Something Bur Ives and Big Daddy had in common...

According to the original play (the uncensored third act) Big Daddy took some time off to travel the country.From the play:

Big Daddy : "I seen
all things and understood a lot of them,
till 1910. Christ, the year that
--I had worn my shoes through, hocked my--I hopped off a
yellow dog freight car half a mile down the ro
ad, slept in a wagon of cotton outside the
gin--Jack Straw an' Peter Ochello took me in.
Hired me to manage this place which grew
into this one.--When Jack Straw died--why,
old Peter Ochello quit
eatin' like a dog does
when its master's dead, and died, too!"

Bur Ives had his share of adventures. From IMDB mini bio:

"In high school, he learned the banjo and played fullback, intending to become a football coach when he enrolled at Eastern Illinois State Teacher's College in 1927. He dropped out in 1930 and wandered, hitching rides, doing odd jobs, street singing.

Summer stock in the late 1930s led to a job with CBS radio in 1940; through his "Wayfaring Stranger" he popularized many of the folksongs he had collected in his travels."

I think it's interesting both he and the character he is best known for developing took time off to 'bum around'. Perhaps that's one of the reasons he was chosen for the character, and why he could play it so well.