Actor Eddie Albert, an engaged resident of Pacific Palisades who served as the town’s 22nd honorary mayor from 1996 to 1998, passed away on May 27 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 99. Albert, who had an entertainment career that spanned radio, stage, movies and television, was an icon of the Palisades, having lived for over 60 years in a home on Amalfi Drive that he purchased from silent film star Billie Dove. He is perhaps best known for his starring role in television’s ‘Green Acres’ and for his Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor in ‘Roman Holiday’ and ‘The Heartbreak Kid.’ Eddie Albert was born Eddie Albert Heimberger in Rock Island, Illinois on April 22, 1906. His father was involved in real estate business, causing the family to move to Minneapolis. Albert attended the University of Minnesota until his junior year, when he decided to get a full-time job managing movie theaters, in which he performed magic tricks before each show. He continued to work in entertainment, forming a singing trio that found success performing on the radio. The group played at stations in St. Louis, Cincinnati, Chicago and New York, until finally breaking up. After the breakup, Albert moved to New York and sang in clubs around New York City for $3 a night, while living above a speakeasy on 48th St. He and Grace Bradt then formed a singing duet and went on NBC Radio for a year as ‘The Honeymooners’Grace and Eddie.’ Acting scouts discovered Albert soon after, and signed him for a Broadway show, ‘Room Service,’ and the movie version of ‘Brother Rat,’ and then the Rodgers and Hart musical ‘The Boys of Syracuse.’ When World War II broke out, Albert joined the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant, junior grade, and fought in the Pacific at Tarawa and other islands. In 1994 he was awarded the Navy’s Distinguished Public Service Award for dedication and heroic efforts on board the U.S.S. Sheridan during the battle of Tarawa in 1943. Albert married Margo ne’ Maria Margarita Guadelupe Teresa Estella Bolado Castilla y O’Donnell in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York in 1945. They had two children. His son Edward Albert, born in 1951, became an actor, married and has a daughter, Thais. His daughter Maria, born in 1954, is also married and has a daughter, Mia. Margo passed away in 1985. Eddie Albert served in a number of noble endeavors in his lifetime. In 1972, he was invited to act as a consultant to Maurice Strong, the Secretary General of the U.S. Conference on Environment, which was held in Stockholm, Sweden. He also met with national and local officials in an effort to reduce pollution to the environment, and went on NBC Television speaking out against the pesticide DDT. Although he was attacked for his stance on DDT, he stood firm, and was recognized as being correct when scientific studies confirmed that DDT was in fact highly dangerous to the environment. In the 1970’s, Albert spoke at more than 50 universities, businesses, industrial groups and citizen gatherings in which he raised awareness about the pollution of the world’s ecology and steps that could be taken to reduce it. On Earth Day in 1970, he was one of the keynote speakers at a major environmental rally at Stanford University. Albert was also very involved in organic farming and gardening, as evidenced by the crops that could be found at his Amalfi home in the front and back yards. Depending on the season, he grew tomatoes, radishes, beets, carrots, chives, rosemary, and even tall rows of corn. Albert took his farming skills to the inner-city in the 1970’s, establishing City Children’s Farms in New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles and many other cities. Eddie Albert once said of growing older that ‘The problem with the men is you have to defrost them from believing that at age 65 you’re finished.’ Indeed, Albert kept going in his later years, working in his garden, and serving the town that had been his home for so long. Whether through his films and television shows, his garden and environmental work, or his years of service, the Palisades will always remember Eddie Albert as one of the pillars of the town, and as a friend to the community. ‘I’m absolutely in love with the Palisades,’ he said in 1999 at a birthday party for all residents 90 years and older. ‘It’s so pleasant here’the flowers, the people. I’ve been in a lot of places in the world and I’ve never been in one where the people are so warm and so comfortable with themselves. It’s wonderful that you can come together like this, and I’m honored to be part of it.’ Albert, who was 93 at the time, added: ‘I’m still trying to do my part to help people. So use the telephone, if you have time, and come and have a sandwich.’
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.
