Ives, Burl

orig. Charles Icle Ivanhoe Ives

(born June 14, 1909, Jasper county, Ill., U.S.—died April 14, 1995, Anacortes, Wash.) U.S. singer and actor. Ives began performing at age four and learned Scottish, English, and Irish ballads from his grandmother. He left college to hitchhike around the U.S., collecting songs from hoboes and drifters. Soon after his postwar concert debut in New York City, he was hailed by Carl Sandburg as “the mightiest ballad singer of this or any other century.” He recorded more than 100 albums and had hits with “I Know an Old Lady (Who Swallowed a Fly),” “The Blue Tail Fly,” “Big Rock Candy Mountain,” “Frosty the Snowman,” and “A Little Bitty Tear.” He appeared in many films—including East of Eden (1955), Desire Under the Elms (1958), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958), and The Big Country (1958, Academy Award)—and on Broadway.

Ives, Burl (b. Burle Icle Ivanhoe) (1909– ) folksinger, songwriter, movie actor; born in Hunt Township, Ill. As a child he sang and played banjo in community shows, and after attending Eastern Illinois State Teacher's College, he briefly played professional football. He set out to travel across the U.S.A., working at odd jobs and singing with his guitar to support himself, adding to his repertoire of traditional American folksongs. In the 1940s he performed in several Broadway shows, including Irving Berlin's This Is the Army (1942). In the 1950s he made several best-selling recordings of folksongs; as "The Wayfaring Stranger" he had a popular radio program; he toured around the world and would go on to produce educational films and publish collections of folksongs—all foreshadowing the folksong revival of the 1960s. Meanwhile, he had been appearing in several movies as a singer, but with his role in East of Eden (1955), he began to show a talent for dramatic acting that culminated in his role as Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958). He would continue to appear in (or provide the voice for) numerous movies.