Burl Ives

"Ives's voice... had the sheen and finesse of opera without its latter-day Puccinian vulgarities and without the pretensions of operatic ritual. It was genteel in expressive impact without being genteel in social conformity. And it moved people."

- John Rockwell

Burl Ives (June 14, 1909–April 14, 1995) was an Academy Award winning actor, author and a renowned folk singer. After dropping out of school at an early age, he roamed the countryside looking for work as a singer. He eventually found work in New York City, both as a singer and an actor. After missing out on most of World War II, Ives began his career in film.

However, in the 1950s, Ives was branded as a communist. To avoid blacklisting, and in an attempt to return to work, Ives named names to Senator McCarthy's committees, which earned him the ire of his colleagues. Nevertheless, the rotund Ives established a strong prescence for himself on the screen, and 11th actor to be directed to an Academy Award by William Wyler for his work in The Big Country.

Ives was also known for his voice work. In 1964, he voiced the snowman in Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and in 1984, he narrated John Korty's Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. On passing in 1995 due to oral cancer, Ives was survived by his second wife, Dorothy, and his children.

Early life
Born in Jasper County, Illinois, in 1909, Ives was educated at Eastern Illinois State Teacher's College, where he played football. Whilst listening to a lecture on Beowulf, one day, he came to the conclusion that he was not learning anything of value, and left the class, then and there. He then roamed the country to pursue a musical career.

Early career
In Ives' adventures, he endured many hardships. In Monah, Utah, he was jailed for singing a banned song: "Foggy Foggy Dew". In 1931, he took up residence in Indiana, where he not only got a job at WBOW radio, but returned to school, at Indiana State Teachers College.

In 1937 he took up residence in New York, and in the following year appeared in the broadway musical The Boys from Syracuse. Making a living by singing in clubs, CBS granted him his own radio programme, The Wayfaring Stranger, which commenced in 1940. He was able to popularize several songs during this period, notably "Lavender Blue", "Foggy Foggy Dew", "Blue Tail Fly", and "Big Rock Candy Mountain". He also continued his broadway career with Heavenly Express in 1940.

World War II
Ives was drafted into the army in 1942, but was discharged a year later due to medical concerns. In 1945, he married a scriptwriter, Helen Peck.

McCarthy era
Following World War II, Ives made his screen debut as "Bill" in Louis King's Smoky, the second film adaptation of Will James' horse story. Two years later, he wrote his first book, The Wayfaring Stranger

Ives was listed as being a member of a left-wing group in the Red Channels pamphlet, and was blacklisted by the government until he stood before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and convinced them otherwise. In the process, he named names, and labeled several of his colleagues as Communists. This act allowed Ives to continue his work in the industry, and he would go on to work in both the music industry, and the film industry.

Film career
In the mid-late 1950s, Ives' film career began in earnest. He played a supporting role in Elia Kazan's East of Eden, and claimed the role of Big Daddy in Richard Brooks' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, but it was later in 1958 when Ives would reach the pinnacle of his acting career, when he played Rufus Hannessey in William Wyler's The Big Country. Ives' performance as a man who is forced to kill his son so impressed the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, that they gave him the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor that year.

The 1970s
In 1971, Ives was divorced from Peck, and two months later married Dorothy Koster Paul.