Jeff Corey
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. CLR
Filmography (194 Appearances)
From Russia to Hollywood: The 100-Year Odyssey of Chekhov and Shdanoff
The District
Alan Ladd: The True Quiet Man
Brimstone
Charmed
Perversions of Science
The Lottery
Burt Lancaster: Daring to Reach
The Home Court
Spider-Man
Color of Night
Surviving the Game
Babylon 5
Beethoven's 2nd
The Judas Project
Ruby Cairo
Lightning Force
Payoff
To My Daughter
Bird on a Wire
The Rose and the Jackal
A Deadly Silence
The Magic Boy's Easter
Roseanne
War of the Worlds
Messenger of Death
Cognac
Jake and the Fatman
Beauty and the Beast
Morningstar/Eveningstar
Second Serve
Final Jeopardy
Creator
Hell Town
Father of Hell Town
The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers
Conan the Destroyer
Night Court
Manimal
The A-Team
Faerie Tale Theatre
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
The Sword and the Sorcerer
Cry for the Strangers
Simon & Simon
Breaking Away
Homeward Bound
Battle Beyond the Stars
Knots Landing
Archie Bunker's Place
Butch and Sundance: The Early Days
Up River
The Pirate
The Wild Geese
Jennifer
Captains Courageous
The Pirate
Oh, God!
Lou Grant
Curse of the Black Widow
Moonshine County Express
Rooster: Spurs of Death!
The Last Tycoon
What's Happening!!
The Premonition
Banjo Hackett: Roamin' Free
The Bionic Woman
One Day at a Time
Paper Tiger
Starsky & Hutch
Doctors' Hospital
Switch
Barney Miller
Paper Moon
Little House on the Prairie
Run, Joe, Run
The Gun and the Pulpit
The Six Million Dollar Man
Kojak
Police Story
Hawkins
Set This Town on Fire
The Streets of San Francisco
The Bob Newhart Show
Search
Something Evil
Catlow
Clay Pigeon
Shoot Out
Alias Smith and Jones
Little Big Man
Night Gallery
Cover Me Babe
The Headmaster
They Call Me Mister Tibbs!
Getting Straight
Beneath the Planet of the Apes
A Clear and Present Danger
McCloud
The Movie Murderer
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
The Bold Ones: The New Doctors
True Grit
Impasse
The Boston Strangler
Hawaii Five-O
In Cold Blood
A Bell for Adano
Mannix
Judd for the Defense
Garrison's Gorillas
Seconds
Star Trek
The Cincinnati Kid
Mickey One
The Wild Wild West
Run for Your Life
Once a Thief
Pyramid of the Sun God
Mercenaries of the Rio Grande
Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.
The Big Parade of Comedy
Lady in a Cage
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
The Outer Limits
The Yellow Canary
The Balcony
Inside Magoo
The Untouchables
Bonanza
Rawhide
Perry Mason
Gunsmoke
The Wonderful World of Disney
Adventures of Superman
Superman and the Mole Men
Red Mountain
Never Trust a Gambler
Sirocco
New Mexico
The Prince Who Was a Thief
Only the Valiant
Fourteen Hours
Rawhide
The Next Voice You Hear...
Bright Leaf
Rock Island Trail
The Outriders
Singing Guns
The Nevadan
Bagdad
Follow Me Quietly
Home of the Brave
Roughshod
City Across the River
Hideout
Wake of the Red Witch
Joan of Arc
Kidnapped
Canon City
I, Jane Doe
Let's Live Again
The Wreck of the Hesperus
Alias a Gentleman
The Gangster
Hoppy's Holiday
Brute Force
Miracle on 34th Street
California
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim
The Killers
Rendezvous with Annie
Somewhere in the Night
My Friend Flicka
Aerial Gunner
The Moon Is Down
Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
Tennessee Johnson
Girl Trouble
The Postman Didn't Ring
Syncopation
The Man Who Wouldn't Die
Who Is Hope Schuyler?
Roxie Hart
Paris Calling
You Belong to Me
All That Money Can Buy
Mutiny in the Arctic
The Lady from Cheyenne
You'll Find Out
Bitter Sweet
Third Finger, Left Hand
One Third of a Nation
I Am the Law