Burl Ives - Selected discography
Folksinger, songwriter, and film actor, born in Hunt Township, Illinois, USA. As a child he sang and played banjo in community shows, and after attending Eastern Illinois State Teacher's College, he briefly played professional football. He set out to travel across the USA, working at odd jobs and singing with his guitar to support himself, adding to his repertoire of traditional American folksongs. In the 1940s he performed in several Broadway shows, including Irving Berlin's This Is the Army (1942). In the 1950s he made several best-selling recordings of folksongs, and as The Wayfaring Stranger had a popular radio programme. He toured around the world and later produced educational films and published collections of folksongs, all foreshadowing the folksong revival of the 1960s. Meanwhile, he had been appearing in several films as a singer, but with his role in East of Eden (1955), he began to show a talent for dramatic acting that culminated in his role as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He would continue to appear in (or provide the voice for) many other films.
| Burl Ives | |
|---|---|
| Born |
14 June 1909 Jasper County, Illinois, USA |
| Died |
14 April 1995 Anacortes, Washington, USA |
Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (14 June 1909 – 14 April 1995) was an acclaimed American folk music singer, author and actor.
Born near Hunt City in Jasper County, Illinois, Ives is probably best remembered for his music.
Ives from 1927 to 1929 attended Eastern Illinois State Teachers College in Charleston (now Eastern Illinois University), where he played football.
In 1940 Ives began his own radio show, titled The Wayfaring Stranger after one of his popular ballads.
In the 1940s Ives popularized several traditional folk songs, such as “Lavender Blue” (his first hit, a folk song from the 17th century), “Foggy Foggy Dew” (an English/Irish folk song), “Blue Tail Fly” (an old Civil War tune) and “Big Rock Candy Mountain” (an old hobo ditty).
In 1952, Ives starred as Ben Rumson in the national tour of the popular musical Paint Your Wagon, co-starring Nola Fairbanks as his daughter, Jennifer Rumson.
Ives cooperated with the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and named fellow folk singer Pete Seeger and others as possible Communists. [citation needed]
In the 1960s Ives began singing country music.
Ives's "A Holly Jolly Christmas” is a very popular tune during the Christmas season, as it's frequently played on the radio and was featured in the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer special.
Ives is known to Star Wars fans for his role as the narrator in the 1984 made-for-TV film Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure.
During his lifetime, Ives and his wife lived with their children in a home located alongside the water in Anacortes, in the Puget Sound area of Washington, where he died of cancer of the mouth at the age of 85.
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Preceded by: Red Buttons for Sayonara |
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor 1958 for The Big Country |
Succeeded by: Hugh Griffith for Ben-Hur |
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