Search a film or person :
FacebookConnectionRegistration
Jeff Corey is a Actor American born on 10 august 1914 at Brooklyn (USA)

Jeff Corey

Jeff Corey
If you like this person, let us know!
Nationality USA
Birth 10 august 1914 at Brooklyn (USA)
Death 16 august 2002 (at 88 years) at Santa Monica (USA)

For the American ice hockey player, see Jeff Corey (ice hockey).

Jeff Corey (August 10, 1914 – August 16, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor and director who became a well-respected acting teacher after being blacklisted in the 1950s.

Biography

Jeff Corey was born Arthur Zwerling in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mary (née Peskin) and Nathan Zwerling. He attended the Feagin School of Dramatic Art and took part in the New York Federal Theatre Project. He worked with Jules Dassin, Elia Kazan, John Randolph and other politically liberal theatrical personalities. Although he attended some meetings of the Communist Party, Corey never joined. A World War II veteran, Corey served in the US Navy.




Hollywood
Corey moved to Hollywood in 1940 and became a highly respected character actor. One of his film roles was in Superman and the Mole Men, (1951), which was later edited to a two-part episode of the television series The Adventures of Superman, retitled "The Unknown People". His portrayal of a xenophobic vigilante coincidentally reflected what was about to happen to him.


Blacklisted
Corey's career was halted in the early 1950s, when he was summoned before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Corey 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. This behavior 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 (ISBN 978-0-31-217046-2), who also 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."

During his blacklisting Corey drew upon his experience in various actors' workshops (including the Actors' Lab, which he helped establish) by seeking work as an acting teacher. He soon became one of the most influential teachers in Hollywood. His students, at various times, included Robert Blake, James Coburn, Richard Chamberlain, James Dean, Jane Fonda, Peter Fonda, Michael Forest, James Hong, Sally Kellerman, Shirley Knight, Penny Marshall, Jack Nicholson, Darrell M. Smith, Diane Varsi, Sharon Tate, Rita Moreno, Leonard Nimoy, Sally Forrest, Anthony Perkins, Rob Reiner, Robert Towne, Barbra Streisand and Robin Williams.


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) and Tom Chaney the principal villain in True Grit (1969) and was sheriff Bledsoe in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (also 1969) who warned Butch and Sundance that no good would come of their breaking the law. 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 a new identity, an ironic parallel to the real life of Corey and the other principal actors (excepting Hudson) who had also been proscribed from Hollywood films during the "Blacklist" years of the 1950s.

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).


Television
Corey made guest appearances on many TV shows. Corey appeared as murder victim Carl Bascom in the Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Reckless Rockhound" (1964). He featured in 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; and Babylon 5 ("Z'ha'dum", 1996) in which he played Justin, and as Caspay in Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970). He was also the voice of the villain Silvermane (in elderly form) in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (1994). He also appeared in the short-lived Paper Moon (1974), a comedy about a father and his presumed daughter roaming through the American Midwest during the Great Depression based on the film. Corey had a memorable role in a third-season Night Court (1986) as a burned-out judge who'd lost his grip on reality.

He played Dr. Miles Talmadge on Night Gallery season one episode one, "The Dead Man", on December 16, 1970.

Best films

True Grit (1969)
(Actor)
Singing Guns (1950)
(Actor)

Usually with

John Ireland
John Ireland
(7 films)
Alfred Newman
Alfred Newman
(7 films)
Thomas Little
Thomas Little
(7 films)
Source : Wikidata

Filmography of Jeff Corey (108 films)

