biography
| name: |
Ives, Burl
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| |
originally Burle Icle Ivanhoe
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| sex:
| male
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| lived:
| (1909–95)
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| biography:
| 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. |
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