Jeff Corey

Birthday: 1914-08-10
Deathday: 2002-08-16
Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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

Credits

	Year	Title	Character
	1996-09-29	The Lottery	Albert Smith
	1994-08-19	Color of Night	Ashland
	1994-04-15	Surviving the Game	Hank
	1993-12-14	Beethoven's 2nd	Janitor
	1993-02-19	The Judas Project	Poneras
	1992-12-12	Ruby Cairo	Joe Dick
	1991-01-10	Payoff	Don Anzia
	1990-11-26	To My Daughter	Travis
	1990-05-18	Bird on a Wire	Lou Baird
	1990-04-16	The Rose and the Jackal	James Buchanan
	1989-04-16	A Deadly Silence	Judge Harvey W. Sherman
	1989-03-01	The Magic Boy's Easter	The Servant
	1988-09-16	Messenger of Death	Willis Beecham
	1988-06-21	Cognac	Colonel Frazier
	1986-01-01	Second Serve	Dr. Harry Benjamin
	1985-12-08	Final Jeopardy	Derelict
	1985-09-20	Creator	Dean Harrington
	1985-03-06	Father of Hell Town	Lawyer Sam
	1984-09-17	The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers	Father
	1984-06-29	Conan the Destroyer	Grand Vizier
	1982-04-01	The Sword and the Sorcerer	Craccus
	1982-02-11	Cry for the Strangers	Riley
	1980-11-19	Homeward Bound	George
	1980-09-08	Battle Beyond the Stars	Zed
	1979-06-15	Butch and Sundance: The Early Days	Ray Bledsoe
	1979-06-01	Up River	Bagshaw
	1978-11-21	The Pirate	Prince Feiyad
	1978-06-28	The Wild Geese	Mr Martin
	1978-05-13	Jennifer	Luke Baylor
	1977-12-04	Captains Courageous	Salters
	1977-10-07	Oh, God!	Rabbi Silverstone
	1977-09-16	Curse of the Black Widow	Aspa Soldado
	1977-06-01	Moonshine County Express	Hagen
	1977-01-01	Rooster: Spurs of Death!	Kink
	1976-11-18	The Last Tycoon	Doctor
	1976-05-19	The Premonition	Detective Denver
	1976-05-03	Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free	Judge Janeway
	1975-11-05	Paper Tiger	Mr. King
	1974-04-03	The Gun and the Pulpit	Head of Posse
	1973-01-08	Set This Town on Fire	Walter Stafford
	1972-01-21	Something Evil	Gehrmann
	1971-10-01	Catlow	Merridew
	1971-08-01	Clay Pigeon	Clinic Doctor
	1971-07-02	Shoot Out	Trooper
	1970-12-23	Little Big Man	Wild Bill Hickok
	1970-10-01	Cover Me Babe	Paul Rogers
	1970-07-10	They Call Me Mister Tibbs!	Captain Marden
	1970-05-13	Getting Straight	Dr. Edward Willhunt
	1970-04-23	Beneath the Planet of the Apes	Caspay
	1970-03-21	A Clear and Present Danger	Beiseker
	1970-02-02	The Movie Murderer	Collier Landis
	1969-09-23	Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid	Sheriff Ray Bledsoe
	1969-06-11	True Grit	Tom Chaney
	1969-05-07	Impasse	Wombat
	1968-10-08	The Boston Strangler	John Asgeirsson
	1967-12-15	In Cold Blood	Mr. Hickock
	1967-11-11	A Bell for Adano	Cacopardo
	1966-10-05	Seconds	Mr. Ruby
	1965-10-15	The Cincinnati Kid	Hoban
	1965-09-27	Mickey One	Fryer
	1965-04-24	Once a Thief	Lieutenant Kebner
	1965-04-17	Pyramid of the Sun God	Abraham Lincoln
	1965-03-04	Mercenaries of the Rio Grande	Abraham Lincoln
