Jeff Corey

Known for ActingBorn 1914-08-10Died 2002-08-16Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

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. CLRRead more

Movies & web series

Morningstar/Eveningstar

The Shocking Miss Pilgrim

Spider-Man

Charmed

From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff

Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man

Babylon 5

Faerie Tale Theatre

To My Daughter

The Magic Boy's Easter

Garrison's Gorillas

Little House on the Prairie

Burt Lancaster: Daring to Reach

Star Trek

The Yellow Canary

The Untouchables

Hawkins

Night Gallery

Brimstone

The Wonderful World of Disney

The Outer Limits

Judd, for the Defense

The A-Team

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Perry Mason

The Bob Newhart Show

Beauty and the Beast

The Wild Wild West

The Psychiatrist

In Cold Blood

Manimal

Night Court

What's Happening!!

Lou Grant

Little Big Man

Bonanza

Anna and the King

Barney Miller

Starsky & Hutch

Spider-Man vs. Doc Ock

The Six Million Dollar Man

True Grit

Kojak

Seconds

Cry for the Strangers

The Home Court

Girl Trouble

Mutiny in the Arctic