Hollywood actor George Segal dies at age 87
A native of Great Neck, New York, Segal was best known as a comic actor, but his most famous role was in the harrowing 1966 drama, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
Actor George Segal attends the 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York on April 22, 2013.
George Segal, the banjo-player-turned-actor who was nominated for an Oscar for 1966's “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and starred in the ABC sitcom “The Goldbergs,” died Tuesday in Santa Rosa, California, at the age of 87 years.
“The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” the actor's wife Sonia Segal said in a statement to entertainment outlets Variety and Deadline Hollywood.
Charming and witty, Segal excelled in dramatic and comedic roles and had a life-long passion for the banjo. He performed at New York's Carnegie Hall in 1981 with his group, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.
Segal's acting career began on the New York stage and television in the early 1960s. He quickly moved into films, playing an artist in the star-studded ensemble drama "Ship of Fools" and a scheming, wily American corporal in a World War Two prisoner-of-war camp in "King Rat" in 1965.
A native of Great Neck, New York, Segal was always best known as a comic actor but his most famous role was in a harrowing drama, 1966's “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.”
The entire cast of the film, based on Edward Albee’s acclaimed play, was nominated for Academy Awards: Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton for starring roles, Sandy Dennis and Segal for supporting performances.
The women won Oscars, the men did not.
To younger audiences, he was better known for playing magazine publisher Jack Gallo on the long-running NBC series “Just Shoot Me" from 1997 to 2003, and as grandfather Albert “Pops” Solomon on the “The Goldbergs” since 2013.
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