39 Facts About George Segal

George Segal became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles.

George Segal was one of the first American film actors to rise to leading man status with an unchanged Jewish surname, helping pave the way for other major actors of his generation.

George Segal released three albums and performed with the instrument in several of his acting roles and on late-night television.

George Segal spent much of his childhood in Great Neck, New York.

All four of George Segal's grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his maternal grandparents changed their surname from Slobodkin to Bodkin.

George Segal's oldest brother, John, worked in the hops brokerage business and was an innovator in the cultivation of new hop varieties and had a farm in Grandview, Washington where George would often come and help in the summers; the middle brother, Fred, was a screenwriter; and his sister Greta died of pneumonia before he was born.

George Segal's family was Jewish, but he was raised in a secular household.

George Segal became interested in acting at the age of nine, when he saw Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire.

When his father died in 1947, George Segal moved to New York City with his mother.

George Segal graduated from George School, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, in 1951 and attended Haverford College.

George Segal graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in performing arts and drama.

George Segal played banjo at Haverford and at Columbia, where he played with a dixieland jazz band that had several different names.

George Segal served in the United States Army during the Korean War.

George Segal appeared in Antony and Cleopatra for Joseph Papp and joined an improvisational group called The Premise, which performed at a Bleecker Street coffeehouse and whose ranks included Buck Henry and Theodore J Flicker.

George Segal continued to perform on Broadway with roles in Gideon by Paddy Chayefsky, which ran for 236 performances, as well as Rattle of a Simple Man, an adaptation of a British hit, with Tammy Grimes and Edward Woodward.

George Segal was signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1961, making his film debut in The Young Doctors.

George Segal made several television appearances in the early 1960s, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Armstrong Circle Theatre, and Naked City, and appeared in the well-known World War II film The Longest Day.

George Segal had a small role in Act One and a more prominent part in the western Invitation to a Gunfighter alongside Yul Brynner.

George Segal came to Hollywood from New York City to star in a TV series with Robert Taylor that never aired.

In 1965, George Segal played an egocentric painter in an ensemble cast led by Vivien Leigh and Lee Marvin in Stanley Kramer's acclaimed drama Ship of Fools, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.

The film, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture and was later selected to the National Film Registry, is arguably George Segal's best known and, for his role, he was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe.

George Segal released the album at a time when he appeared regularly playing banjo on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

For over ten years after his success with Woolf, George Segal received many notable film roles, often working with major filmmakers and becoming a significant figure in the New Hollywood movement.

In one of his most successful roles, George Segal played a philandering husband in Melvin Frank's continental romantic comedy A Touch of Class opposite Glenda Jackson.

George Segal played a perplexed police detective in No Way to Treat a Lady, a war-weary platoon commander in The Bridge at Remagen, a man laying waste to his marriage in Loving, and a hairdresser-turned-junkie in Born to Win.

George Segal's appearances were marked by eccentric banter with Johnny Carson and were usually punctuated by bursts of banjo playing.

George Segal continued his music career during this time as well.

George Segal made frequent television appearances with the "Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band", whose members included actor Conrad Janis on trombone, and in 1981 they performed live at Carnegie Hall.

In 1976, George Segal co-hosted the Academy Awards along with Gene Kelly, Goldie Hawn, Walter Matthau, and Robert Shaw.

George Segal reunited with his Touch of Class co-star Jackson and director Frank in another European-set romantic comedy, Lost and Found, but the film was not a success.

George Segal famously pulled out of the lead role in Blake Edwards' hit comedy 10, resulting in his being replaced by Dudley Moore and sued by Edwards.

George Segal starred in two short-lived television series, the semi-autobiographical sitcom Take Five and the crime drama Murphy's Law.

Nevertheless, after this relatively dry period, George Segal re-established himself as a successful character actor in the 1990s.

In other roles, George Segal played talent manager Murray Berenson in three episodes of the television series Entourage, guest starred in shows such as Boston Legal, Private Practice, and Pushing Daisies, appeared in comedic short videos such as Chutzpuh, This Is, and starred in the TV Land sitcom Retired at 35, alongside his Bye Bye Braverman co-star Jessica Walter.

In 2017, George Segal received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the category of Television.

George Segal married film editor Marion Segal Freed in 1956, who would go on to work as an associate producer or editor on three of his films.

George Segal married his former George School boarding school classmate Sonia Schultz Greenbaum in 1998.

Later in his life, George Segal lived part-time in Sonoma County when he was not filming The Goldbergs in Los Angeles.

George Segal died of complications from bypass surgery in Santa Rosa, California, on March 23,2021, at age 87.