Nobody knows who Eddie Albert is these days. People began to forget about him 30 years ago. Mention his name and those with a vague inkling will say Green Acres. I think of his performances in a lot of World War II films (there was one in which he fell out of an airplane at 10,000 feet) as well as roles in Roman Holiday (’53), Teahouse of the August Moon (’56) and Oklahoma! (’55)…what else?
The best thing Albert ever did was play Cybill Shepherd‘s disapproving dad in this scene from Elaine May‘s The Heartbreak Kid (’72). The back-and-forth between Albert and Charles Grodin goes on for four or five minutes. Albert was nominated for Best Supporting Actor because of this one scene.
BTW: Back in the ’70s and ’80s nobody was better at playing smarmy, self-assured, soft-spoken assholes than Grodin.
