Jeff Corey

Early life and education Corey was born 'Arthur Zwerling 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.

Career

Corey made his professional stage debut in Leslie Howard's 1936 production of Hamlet, playing a spear-carrier and understudying for Rosencrantz. In the mid-1930s, he acted with the Clare Tree Major Children's Theater of New York. He worked with Jules Dassin, Elia Kazan, John Randolph, and other politically progressive and left-wing theatrical personalities in the Federal Theatre Project. Although he attended some meetings of the Communist Party, Corey never joined.

Hollywood When Corey began making films in 1937, his agent suggested that he change his name from Arthur Zwerling, and he did so. His first roles were for Columbia Pictures, which usually offered a promising actor steady work as a contract player in the studio's stock company. If Corey was offered a contract, he declined it and worked in only two Columbia features. He then began freelancing for various studios, playing nondescript "everyman" parts. In RKO's Kay Kyser musical comedy You'll Find Out, he appears near the beginning as a quiz-show contestant (giving his name as Jeff Corey). His steadiest work during this period was at 20th Century-Fox, where he played a variety of minor roles from 1941 to 1943. This became a hallmark of his screen work: he could fill any role a script called for, with a quiet manner and an undistinguished, almost anonymous face. As Corey himself reflected, "I'm glad there has been such a diversity of roles in my career. I think I'm one actor who has not been pigeonholed or typecast." Corey might have gone farther at Fox but his career was interrupted by military service in the U. S. Navy during World War II.

One of his more prominent screen credits was the feature film Superman and the Mole Men (1951), which was later edited as "The Unknown People", a two-part episode of the television series The Adventures of Superman. His portrayal of a xenophobic vigilante coincidentally reflected what was about to happen to him.

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 ) by seeking work as an acting teacher. He soon became one of the most influential teachers in Hollywood. His students, at various times, included Kirk Douglas, Robin Williams, Robert Blake, Carol Burnett, James Coburn, Richard Chamberlain, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Michael Forest, James Hong, Luana Anders, Pat Boone, Sally Kellerman, Shirley Knight, Bruce Lee, Cher, Roger Corman, Anthony Perkins, Leonard Nimoy, Rita Moreno, Barbra Streisand, Anthony Perkins, Rob Reiner, and Robert Towne.

Corey was also a Professor of Theatre Arts at California State University, Northridge, and at various times was an artist-in-residence at Ball State University, Chapman University, University of Texas at Austin, and New York University. He also conducted acting seminars at Emory University and the Vancouver Film School.

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. It's over, don't you get that? Your times is over and you're gonna die bloody, and all you can do is choose where." In Seconds (1966), a science-fiction drama film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson, Corey with Will Geer and John Randolph played wealthy executives who opt to restart their lives with new identities.

Corey played a police detective in the psychological thriller The Premonition (1976) and he reprised the role of Sheriff Bledsoe in the prequel Butch and Sundance: The Early Days (1979). He also played Wild Bill Hickok in Little Big Man (1970). Corey directed some of the screen tests for Superman (1978), which can be seen in the DVD extras, and played Lex Luthor in several tryouts.

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.

Corey played Dr. Miles Talmadge on Rod Serling's Night Gallery season-one episode one, "The Dead Man", on December 16, 1970. He discussed his television work on Night Gallery in an interview in February 1973 aboard the SS Universe Campus of Chapman College. He was proudest of this work, for which he received an Emmy nomination.

During the 1970s, Corey also played Dr. Scott Rivers, an older man with whom Carol Kester (the character played by Marcia Wallace) becomes romantically involved, in 1973 in "Old Man Rivers," episode 31 of The Bob Newhart Show. In 1974, he appeared in "Murder on the 13th Floor," episode 6 of the James Stewart legal drama Hawkins. He also appeared in the short-lived 1974 series Paper Moon, a comedy about a father and his presumed daughter roaming through the American Midwest during the Great Depression based on the 1973 film of the same name.

In the 1980s, Corey was in a 1984 episode of Bob Newhart's show Newhart playing a judge. He also worked with writer-producer Reinhold Weege: two guest roles in Barney Miller and two more in Night Court (in one of the Night Court shows he insists he is Santa Claus). Corey was the voice of the villain Silvermane (in elderly form) in Spider-Man: The Animated Series in 1994.

Memoir His memoir, Improvising Out Loud: My Life Teaching Hollywood How To Act, which he wrote with his daughter, Emily Corey, is published by the University Press of Kentucky. His longtime friend and former student Leonard Nimoy wrote the book's foreword.

Personal life and death Corey married his wife Hope (nee Victorson) in 1938. They had three children.

Corey died on August 16, 2002, aged 88, after a fall.

