Burl Ives

"Ives's voice&hellip; 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 the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which earned him the ire of his colleagues. Nevertheless, the rotund Ives established a strong presence for himself on the screen, and was the eleventh 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, Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives was educated at Eastern Illinois State Teacher's College, where he played football. While 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' travels, he endured many hardships. In Mona, 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 program, 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. 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 was signed to a minor label, Stinson, before moving to Decca. He 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 In 1949, he would make his first chart hit with "Lavender Blue," and following that success, he would move to Columbia Records, where he would continue to flourish in the industry. Despite his success at Columbia, Ives eventually returned to Decca, where he would continue to have successive hits.

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.

In 1953, Ives published his second book, the Burl Ives Song Book, which he followed up with Tales of America the next year.

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.

Ives also displayed a degree of versatility. While East of Eden, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and The Big Country were all "adult dramas," Ives was also proficient in children's fare, such as Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, and Summer Magic. Indeed, after 1963, he did most of his work at Walt Disney Studios.

Later life
In 1962, Ives won the Grammy Award for Best Country Western Recording for "Funny Way of Laughin." Later that decade, Ives returned to Columbia, where he would record such ballads as "The Times They Are A-Changin'" and "Softly and Tenderly." In 1971, Ives was divorced from Peck, and two months later married Dorothy Koster Paul. After a long hiatus from recording, Ives recorded one last major album, "Payin' My Dues Again," before relegating himself to children's and religious music. Upon reaching the age of 70 in 1979, Ives retired to Washington State, with his wife and children.

Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure
"Our story begins in a time long, long ago, deep in an enchanted forest, on the distant moon of Endor."

- Burl Ives as the Narrator

He would still make the occasional cameo on television or film, and he provided narration for the Star Wars telemovie, Caravan of Courage: An Ewok Adventure. Ives' narration continued throughout the course of the film, and provided context to a seemingly complex plot in which a brother and sister must save their parents from a giant monster.

Legacy
Ives' work would not be forgotten, however. In the early 90s, the creators of the cult animated Ren & Stimpy Show used stock audio of Ives in order to have him "guest star" on the show. When he heard of this, Ives claimed that he would have done it for real, had they asked. Decca would continue to release his records for many years, even after his death in 1995 due to oral cancer. Ives was survived by his wife and children.