Display filmography as list

Actor

The Lottery, 1h40
Directed by Daniel Sackheim
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Fantastic, Horror
Actors Keri Russell, Dan Cortese, Veronica Cartwright, Sean Murray, Stephen Root, William Daniels
Roles Albert Smith
Rating59% 2.950712.950712.950712.950712.95071
Le père de Jason Smith, sur son lit de mort, lui fait promettre de disperser ses cendres sur la tombe de sa femme, la mère de Jason, morte alors que Jason était encore très jeune. Jason accepte cette requête et doit de ce fait retourner dans le village natal de sa mère, là où elle est enterrée, là où il a lui-même vécu ses premières années mais dont il n'a presque plus aucun souvenir, ayant déménagé avec son père, à la suite de la mort de sa mère. Alors qu'il est dans le cimetière pour accomplir sa promesse, il remarque avec étonnement que presque toutes les tombes indiquent une date de décès identique, le même jour, le même mois, mais avec une année d'écart à chaque fois. Face à cette étonnante constatation, il fouille dans sa mémoire et lui revient alors un souvenir flou d'une loterie particulière qui se tenait dans ce village…
Color of Night, 2h1
Directed by Richard Rush
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Horror, Crime, Romance, Erotic thriller
Themes Films about families, Films about sexuality, Bisexuality-related films, Erotic films, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, Erotic thriller films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Lesbian-related films
Actors Bruce Willis, Jane March, Lesley Ann Warren, Rubén Blades, Scott Bakula, Brad Dourif
Roles Ashland
Rating52% 2.6063652.6063652.6063652.6063652.606365
Dr. Bill Capa (Willis), a New York City psychologist, falls into a deep depression after an unstable patient commits suicide in front of him by jumping from his office window. The sight of the bloody body of his patient clad in a bright green dress causes Capa to suffer from psychosomatic color blindness, taking away his ability to see the color red.
Surviving the Game, 1h36
Directed by Ernest R. Dickerson
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure, Crime
Themes Transport films, Films about automobiles, Road movies, Chase films
Actors Ice-T, Rutger Hauer, Charles Dutton, John C. McGinley, William McNamara, Gary Busey
Roles Hank
Rating61% 3.098663.098663.098663.098663.09866
Jack Mason is a homeless man from Seattle who loses his only friends—a fellow homeless man and his pet dog—on the same day. Dejected, Mason attempts to commit suicide when a soup kitchen worker, Walter Cole, saves him. Cole refers the man to businessman Thomas Burns, who kindly offers Mason a job as a hunting guide. Despite his misgivings, the lure of a well paying job causes Mason to accept.
Beethoven's 2nd, 1h26
Directed by Rod Daniel
Origin USA
Genres Comedy
Themes Films about animals, Films about families, Films about dogs, Mise en scène d'un mammifère
Actors Charles Grodin, Bonnie Hunt, Nicholle Tom, Christopher Castile, Sarah Rose Karr, Debi Mazar
Roles Janitor
Rating49% 2.459422.459422.459422.459422.45942
The film begins in the home of the Newton family, where George, Alice, their three children, and Beethoven are all well adjusted to living together. Beethoven sneaks out and meets Missy, a female St. Bernard whose owners are attempting to settle a divorce. Regina, who is seeking $50,000 in the settlement, has retained full custody of Missy and only plans to transfer her to Brillo, her soon-to-be ex-husband, once the divorce is finalized.
Sinatra (TV miniseries), 4h10
Origin USA
Genres Drama
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about television, Musical films
Actors Olympia Dukakis, Philip Casnoff, Joe Santos, Gina Gershon, Nina Siemaszko, Marcia Gay Harden
Roles Quinlin
Rating71% 3.596893.596893.596893.596893.59689
Frank Sinatra (Casnoff) emerges from Hoboken, New Jersey, the son of local politician Natalie "Dolly" Sinatra (Dukakis) and fireman Anthony "Marty" Sinatra (Santos). Beginning his career as a singer for the Harry James (Posey) and Tommy Dorsey (Gunton) big bands, Sinatra struggles to keep his marriage to his teenage sweetheart Nancy Barbato (Gershon). Before long, his talent catapults him to both music and movie fame, but his personal failings place his career and marriage in danger. He endures tumultuous marriages and divorces with starlets Ava Gardner (Harden) and Mia Farrow (Siemaszko) while juggling his movie and singing careers and forming significant friendships with an ambitious young senator named John F. Kennedy (Kelly) and powerful Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana (Steiger).
Ruby Cairo
Ruby Cairo (1992)

