Burl Ives

What strikes me about Burl Ives is the sheer span of his career, more than six decades from itinerant folk singer to Oscar-winning actor. I love that he started as a wandering guitarist before his radio show The Wayfaring Stranger turned traditional folk songs into something a wide audience embraced. Picking up an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for supporting roles, plus a Grammy in country music, tells me he refused to be boxed into one lane. The street-performer roots fascinate me most: he carried that raw, storytelling intimacy with him even after the awards started piling up. A genuine American original.

Name (English)

Burl Ives

Name (Japanese)

バール・アイヴス

Reading

ばーる・あいゔす

Born

June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Rooster

Origin

Hunt City, Illinois, United States

Occupation

street artist / banjoist / singer / autobiographer / writer

University

Eastern Illinois University

Awards & achievements

• 1959 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
• 1958 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
• 1962 Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording
• Order of Lincoln

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttp://www.burlives.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB%E3%83%BB%E3%82%A2%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B4%E3%82%B9

Tags

• Illinois
• street artist
• banjoist
• singer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.