Strong ('61), a deeply religious man, sentenced to death in the future in The Obsolete Man ('61) and he also played the devil in The Obsolete Man ('63).



Meredith wrote in his autobiography in '94, So Far So Good, that when he thinks of his childhood all he could remember was violence and fear. His father was a mean drunk and his parents fought constantly so when Burgess won a full room and board scholarship to St. John Choir in New York City, he left home and never looked back. In 1933 he was accepted into Eva LeGallienne's company and made it into both the stage and the screen. He also married his first wife Helen Derby, they were married for 2 years. In 1936, he married his second wife Margaret Perry which lasted for 2 years as well. In 1944, Meredith married his third wife Paulette Goodard and when he tried his hand at producing his first movie, The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946), Paulette starred in it as well as Meredith himself. Their marriage lasted 6 years until 1950 when he met his fourth and final wife, Kaja Sundsten, they remained married until his death in '97 and had 2 children, son Jonathon and daughter Tala.

The Penguin as a hairstylist? Go figure! But before Danny DeVito became an actor he worked as hairstylist in his sister's beauty salon. Altho he had a few bit roles in some movies such as One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest with Jack Nicholson (who also played Batman's SuperVillain Joker with Michael Keaton), DeVito didn't get the recognition until 1979 when he became Louie De Palma in the series Taxi. In 1970 DeVito met Rhea Perlman, most will remember her as the feisty bar waitress with a million kids on the sitcom Cheers. After living together for

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11 years, they decided to get married and they ended up having 3 children, Lucy (born in '83), Grace Fan (born in '85) and Jake Daniel (born in '87). Before moving in with Perlman however DeVito was roommates with Michael Douglas who he ended up co-starring with in Romancing The Stone ('84) and the sequel The Jewel of the Nile ('85) and War of the Roses ('89). Over the years DeVito has not only starred in many awesome movies but he's also directed and produced some as well such as War of the Roses, Hoffa (which he also co-starred in with Jack Nicholson again too), Throw Momma From The Train, Matilda, Erin Brockovich and The Man In The Moon (starring another SuperVillain from the Batman series, Jim Carey who played Riddler) which was about one of DeVito's old Taxi co-stars, Andy Kaufman.

Danny DeVito was mainly known for his comedic roles like those in Twins and Junior opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger but he wanted to branch out his acting abilities into more dramatic roles and he proved himself quite capable of them too in roles such as Renaissance Man (1994), The Rainmaker (1997), The Big Kahuna (1999) and Heist (2001).

• Ted Knight was the first animated voice of the Penguin in The Batman/Superman Hour in 1968. Most will remember him as Ted Baxter from The Mary Tyler Moore Show from 1970-'77 or from Too Close For Comfort from 1980-'87.

• Lennie Weinrib was the second voice for the animated version of Penguin in The New Adventures of Batman ('77) and Tarzan and the Super 7 ('78).

• Frank Welker has over 600 animated voice overs to his credit including the Penguin in 1985 in The Super Powers Team.

• Paul Williams not only did the voice of the Penguin in Batman, The Animated Series ('92 - '98), Superman ('98) and The New Adventures of Batman in 1998 but he's better known for his talents as song writer. Having written songs for Elvis, Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, and Luther Vandross to name a few.

• Tom Kenny is the most recent voice for the animated Penguin in The Batman (2005 - 2008).