ACTOR
Eddie Albert
79 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (79)
- #001
Eddie Albert was born Eddie Albert Heimberger. He changed his name early on while singing with a trio on the radio. Apparently the announcer kept introducing him as "Eddie Hamburger," so he dropped his surname and adopted his middle name as his last name.
- #002
Eddie Albert was recruited by the United States government and took recreational sailing trips in Mexican waters. What he was actually doing was gathering reportable information about Nazi and Japanese activity in and around two Mexican regions on Mexico's Baja California peninsula (since 1953 the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur). As part of the same effort, he joined a Mexican circus owned by the Escalante Brothers as a clown and a trapeze flyer, gathering intelligence for the U.S. government as he traveled with the circus.
- #003
Eddie Albert was deeply disappointed when Green Acres was cancelled at the end of its sixth season because of the notorious "rural purge" in American television network programming, particularly at CBS. The rural purge was a wave of widespread series cancellations that began in 1969 and lasted until 1972, driven by the inclusion of new statistical demographic characteristics by the ratings agency Nielsen and by sponsors alarmed over the older, "more countrified" audiences of the cancelled shows. Nearly all of the cancelled series were popular rural-themed shows that still had a similarly skewed rural audience, and the cancellations came at the end of the 1970-1971 television season. The purge also swept up three country comedies produced by Paul Henning: The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Green Acres (1965).
- #004
Eddie Albert's son, Edward Albert, was his primary caregiver during the final years of his struggle with Alzheimer's disease. Eddie remained physically healthy and active until just a month before his death at the age of 99.
- #005
Eddie Albert's son, Edward Albert, died of lung cancer one year after his father.
- #006
Eddie Albert took an active part in the Battle of Tarawa (November 1943), one of the bloodiest island battles of World War II, and is noted in U.S. Navy history for rescuing as many as 70 wounded Marines while under enemy fire. He did this while serving as the captain of a relatively large landing craft. He was part of the first assault wave and made several trips to the landing zone. For his courage that day he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V". He did not speak publicly about it until he was mentioned several times in television documentaries about the war in the 1990s. He joined the Coast Guard at the start of the war, but later resigned his Coast Guard commission to accept a commission in the U.S. Naval Reserve, which is what led to his taking part in the Battle of Tarawa.
- #007
Eddie Albert attended the funeral of his former Green Acres (1965) co-star Eva Gabor after her death on July 4, 1995.
- #008
When his son Edward Albert was 18, he and his father sailed to Anacapa Island, part of Channel Islands National Park, about 18 miles off the Ventura County coast of California, to study the effects of DDT on the pelican population.
- #009
Eddie Albert met the young, then-unknown actress Shirley Jones on the set of Oklahoma! (1955), where the two began a friendship that lasted until Albert's death in 2005.
- #010
Eddie Albert was an avid agriculturist and turned his front yard into a cornfield and his back yard into a vegetable garden.
- #011
Eddie Albert served in the Naval Reserve during World War II and fought in the Battle of Tarawa. After rescuing 47 stranded Marines while serving as an officer of the U.S. Naval Reserve in command of a landing craft, he was awarded the Bronze Star with Combat "V" for his courage. He also later oversaw the rescue of 30 more Marines as part of one of his many trips back and forth to the landing zone.
- #012
Eddie Albert served in the United States Navy during World War II.
- #013
Eddie Albert was the founder of City Children's Farms, a program to involve inner-city children in farming, and of the Eddie Albert Trees Foundation.
- #014
Eddie Albert met his future wife, Margo, while on leave from duty. They married in December 1945, after Eddie was discharged from the U.S. Navy.
- #015
Three of the surviving cast members of Green Acres (1965) attended Eddie Albert's funeral on May 26, 2005. His co-star Tom Lester was not there, though Albert had once said Lester was his closest and best friend.
- #016
Eddie Albert was buried at Westwood Memorial in Los Angeles, California, not far from his Green Acres (1965) co-star Eva Gabor.
- #017
Eddie Albert was a spokesman for the National Arbor Day Foundation from 1985 to 1993.
- #018
Eddie Albert and his wife, the Mexican actress and singer Margo, whom he married after the war, performed a nightclub act together.
