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Week of 19 September 1997 Vol. I, No. 4 BU Yesterday   The day after Burgess Meredith died last week at 89, a columnist observed that he had the gift of making the leading men of the movies in which he acted look good. But while Meredith was indeed a fine supporting actor -- younger fans will remember him for his role as Rocky's trainer and as Batman's nemesis, the Penguin -- he also starred in dozens of movies and plays from the 1920s through the '90s. Some of his best performances were in Winterset, a 1935 dramatization of the Sacco and Vanzetti case, as Prince Hal in a 1939 Orson Welles production of scenes from Shakespeare, in the films Of Mice and Men and The Story of G.I. Joe, and in Shaw's Major Barbara. In the last few years he played Jack Lemmon's father in the Grumpy Old Men movies and recorded peanut butter and airline commercials. In this 1957 photograph, we see Meredith with a group of SFA students at the Boston University Theatre. On the right is SFA Dean Robert Choate. Photo: BU Photo Services