Jack Albertson

Harold Albertson (June 16, 1907 – November 25, 1981) professionally known as Jack Albertson, was an American actor, comedian, dancer and singer who also performed in vaudeville. Albertson is known for his role as John Cleary in The Subject Was Roses (1968), for which he received an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor; Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971); Manny Rosen in The Poseidon Adventure (1972); and Ed Brown in the television sitcom Chico and the Man (1974–78). For his contributions to the television industry, Albertson was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1977 at 6253 Hollywood Boulevard.

Early life
Albertson was born on June 16, 1907, in Malden, Massachusetts, the son of Russian Jewish immigrants Flora (née Craft) and Leopold Albertson. His older sister was actress Mabel Albertson. Albertson's mother, a stock actress, supported the family by working in a shoe factory. Until at least the age of 22, Albertson was known as "Harold Albertson". His father abandoned his mother before Jack was born, and the boy was raised by his stepfather, Alex Erlich, a barber. Albertson's formal education ended after a single year in high school. During a New York Daily News interview (January 2, 1973) with Sidney Fields he reminisced: "I was bright but disruptive. I didn't do homework. To cover, I made wisecracks and funny faces at the teachers. They told me to take my business elsewhere." For a while Albertson worked at the local General Electric plant and in one of the many shoe factories in the Lynn, Massachusetts, area. He was also a rack boy in neighborhood pool parlors, where he was by his own admission a fairly good pool hustler, although he was always on guard to avoid playing anyone who could "out-hustle" him. Reportedly, at one point he ran away to sea, an undertaking not as romantic as it sounds, since his parents apparently helped him pack for the voyage. His pool hall days provided Albertson with an opportunity to learn a few tap-dance routines from his fellow hustlers, and when he was eighteen he began to be paid for his prize-winning shows. His sister Mabel taught him the first "time" steps in tap-dancing, and he picked up additional routines by watching vaudeville acts that played his hometown. About that time he started singing with a group called "The Golden Rule Four," who held their practice sessions beneath a railroad bridge.

Broadway
Albertson dropped out of high school to join the vaudeville road troupe known as the Dancing Verselle Sisters. He then worked in burlesque as a hoofer (soft shoe dancer) and straight man to Phil Silvers on the Minsky's Burlesque Circuit. Besides vaudeville and burlesque, he appeared on the stage in many Broadway plays and musicals, including High Button Shoes, Top Banana, The Cradle Will Rock, Make Mine Manhattan, Show Boat, Boy Meets Girl, Girl Crazy, Meet the People, The Sunshine Boys – for which he received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor, and The Subject Was Roses – for which he won a Tony for Best Supporting Actor.

Film
Albertson appeared in more than 30 films. He had an early minor role in Miracle on 34th Street as a postal worker who redirects dead letters addressed to "Santa Claus" to the courthouse where Kris Kringle is on trial. He won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1968 film The Subject Was Roses. He later apologized to child actor Jack Wild for winning the award; Wild was also nominated for his role in Oliver! and Albertson expected Wild to win.

Albertson appeared as Charlie Bucket's Grandpa Joe in Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971), and in The Poseidon Adventure (1972), where he played Manny Rosen, husband to Belle, played by Shelley Winters.

Albertson said that his one regret was that he did not reprise his role in the movie version of The Sunshine Boys. When producer Ray Stark acquired the film rights from Neil Simon in 1973, Albertson was expected to play the part, but by the time MGM had bought the rights in 1974 and was preparing to begin filming in February 1975, Albertson was not available because he was appearing on Chico and the Man on TV.

Radio
Albertson was a radio performer early in his career. Among the shows he appeared on were Just Plain Bill, Lefty, That's My Pop and The Jack Albertson Comedy Show. In the late 1940s he was for a time a regular on the Milton Berle Show.

Television
Albertson appeared in many television series, such as Hey, Jeannie! with Jeannie Carson, the syndicated Western series Frontier Doctor with Rex Allen, Rod Cameron's syndicated crime drama State Trooper, and the 1961–62 drama series Bus Stop. He guest-starred on the David Janssen crime-drama series Richard Diamond, Private Detective.

From 1960–1961, Albertson was cast in three episodes of Pete and Gladys, with Harry Morgan and Cara Williams. On January 2, 1961, Albertson was cast as Sampson J. Binton, with DeForest Kelley as Alex Jeffords, in "Listen to the Nightingale", the series finale of Riverboat, starring Darren McGavin. Albertson had a recurring role as the neighbor Walter Burton in eight episodes of the 1962 ABC sitcom Room for One More, with Andrew Duggan and Peggy McCay. He had recurring roles in Ensign O'Toole (1962–63) and Run, Buddy, Run (1966).

Other 1960s series on which Albertson appeared were NBC's sitcom, Happy starring Ronnie Burns, and Glynis, starring Glynis Johns and Keith Andes, which aired for 13 weeks in the fall of 1963. Albertson appeared in two episodes of The Twilight Zone. In a 1967 episode of The Andy Griffith Show, he played the ne'er-do-well cousin, Bradford J. Taylor, of series character Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier). He also appeared in a 1969 episode of the TV series "The Virginian" entitled Girl in the shadows.

He co-starred as "The Man" Ed Brown on the popular series Chico and the Man with Freddie Prinze. He stayed for its entire run from 1974 to 1978. He earned an Emmy Award for his role in 1976.

Personal life and death
He resided for many years in West Hollywood, California. In 1978, he was diagnosed with colorectal cancer, but kept this information private and continued to act. Two of his last roles were in the television movies, My Body, My Child (1982) and Grandpa, Will You Run with Me? (1983), both filmed in 1981 and released posthumously. His final theatrical role was as the ill-tempered hunter, Amos Slade, in Disney's 24th animated feature, The Fox and the Hound, originally released in the summer of 1981, four months before his death.

He and his wife, June (July 23, 1924 – January 9, 2015) had a daughter, Maura Dhu. Albertson died on November 25, 1981, at the age of 74, of colorectal cancer. He and his elder sister, Mabel Albertson, (who died ten months later from Alzheimer's disease) were cremated and their ashes were scattered in the Pacific Ocean.