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Burl Ives

Burl Ives (14 June 1909 – 14 April 1995) was an American actor and country music singer. Born in Hunt City, Illinois, he dropped out of Eastern Illinois University in 1929 to become an itinerant folk and country singer, and he attended the Juilliard School in 1933 and made his Broadway debut in 1938. He became a star of CBS Radio during the 1940s, and he won an Oscar for his role in The Big Country in 1959. He also narrated the classic 1964 Christmas television special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and performed its songs "A Holly Jolly Christmas" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer", causing him to be forever remembered for his Christmas songs. He died at his home in Washington in 1995.

Ives was a prominent Hollywood leftist, and he, Pete Seeger, and Woody Guthrie were affiliated with the far-left American Peace Mobilization (APM) during World War II. He was a high-profile supporter of the Progressive Party presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace in 1948, but his testification before HUAC during the 1950s resulted in the end of his friendships with his former left-wing friends.

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