Page 55 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 4 Summer 2013

1936
Efrem Zimbalist Jr.
was a handsome and debonair actor of
television and film fame, known for his
charm, good looks, and distinguished voice.
But Mr. Zimbalist was also for many years
a devoted single father, who lost his first
wife, Emily McNair, to cancer when his
two young children were 4 and 2.
“He was the best father on the planet,”
said his son, Efrem “Skip” Zimbalist III.
“He was mother and father to us while he
was pursuing his acting career. While he
was out being the debonair actor, he was
also giving us baths, taking us to school,
and making sure we got our shots. I will
never forget it. He was always there no
matter how busy he was.”
Mr. Zimbalist, whom his children called
“Pop,” played a round of golf in the days
before his death on May 2, 2014. He was
outside, watering his beloved garden
just after lunch on his five-acre horse
ranch in Solvang, Calif., when a handy-
man discovered him unresponsive in
the grass. Mr. Zimbalist was 95 and,
according to his son, “died with a smile
on his face.”
Mr. Zimbalist was born on November
30, 1918, in New York City, the son of
Russian immigrant Efrem Zimbalist,
a violinist and composer, and concert
soprano Alma Gluck, who, for a time,
had her own railroad car to travel to her
many concerts. He studied music as a
boy, playing the violin like his father and
displaying an innate gift as a pianist. In a
March 13, 1924, letter, his father asked
then-Rector Samuel Drury to “enter his
little son, Efrem Jr.” to the School for 1932
or 1933. Mr. Zimbalist attended the Fay
School in Southborough, Mass., before
enrolling at St. Paul’s School as a Second
Former in the fall of 1931. He struggled
academically at times, but admitted he
didn’t always give his best effort in the
classroom. He did earn Second Testimo-
nials in 1934. Mr. Zimbalist left the School
at the end of his Fifth Form year to travel,
at the behest of his parents, to Russia for
the year, where he lived with a host family.
He eventually graduated from the Milford
School in Milford, Conn.
In a spring 2012 interview with Alumni
Horae, Mr. Zimbalist said he “loved every
minute” of his time at St. Paul’s, where
he admitted he “broke just about every
rule there was,” including smoking and
stealing down the fire escape of his
dormitory room and into Concord to
dance with girls. He also described his
great lifelong admiration for Samuel
Drury, saying the former Rector was a
“huge force in my life.”
Mr. Zimbalist continued his studies at
Yale, where he “was thrown out of for not
studying, much to my mother’s despair.”
He was readmitted, and discovered act-
ing, studying at the Yale School of Drama
and the Neighborhood Playhouse in New
York City. He landed a job in the NBC
page program with a talented group of
men that included future actors Gordon
McRae and Gregory Peck. While at NBC,
Mr. Zimbalist auditioned for a part in a
serial radio program. “I got the part,
which paid $40 a week,” he told Alumni
Horae in 2012, “but was told I couldn’t
stay in the page program. I quit on the
spot, and my acting career was born.”
Mr. Zimbalist enlisted in the U.S. Army
in 1941 and earned the Purple Heart when
he was wounded in the battle of Hürtgen
Forest on the German-Belgian border.
He resumed acting upon his return,
landing a role opposite Spencer Tracy in
the Broadway production of “The Rugged
Path.” More stage work followed, along
with a role in the feature film House of
Strangers with Edward G. Robinson. Mr.
Zimbalist also produced a series of lyric
operas, including The Consul, which won
the Pulitzer Prize for music in 1950.
On the personal side, he was married
to Emily McNair in 1945 and the couple
had two children, Nancy and Skip. When
Emily became ill and died five years
later, Mr. Zimbalist put his acting career
on hold to tend to his children, while
working for his father at the Curtis
Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He
returned to New York four years later
to once again resume his acting career,
appearing on an NBC soap opera called
Concerning Miss Marlowe. Mr. Zimbalist
reconnected with a Broadway producer
he had met during his time in the Army,
who helped him land a test deal and,
eventually, a seven-year contract with
Warner Brothers in Los Angeles, where
he was paid up to $500 per week. He
was enamored with the contract system,
through which he was given a chance
to appear in a series of films with more
seasoned actors, including Clark Gable
(Band of Angels), Errol Flynn (Too Much,
Too Soon ), Angie Dickinson (A Fever in
the Blood), and Audrey Hepburn ( Wait
Until Dark).
As he built his career and his recogni-
tion grew in the entertainment industry,
Mr. Zimbalist found love again in his
personal life, marrying Stephanie Spald-
ing on February 12, 1956. The couple wel-
comed a daughter, Stephanie Zimbalist,
later that year. Ms. Zimbalist went on to
her own successful career as an actress
of film and television, most notably on
the TV series Remington Steele with
Pierce Brosnan.
Though he resisted the pull of the
smaller screen, Mr. Zimbalist eventually
found his greatest success in television.
“A couple years into my contract,” he
told Alumni Horae in the 2012 interview,
“Warner’s came to me and said they wanted
me to try out for a television series called
77 Sunset Strip. Back then, film actors
rarely ever wanted to do a TV series.
However, they pointed to a clause in my
contract and told me I had to do TV. It
turned out to be a blessing that lasted
[from 1958 to 1964].”
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