George Segal was born on February 13 1934 in Great Neck, New York. He was nine years old when he saw the movie This Gun for Hire (1942), starring Alan Ladd, and then decided to become an actor. He graduated from the George School, a private Quaker boarding school, in Newtown, Pennsylvania in 1951. He then attended Haverford College in Philadelphia. There he played banjo in Bruno Lynch and His Imperial Jazz Band. He was drafted into the United States Army and was stationed on Staten Island. He received his bachelor's degree from Columbia University in New York City in 1955.
George Segal made his stage debut off-Broadway in Moliere's Don Juan in 1956. The production also included Peter Falk. He later appeared in a production of The Iceman Cometh with Jason Robards and Leave it to Jane. For a time he was a member of the New York Shakespeare Festival Company. In the early Sixties he formed the comedy troupe The Premise.
He was working with The Premise when he was discovered by producer Larry Thurman. He was then cast in the role of Dr. Howard in the movie The Young Doctors (1961). In the Sixties he appeared in such notable films as Ship of Fools (1965), King Rat (1965), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and The Owl and the Pussycat (1970). He also appeared in the movies The Longest Day (1962), Act One (1963), The New Interns (1964), Invitation to a Gunfighter (1964), Lost Command (1966), The Quiller Memorandum (1966), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Bye Bye Braverman (1968), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Tenderly (1968), The Southern Star (1969), The Bridge of Regmagen (1969), Loving (1970), Where's Poppa? (1970), and The Owl and the Pussycat (1970). On television he guest starred on the shows Play of the Week, The United States Steel Hour, Armstrong Circle Theatre, Naked City, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Channing, The Robert Taylor Show, The Nurses, and Arrest and Trial. He appeared on Broadway in the productions Gideon and Rattle of a Simple Man.
The Seventies saw George Segal as a leading man in several movies, including such films as The Hot Rock (1972), Blume in Love (1973), California Split (1974), and Fun with Dick and Jane (1977). He also appeared in the movies Born to Win (1971), A Touch of Class (1973), The Terminal Man (1974), Russian Roulette (1975), The Black Bird (1975), The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), Who is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), Lost and Found (1979), and The Last Married Couple of America (1980).
In the Eighties he starred on the short-lived TV shows Take Five and Murphy's Law. He appeared in such TV movies as The Deadly Game, The Zany Adventures of Robin Hood, and Many Happy Returns. He appeared in the mini-series The Endless Game. He appeared in the movies Carbon Copy (1981), Killing 'em Softly (1982), Stick (1985), Run for Your Life (1988), All's Fair (1989), and Look Who's Talking (1989). He appeared on Broadway in Requiem for a Heavyweight.
In the Nineties George Segal began a seven season run on the sitcom Just Shoot Me!. He also appeared on the short-lived shows High Tide and The Naked Truth. He had a recurring role on the show Tracey Takes On and provided the voice of Dr. Benton Quest on the animated series The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest. He guest starred on the show Murder, She Wrote; Burke's Law; Picture Windows; The Larry Sanders Show; Caroline in the City; and Bette. He appeared on Broadway in Art. He appeared in the movies For the Boys (1991), Feofaniya, risuyushchaya smert (1991), Un orso chiamato Arturo (1992), Me, Myself and I (1992), Look Who's Talking Now (1993), Joshua Tree (1993), Deep Down (1994), The Babysitter (1995), It's My Party (1996), Flirting with Disaster (1996), The Cable Guy (1996), and The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).
In the Naughts Mr. Segal continued to appear on television in Just Shoot Me!. He guest starred on The War at Home, Private Practice, Boston Legal, Pushing Daisies, and Entourage. He appeared in the movies Heights (2005), Three Days to Vegas (2007), Made for Each Other (2009), 2012 (2009), and Love & Other Drugs (2010). In the Teens he was a regular on the TV shows Retired at 35 and The Goldbergs. He appeared in the movie Elsa & Fred.
George Segal is probably best known for his light comedies, but he was a versatile actor who performed equally well in drama. I remember him best from the classic caper movie The Hot Rock, in which he played Andy Kelp, the eternally optimistic brother-in-law of professional thief John Dortmunder (Robert Redford). While Mr. Segal excelled in this comedy, he also did well in the war film King Rat, which he played Corporal King, the wheeler-dealer who survives life in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp through various less than honest enterprises. In Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf he played Nick, one half of a young couple who become entangled in the constant fighting in which an older couple engage. He played a police detective who is a bit too close to his mother in No Way to Treat a Lady, a hairdresser who has become addicted to drugs in Born to Win, a book clerk and would-be novelist in The Owl and the Pussycat, and a card shark in The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox. George Segal played a wide variety of roles throughout his career. What is more, he did all of them well.
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