Directed by Graeme Clifford
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Crime
Actors Andie MacDowell, Liam Neeson, Viggo Mortensen, Chad Power, Jack Thompson, Günter Meisner
Roles Joe Dick
Rating50% 2.503732.503732.503732.503732.50373
When Bessie Faro's (Andie MacDowell) husband Johnny (Viggo Mortensen) dies in a plane crash in Veracruz, Mexico, she finds that his air cargo business is deeply in the red. When she visits the airline's terminal in Veracruz, she finds a packet of baseball cards that have been marked up by Johnny. Recognizing his system for marking betting slips at race tracks, she decodes the cards and realizes that they indicate a bank account. When she tries to withdraw money from the account, she is denied. She realizes that the account is in the name of the player on the card, Onix Concepción.
Bird on a Wire, 1h50
Directed by John Badham
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Romance
Themes La corruption policière, Transport films, Films about automobiles, Road movies, Chase films
Actors Mel Gibson, Goldie Hawn, David Carradine, Bill Duke, Stephen Tobolowsky, Joan Severance
Roles Lou Baird
Rating60% 3.001743.001743.001743.001743.00174
Rick Jarmin (Mel Gibson) helped convict a drug-dealing FBI agent named Eugene Sorenson (David Carradine) and was placed in the witness protection program. Fifteen years later his former fiancée Marianne Graves (Goldie Hawn) crosses paths with him at a gas station in Detroit, Michigan. Rick refuses to recognize Marianne as the witness protection program does not allow contact with people from the witness' previous life. If she recognizes him it may lead to Sorenson finding and killing him.
Messenger of Death, 1h31
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Crime
Actors Charles Bronson, Trish Van Devere, Laurence Luckinbill, Daniel Benzali, Marilyn Hassett, John Ireland
Roles Willis Beecham
Rating54% 2.707682.707682.707682.707682.70768
Children play outside a rural Colorado home. They belong to Orville Beecham (Charles Dierkop) and his three wives. Two masked men pull up in a truck and wait for the children to go inside. They proceed to kill the three mothers, who are sister wives, and then the kids. The police arrive before the father, Orville, who returns to find his family massacred.
Second Serve, 2h
Directed by Anthony Page
Genres Drama
Themes Films about sexuality, Sports films, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Tennis films
Actors Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Balsam, Whit Hertford, Louise Fletcher, William Russ, Alice Krige
Roles Dr. Harry Benjamin
Rating72% 3.6268053.6268053.6268053.6268053.626805
In 1976, Renée Richards is on the tennis court as a professional tennis player. The film flashes back to 1964, when Renée Richards is an eye surgeon named Richard Radley (both roles played by Redgrave). Radley has a successful career and a fiancée, but secretly cross-dresses at night. Unable to speak with his mother Sadie (Louise Fletcher), who is a psychiatrist, Radley consults his own psychiatrist, Dr. Beck (Martin Balsam), who advises him to grow a beard. This strategy works temporarily until Radley is drafted into the Navy, which does not allow beards. Following his discharge and a failed marriage, Radley undergoes gender reassignment surgery and becomes Renée.
Fist of the North Star, 1h50
Directed by Toyoo Ashida
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Thriller, Action, Animation, Martial arts
Themes Post-apocalyptic films, Films about religion, Sports films, Films set in the future, Martial arts films, Political films, Dystopian films, Disaster films
Actors Akira Kamiya, Yuriko Yamamoto, Kenji Utsumi, Chikao Ōtsuka, Toshio Furukawa, Kaneto Shiozawa
Roles Ryuuken/Narrator (voice: English version)
Rating70% 3.546723.546723.546723.546723.54672