Filmography Film I Am the Law (1938) as Thug (uncredited) ...One Third of a Nation... (1939) as Man in Crowd at Fir (uncredited) Third Finger, Left Hand (1940) as Johann (uncredited) Bitter Sweet (1940) as Second Man on Stairs (uncredited) You'll Find Out (1940) as Mr. Corey (uncredited) Petticoat Politics (1941) as Henry Trotter The Lady from Cheyenne (1941) as Reporter (uncredited) Mutiny in the Arctic (1941) as The Cook The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941) as Tom Sharp (uncredited) You Belong to Me (1941) as Mr. Greener (uncredited) Paris Calling (1941) as Secretary (uncredited) North to the Klondike (1942) as Lafe Jordan Roxie Hart (1942) as Orderly (uncredited) Who Is Hope Schuyler? (1942) as Medical Examiner The Man Who Wouldn't Die (1942) as Coroner Tim Larsen Small Town Deb (1942) as Hector Syncopation (1942) as Kit's Attorney (uncredited) The Postman Didn't Ring (1942) as Harwood Green Girl Trouble (1942) as Mr. Mooney (uncredited) Tennessee Johnson (1942) as Captain (uncredited) Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) as Crypt Keeper (uncredited) The Moon Is Down (1943) as Albert (uncredited) Aerial Gunner (1943) as Flight Crew Member (uncredited) My Friend Flicka (1943) as Tim Murphy Somewhere in the Night (1946) as Bank Teller (uncredited) Joe Palooka, Champ (1946) as Reporter (uncredited) It Shouldn't Happen to a Dog (1946) as Sam Black (uncredited) Rendezvous with Annie (1946) as Howard (uncredited) The Killers (1946) as "Blinky" Franklin (uncredited) The Shocking Miss Pilgrim (1947) as Stenographer (uncredited) California (1947) as Clem (uncredited) Ramrod (1947) as Bice Miracle on 34th Street (1947) as Reporter (uncredited) Brute Force (1947) as Freshman Stack Hoppy's Holiday (1947) as Jed Unconquered (1947) as Trapper (uncredited) The Flame (1947) as Stranger (uncredited) The Gangster (1947) as Karty's Brother-in-Law (uncredited) Alias a Gentleman (1948) as Zu The Wreck of the Hesperus (1948) as Joshua Hill Let's Live Again (1948) as Bartender Homecoming (1948) as Cigarette Smoker (uncredited) I, Jane Doe (1948) as Immigration Officer (uncredited) Canon City (1948) as Carl Schwartzmiller A Southern Yankee (1948) as Union Cavalry Sergeant (uncredited) Joan of Arc (1948) as Prison Guard Kidnapped (1948) as Shaun Wake of the Red Witch (1948) as Mr. Loring Hideout (1949) as Beecham City Across the River (1949) as Police Lieutenant Louie Macon Roughshod (1949) as Jed Graham Home of the Brave (1949) as Doctor Follow Me Quietly (1949) as Police Sgt. Art Collins Scene of the Crime (1949) as Man Arrested with Switchblade (uncredited) Bagdad (1949) as Mohammed Jao The Nevadan (1950) as Bart Singing Guns (1950) as Richards The Outriders (1950) as Keeley Rock Island Trail (1950) as Abraham Lincoln Bright Leaf (1950) as John Barton The Next Voice You Hear... (1950) as Freddie Dibson Fourteen Hours (1951) as Police Sgt. Farley Rawhide (1951) as Luke Davis Only the Valiant (1951) as Joe Harmony New Mexico (1951) as Coyote Sirocco (1951) as Feisal (uncredited) The Prince Who Was a Thief (1951) as Emir Mokar Never Trust a Gambler (1951) as Lou Brecker Red Mountain (1951) as Sgt. Skee Superman and the Mole Men (1951) as Luke Benson The Balcony (1963) as Bishop The Yellow Canary (1963) as Joe Pyle Beauty and the Beast – episode – "The Reckoning" – Winston Burke (1990) Picket Fences – episode – "This Little Piggy" – The Captain (1995) The Marshal – season one, episode seven – "The Bounty Hunter" – Alex Cooper (1995) Spider-Man: The Animated Series – two seasons, five episodes – voice of Elderly Silvermane (1995–1997): Season two (Neogenic Nightmare) "Chapter 1: The Insidious Six" "Chapter 2: Battle of the Insidious Six" "Chapter 11: Tablet of Time" "Chapter 12: Ravages of Time" Season four (Partners in Danger) "Chapter 5: Partners" Babylon 5 – season three (Point of No Return), episode 22 – "Z'ha'dum" – Justin (1996)

Other credits The Adventures of Philip Marlowe – radio series – Lieutenant Ebarra ("various times" (1948–1951)) Inside Magoo – animated short – voice of Doctor (1960) Alias Smith and Jones – director – episodes – "The Men That Corrupted Hadleyburg" and "The Day the Amnesty Came Through" (1972)