	1964-06-10	Lady in a Cage	George L. Brady Jr. aka Repent
	1963-05-15	The Yellow Canary	Joe Pyle
	1963-03-21	The Balcony	Bishop
	1960-01-12	Inside Magoo	Doctor
	1951-11-23	Superman and the Mole Men	Luke Benson
	1951-11-01	Red Mountain	Sgt. Skee
	1951-07-13	Never Trust a Gambler	Lou Brecker
	1951-06-13	Sirocco	Feisal (uncredited)
	1951-05-18	New Mexico	Coyote
	1951-05-17	The Prince Who Was a Thief	Emir Mokar
	1951-04-13	Only the Valiant	Joe Harmony
	1951-04-01	Fourteen Hours	Police Sgt. Farley
	1951-03-25	Rawhide	Luke Davis
	1950-06-29	The Next Voice You Hear...	Freddie Dibson
	1950-06-16	Bright Leaf	John Barton
	1950-05-18	Rock Island Trail	Abraham Lincoln
	1950-03-01	The Outriders	Keeley
	1950-02-28	Singing Guns	Richards
	1950-01-11	The Nevadan	Bart
	1949-11-23	Bagdad	Mohammed Jao
	1949-07-07	Follow Me Quietly	Police Sgt. Art Collins
	1949-05-12	Home of the Brave	Doctor
	1949-05-11	Roughshod	Jed Graham
	1949-04-07	City Across the River	Police Lieutenant Louie Macon
	1949-03-08	Hideout	Beecham
	1948-12-30	Wake of the Red Witch	Mr. Loring
	1948-12-22	Joan of Arc	Joan's prison guard
	1948-11-28	Kidnapped	Shaun
	1948-06-30	Canon City	Schwartzmiller
	1948-05-25	I, Jane Doe	Immigration Officer
	1948-02-27	Let's Live Again	Bartender
	1948-02-04	The Wreck of the Hesperus	Joshua Hill
	1948-02-03	Alias a Gentleman	Zu
	1947-11-25	The Gangster	Karty's Brother-in-Law (uncredited)
	1947-07-18	Hoppy's Holiday	Jed
	1947-07-16	Brute Force	'Freshman' Stack
	1947-06-04	Miracle on 34th Street	Reporter (uncredited)
	1947-02-21	California	Clem (uncredited)
	1947-01-04	The Shocking Miss Pilgrim	Stenographer (uncredited)
	1946-08-30	The Killers	Blinky Franklin (uncredited)
	1946-07-22	Rendezvous with Annie	Howard (uncredited)
	1946-06-12	Somewhere in the Night	Bank Teller
	1943-05-26	My Friend Flicka	Tim Murphy
	1943-03-20	Aerial Gunner	Flight Crew Member (uncredited)
	1943-03-14	The Moon Is Down	Albert (uncredited)
	1943-03-12	Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man	Llanwelly Cemetery Keeper (uncredited)
	1942-12-01	Tennessee Johnson	Captain (uncredited)
	1942-10-09	Girl Trouble	Mr. Mooney (uncredited)
	1942-07-03	The Postman Didn't Ring	Harwood Green
	1942-05-22	Syncopation
	1942-04-27	The Man Who Wouldn't Die	Tim Larsen
	1942-04-17	Who Is Hope Schuyler?	Medical Examiner
	1942-02-20	Roxie Hart	Orderly (uncredited)
	1941-12-04	Paris Calling	Benoit's Male Secretary
	1941-10-22	You Belong to Me	Mr. Greener (uncredited)
	1941-10-17	All That Money Can Buy	Tom Sharp (uncredited)
	1941-04-17	Mutiny in the Arctic	The Cook
	1941-04-11	The Lady from Cheyenne	Reporter
	1940-11-22	You'll Find Out	Mr. Corey (uncredited)
	1940-11-08	Bitter Sweet	Second Man on Stairs (uncredited)
	1940-10-11	Third Finger, Left Hand	Johann (uncredited)
	1939-02-10	One Third of a Nation	Man in Crowd at Fire (uncredited)
	1938-08-25	I Am the Law	Thug (uncredited)