EDDIE ALBERT

April 22, 1906

Eddie Albert was born Edward Albert Heimberger in Rock Island, Illinois, the oldest of the five children. 

When he was one year old, his family moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.  He studied at Central High School in Minneapolis and joined the drama club. His schoolmate Harriet Lake (later known as Ann Sothern) graduated in the same class. Finishing high school in 1926, he entered the University of Minnesota, where he majored in business.

After the stock market crash of 1929, he left the business career behind for a series of odd jobs, some in show business. He moved to New York City in 1933, where he co-hosted a radio show which ran for three years. At the show’s end, he was offered a film contract by Warner Bros.

He made his screen debut in Brother Rat (1938) starring Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman. 

Although he participated in some experimental television in 1936, his formal TV debut was in “Joy To The World,” a November 1948 episode of “The Ford Theatre Hour.” 

In 1950, he co-starred with Lucille Ball in The Fuller Brush Girl.  This was their first, but not last collaboration. 

In December 1958 he appeared in “The Night The Phone Rang” for the “Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse”.  Desi Arnaz introduced the episode, which also starred “Lucy” cast members Paul Dubov and Ross Elliott. Albert co-starred with his wife, the singularly named Margo. It was written by Aaron Spelling, with whom Albert shares a birthday! 

In October 1963, Albert was guest-star on Desilu’s “The Greatest Show on Earth”, a series that two months later also featured its co-producer Lucille Ball. 

In October 1965, he created the role that he would be best remembered for, lawyer turned farmer Oliver Wendell Douglas on “Green Acres”.  The series was based on a radio show titled “Grandby’s Green Acres” that starred Lucille Ball’s “My Favorite Husband” co-stars Gale Gordon and Bea Benaderet. Alongside Eva Gabor, Albert played the role in 170 episode until 1971. He also played the character on twelve episodes of “Petticoat Junction” and one episode of “The Beverly Hillbillies.”  

During that time, he took time out to appear on “The Carol Burnett Show”, appearing with Lucille Ball in a sketch on November 4, 1968.

Albert was finally re-united with his “Fuller Brush” co-star on her own turf in an October 1973 episode of “Here’s Lucy” titled “Lucy Gives Eddie Albert the Old Song and Dance” (HL S6;E6). Albert played himself. 

Albert was a guest,
with Lucille, on “Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast: Jimmy Stewart" in 1978; as well as NBC’s “The First Academy of
TV Arts and Sciences Television Hall of Fame” ceremony in 1984.

His final screen role was an episode of “California” in 1997, pilot for a spinoff of “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” Only one episode was ever produced.  Albert and his real-life son played father and son on the intended series, but it failed to materialize. 

He was nominated for two Oscars as Supporting Actor, in 1954 for Roman Holiday and 1972 for The Heartbreak Kid. 

Margo Albert was a Mexican-American actress born as María Marguerita Guadalupe Teresa Estela Bolado Castilla y O’Donnell – so she simply went by the singular moniker Margo. Coincidentally, he was related by marriage to band leader Xavier Cugat, a mentor of Desi Arnaz’s and often mentioned as a rival of Ricky Ricardo.  On “Here’s Lucy,” Margo’s black and white photo is behind the sofa of Albert’s living room. Next to it is a photo of Albert’s son, Edward Laurence Heimberger (aka Eddie Albert Jr.), at age 23.  They also had a daughter named Maria. 

Eddie Albert died on May 26, 2005 at age 99.