After a global-scale nuclear war, the majority of earth's surface has become a wasteland, with most of the world's survivors fighting over the few uncontaminated food and water supplies. Kenshiro, the master of the deadly martial art Hokuto Shinken, is traveling with his fiancee Yuria (Julia in English version) when they are confronted by Ken's former friend Shin of the Nanto Seiken. After defeating Ken in combat, Shin engraves seven wounds on Ken's chest and leaves him for dead, taking Yuria with him. Ken's eldest brother Raoh, having witnessed the fight without intervening, returns to his dojo and challenges his Master Ryuken's decision to choose Ken as his successor over him. Raoh kills Ryuken and proclaims he will become the ruler of the new world.
Creator
Creator (1985)
, 1h44
Directed by Ivan Passer
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Comedy, Romance
Themes Comedy science fiction films
Actors Peter O'Toole, Vincent Spano, Virginia Madsen, Mariel Hemingway, David Ogden Stiers, John Dehner
Roles Dean Harrington
Rating61% 3.050773.050773.050773.050773.05077
Dr. Harry Wolper is an eccentric medical professor teaching at a small southern California college who is obsessed with making a clone of his wife Lucy who died in childbirth 30 years earlier. Harry hires Boris Lafkin, a struggling pre-med student as his personal assistant to help him with his experiments by obtaining lab equipment and working in his backyard shed in exchange for which Harry gives Boris love life advice in courting an attractive coed named Barbara whom slowly becomes smitten with Boris. To continue his research into cloning, Harry meets and employes a young woman, named Meli, who practically moves in with him on an agreement to contribute her ovary sample as part of the cloning progress. Meli slowly falls for the much older Harry whom begins to question his ethics and vision of true love. Meanwhile, a rival of Harry's, fellow medical professor Dr. Sid Kuhlenbeck, tries to investigate and hinder Harry's cloning plans as part of a ploy to remove Harry from the university to take over Harry's lab for himself.
Conan the Destroyer, 1h43
Directed by Richard Fleischer
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantastic, Fantasy, Action, Adventure
Themes Films about magic and magicians
Actors Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grace Jones, Olivia D'Abo, Mako Iwamatsu, Sarah Douglas, Tracey Walter
Roles Grand Vizier
Rating59% 2.9516352.9516352.9516352.9516352.951635
Conan (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his companion, the thief Malak (Tracey Walter), are confronted by Queen Taramis (Sarah Douglas) of Shadizar. She tests their combat ability with several of her guards. Satisfied, she tells Conan that she has a quest for him. He refuses her, but when she promises to resurrect his lost love, Valeria, Conan agrees to the quest. He is to escort the Queen's niece, Jehnna (Olivia d'Abo), an innocent who is destined to restore the jeweled horn of the dreaming god Dagoth; a magic gem must first be retrieved that will locate the horn. Conan and Malak are joined by Bombaata (Wilt Chamberlain), the eunuch captain of Taramis's guard. Bombaata has secret orders to kill Conan once the gem is obtained.
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, 1h28
Directed by Carl Reiner
Origin USA
Genres Thriller, Comedy, Comedy thriller, Action, Crime, Romance
Actors Steve Martin, Rachel Ward, Carl Reiner, Alan Ladd, Reni Santoni, Barbara Stanwyck
Roles (in "The Killers") (archive footage)
Rating67% 3.398353.398353.398353.398353.39835
In the opening scene, John Hay Forrest (George Gaynes), noted scientist and cheesemaker, dies in a single-vehicle car accident (represented by the car wreck scene from Keeper of the Flame). In the next scene, private investigator Rigby Reardon (Steve Martin) is reading a newspaper when Forrest's daughter, Juliet (Rachel Ward), enters his office and faints when the paper's headline reminds her of her father's death. Upon coming to, she hires Rigby to investigate the death, which she thinks was murder. In Dr. Forrest's lab, Rigby finds two lists, one titled "Friends of Carlotta" and the other "Enemies of Carlotta", as well as an affectionately autographed photo of singer Kitty Collins, whose name appears on one of the lists. His search is interrupted by a man posing as an exterminator (Alan Ladd, in This Gun for Hire), who shoots Rigby in the arm and frisks the lists from the seemingly dead investigator.