Jeff Corey

Acting August 10, 1914 (88 years old) August 16, 2002 Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jeff Corey (born Arthur Zwerling; August 10, 1914 – August 16, 2002) was an American actor, television director, and teacher. After being blacklisted in the 1950s, he became one of the most prominent and influential acting coaches in Hollywood, whose students included the likes of Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson, Robin Williams, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, James Coburn, Leonard Nimoy, Cher, Barbra Streisand and Rob Reiner. He returned to film and television work in the 1960s, playing many character roles. Early life and education Corey was born Arthur Zwerling in Brooklyn, New York to working-class Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Nathan Zwerling, was from Austria-Hungary, and his mother, Mary (nee Peskin), was from Russia. He attended New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn and was active in the school's Dramatic Society. He received a scholarship to the Feagin School of Dramatic Art, where he furthered his studies. Prior to his acting career, he worked as a salesman of sewing machines. Blacklisted and teacher Corey's career was again interrupted in the early 1950s, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee. He refused to give names of alleged Communists and subversives in the entertainment industry and went so far as to ridicule the panel by offering critiques of the testimony of the previous witnesses. That led to his being blacklisted for 12 years. "Most of us were retired Reds. We had left it, at least I had, years before," Corey told Patrick McGilligan, the co-author of Tender Comrades: A Backstory of the Hollywood Blacklist, who teaches film at Marquette University. "The only issue was, did you want to just give them their token names so you could continue your career, or not? I had no impulse to defend a political point of view that no longer interested me particularly... They just wanted two new names so they could hand out more subpoenas." Back to work in the 1960s In 1962, Corey began working in films again, and remained active into the 1990s. He played Hoban in The Cincinnati Kid (1965); Tom Chaney, the principal villain in True Grit (1969); and Sheriff Bledsoe in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (also 1969), who says to the title characters, "I never met a soul more affable than you, Butch, or faster than the Kid, but you're still nothing but two-bit outlaws on the dodge. Television Corey made guest appearances on many television series. He appeared as murder victim Carl Bascom in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Reckless Rockhound" (1964). He was featured on science-fiction series, too, including an episode of The Outer Limits ("O.B.I.T.", 1963) in which he played Byron Lomax; Star Trek ("The Cloud Minders", 1969) in which he played High Advisor Plasus; as Caspay in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), and Babylon 5 ("Z'ha'dum", 1996) in which he played Justin. Personal life Corey married his wife Hope (nee Victorson) in 1938. They had three children. Death Corey died on August 16, 2002, aged 88, after a fall. CLR

Jeff Corey

Biography

Movies 131

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Miracle on 34th Street

Conan the Destroyer

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

True Grit

Bird on a Wire

Color of Night

Beethoven's 2nd

Seconds

The Cincinnati Kid

Battle Beyond the Stars

The Wild Geese

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid

Little Big Man

Getting Straight

The Boston Strangler

The Sword and the Sorcerer

In Cold Blood

The Killers

Surviving the Game

Brute Force

Sirocco

They Call Me Mister Tibbs!

Shoot Out

Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man

Fourteen Hours

Superman and the Mole Men

The Prince Who Was a Thief

Butch and Sundance: The Early Days

Wake of the Red Witch

All That Money Can Buy

Joan of Arc

The Last Tycoon

Curse of the Black Widow

Messenger of Death

Creator

Rawhide

The Outriders

Red Mountain

Oh, God!

Once a Thief

Lady in a Cage

Impasse

I Am the Law

Only the Valiant

Somewhere in the Night

Girl Trouble

Roughshod

The Rose and the Jackal

Ruby Cairo

California

Roxie Hart

The Gangster

You'll Find Out

Bitter Sweet

A Clear and Present Danger

Cry for the Strangers

Catlow

Pyramid of the Sun God

Never Trust a Gambler

Third Finger, Left Hand

Hideout

Final Jeopardy

Follow Me Quietly

The Big Parade of Comedy

Who Is Hope Schuyler?

The Nevadan

Something Evil

Rock Island Trail

The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers

Mercenaries of the Rio Grande

Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock

The Next Voice You Hear...

City Across the River

Moonshine County Express

The Man Who Wouldn't Die

Second Serve