- #019
Eddie Albert turned down the lead roles in My Three Sons (1960) and Mister Ed (1961) in order to actively continue his film career.
- #020
Eddie Albert taught his Green Acres (1965) co-star Tom Lester about healthy eating, just as Albert himself practiced it.
- #021
Eddie Albert's father, Frank Daniel Heimberger, died in 1970. He lived to be 96 years old.
- #022
Eddie Albert remained good friends with Robert Wagner during and after Switch (1975).
- #023
Eddie Albert had 12 hobbies: running, swimming, playing golf, world travel, organic gardening, sculpting, beekeeping, winemaking, sailing, boating, reading and playing the guitar.
- #024
While filming John Huston's The Roots of Heaven (1958) in Africa, Albert met the legendary actor, humanitarian and philosopher Dr. Albert Schweitzer.
- #025
Eddie Albert played Oliver Wendell Douglas alongside Eva Gabor as Lisa Douglas in three shows: The Beverly Hillbillies (1962), Petticoat Junction (1963) and Green Acres (1965).
- #026
The films Eddie Albert disliked were Roman Holiday (1953) and The Heartbreak Kid (1972), even though his performances in them earned him two Oscar nominations.
- #027
In 1936 Eddie Albert wrote the first original drama for television, and he also wrote dozens of short scripts for RCA.
- #028
To hide the fact that he was born out of wedlock, Albert's mother changed his birth certificate to read 1908. However, his son Edward Albert confirmed that Eddie Sr. was born in 1906.
- #029
Eddie Albert's close friends included Shirley Jones, Marsha Hunt, Ernest Borgnine, Vincent Price, Eve Arden, Jane Wyman, Lorenzo Lamas, Loretta Young, Buddy Ebsen, Irene Ryan, Eva Gabor, Frank Cady, Charlie Callas, Bernie Kopell, John Qualen, Errol Flynn, John McIntire, Robert Fuller, Angie Dickinson, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin, Aaron Spelling, Paul Henning, Leif Erickson, Burt Reynolds, Nanette Fabray, Gordon Jump, Audrey Hepburn, Mary Grace Canfield, Edgar Buchanan, Lucille Ball, Bea Benaderet, Denver Pyle, John Wayne, Norman Lloyd, Jane Greer, June Lockhart, Robert Hutton, Ann Sothern, Ronald Reagan, William Bryant, Mickey Rooney, Beverly Garland, Gregory Peck and Pat Buttram.
- #030
Just 8 days after his 90th birthday, Eddie Albert attended MTV's TV Land launch party alongside Steve Allen, Sid Caesar, Kent McCord, Barbara Eden and Dick Van Dyke. [30 April 1996].
- #031
Before becoming a successful actor, Eddie Albert also worked as a soda jerk and sang in a pop group.
- #032
A committed environmentalist, Albert shared his concerns on television on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) and Today (1952), and he lectured everywhere from high schools to industrial conferences. He made films to help campaigns against pollution. He also helped launch the first "Earth Day" on his birthday, 22 April 1970.
- #033
During World War II, Eddie Albert served in the OSS under Hank Fine, attached to Military Intelligence.
- #034
Albert's wife, Margo, died in 1985, just five months before the couple's 40th wedding anniversary.
- #035
Eddie Albert remained good friends with Tom Lester during and after Green Acres (1965).
- #036
Eddie Albert sang in a church choir.
- #037
After his guest-starring role on Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), Eddie Albert retired from acting at the age of 91.
- #038
Eddie Albert won the role of Oliver Wendell Douglas on Green Acres (1965) because he knew producer/creator Paul Henning, who hired him.
- #039
Eddie Albert was a classmate of actress Ann Sothern (Minneapolis Central High School, 1926), who was then known as Harriette Lake.
- #040
Eddie Albert met Jane Wyman on the set of Brother Rat (1938), where the two began a lifelong friendship that lasted until Albert's death in 2005. He would later appear opposite her in a recurring role on Falcon Crest (1981).
- #041
Before becoming an actor, Eddie Albert was a successful singer.
- #042
In the early 1950s, Eddie Albert also hosted a game show and two variety shows.
- #043
Robert Wagner, Albert's future co-star on Switch (1975), had seen him in Brother Rat (1938) when the film was released. Although Wagner was only eight years old at the time, he said he was impressed by Albert's talent.
