Burgess Meredith

 Mickey Goldmill is a fictional character created by Sylvester Stallone and portrayed by Burgess Meredith in the Rocky film series. Meredith was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in the first film, as was his co-star Burt Young. The character's gravelly voice, intense demeanor and popular catchphrases helped make him highly recognizable as well as a common source of parody and satire in pop culture.

Mickey may be based on Charley Goldman. Both were bantamweights, Jewish, and had similar-sounding names. In addition, Goldman was the boxing trainer of Rocky Marciano, on whom Rocky Balboa is largely based. Goldman trained Marciano in many ways similar to how Goldmill trained Balboa, such as tying their ankles together with string to teach them to spread their feet at the appropriate width. Goldman was (again like Goldmill) well known for making wise remarks (e.g. "A lot of people say Rocky [Marciano] don't look too good in there, but the guy on the ground don't look too good either").

Lee Strasberg was originally offered the role of Mickey though director John G. Avildsen really wanted to go with Meredith. He shared the script with the latter, who loved the role. Ironically, after reading the screenplay, Meredith got a phone call from Strasberg and one of the many topics they covered was upcoming projects. Meredith was amused to hear Strasberg say that he was going to do a boxing picture called "Rocky."

Happy Birthday, Burgess Meredith!