- #044
Eddie Albert was buried beside his wife, Margo, at Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles, California. His Green Acres (1965) co-star Eva Gabor is buried nearby.
- #045
Eddie Albert worked with Shirley Jones on one film and on episodes of both of their series: Oklahoma! (1955), The Love Boat (1977) and a two-part episode of Murder, She Wrote (1984).
- #046
On Green Acres (1965), Albert's character owned a farm. In real life, he launched a nonprofit organization that gave inner-city children from across the country a unique opportunity to live and work together for a week at a time on a real farm in the heart of rural America.
- #047
Eddie Albert appeared on the front cover of TV Guide five times.
- #048
Eva Gabor, Albert's Green Acres (1965) co-star who played his wife on the series, was thirteen years younger than him.
- #049
Eddie Albert guest-starred in the first episode of The Fall Guy (1981).
- #050
Eddie Albert was also a popular lecture speaker on the subject of birds.
- #051
Eddie Albert was a big fan of Falcon Crest (1981), which starred his old friend Jane Wyman and in which he had a recurring role in 1987.
- #052
Eddie Albert narrated and starred in a 1970 film promoting the views of Weyerhaeuser, a large international forest products concern.
- #053
Eddie Albert is best remembered by the public for his role as the big-city lawyer who turns farmer, Oliver Wendell Douglas, on Green Acres (1965).
- #054
Eddie Albert graduated from Central High School in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1924.
- #055
Eddie Albert appeared in two films nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Roman Holiday (1953) and The Longest Day (1962).
- #056
In 1946, Eddie Albert served as the Producer in Charge of Eddie Albert Productions.
- #057
Eddie Albert began his career as a contract player for Warner Bros. in 1936.
- #058
Eddie Albert was the father of actor Edward Albert (full name Edward Laurence Albert Heimberger, Jr.) and Maria Albert Zucht. He had two grandchildren.
- #059
In 1933 Eddie Albert moved to New York, where he hosted the popular radio program The Honeymooners - Grace and Eddie Show for three years.
- #060
Eddie Albert studied drama at the University of Minnesota, helping to pay his tuition by managing movie theaters and staging weekly stage shows. In Minnesota he joined a song, dance and patter group with Herb Nelson and Grace Bradt.
- #061
In the 1980s Eddie Albert was a spokesman for Beltone Products.
- #062
Eddie Albert's house had previously belonged to silent star Billie Dove.
- #063
Eddie Albert was also a good friend of Morgan Fairchild and Gregory Peck.
- #064
Eddie Albert began acting at a very early age.
- #065
Sharon Gless, the star of Switch (1975), appeared alongside Eddie Albert in the film Crash (1978).
- #066
Twelve years after his death, Eddie Albert's former Pacific Palisades home was put up for sale at $19.5 million. [October 23, 2017].
- #067
From 1945 to 1952 Eddie Albert produced fourteen educational two-reel series on 16 mm. Two sex education films aimed at pre-adolescent children, "Human Beginnings" and "Human Growth," were still in use nearly forty years later. Albert also produced industrial documentaries.
- #068
Eddie Albert was an active Democrat.
- #069
Eddie Albert was the father-in-law of actress Katherine Woodville.
- #070
Although he played a cowardly officer effectively in the film "Attack!", Eddie Albert was in fact a highly decorated soldier during World War II.
- #071
Eddie Albert grew up in the same city as Ann Sothern.
- #072
Eddie Albert's paternal grandfather, Jacob Henry Heimberger, was of German origin, and his paternal grandmother, Mary L. Frillman, was a German immigrant from Lübeck.
- #073
Before Robert Wagner and Sharon Gless appeared with Eddie Albert in Switch (1975), both had been lifelong fans of his while growing up.
- #074
Eddie Albert's father was a real estate agent in Minnesota.
- #075
Eddie Albert was the grandfather of Thais Albert.
- #076
Eddie Albert joined the Drama Department in high school.
- #077
When Eddie was 1 year old, he moved with his family to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
- #078
He is mentioned as one of Ouspenskaya's acting students in the film Hollywood's She-Wolf: The Story of Maria Ouspenskaya (2024).
- #079
He and his son Edward Albert appeared as guest stars on The Love Boat (1977).
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