George Segal facts for kids

Quick facts for kids George Segal
Segal in 1965
Born	George Segal Jr. (1934-02-13)February 13, 1934 New York City, U.S.
Died	March 23, 2021(2021-03-23) (aged 87) Santa Rosa, California, U.S.
Alma mater	Columbia University (BA)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1955–2021
Spouse(s)	Marion Sobel ​ ​ (m. 1956; div. 1983)​ Linda Rogoff ​ ​ (m. 1983; died 1996)​ Sonia Schultz Greenbaum ​ (m. 1998)​
Children	2
Awards	See below

George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor.

He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and won two Golden Globe Awards, including the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for his performance in A Touch of Class.

On television, he was best known for his regular roles in two popular sitcoms, playing Jack Gallo on Just Shoot Me! (1997–2003) and Albert "Pops" Solomon on The Goldbergs (2013–2021).

Segal was also an accomplished banjo player. He released three albums and performed with the instrument in several of his acting roles and on late-night television.

Early life

George Segal Jr. was born in New York City, the youngest of four children to Fannie Blanche Segal (née Bodkin) and George Segal Sr., a malt and hop agent. He spent much of his childhood in Great Neck, New York. All four of Segal's grandparents were Russian-Jewish immigrants, and his maternal grandparents changed their surname from Slobodkin to Bodkin.

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

Segal became interested in acting at the age of nine, when he saw Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire. "I knew the revolver and the trench coat were an illusion and I didn't care," said Segal. "I liked the sense of adventure and control." He also started playing the banjo at a young age, later stating: "I started off with the ukulele when I was a kid in Great Neck. A friend had a red Harold Teen model; it won my heart. When I got to high school, I realized you couldn't play in a band with a ukulele, so I moved on to the four-string banjo."

When his father died in 1947, Segal moved to New York City with his mother. He graduated from George School, a Quaker boarding school in Pennsylvania, in 1951 and attended Haverford College. He graduated from Columbia College of Columbia University in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts in performing arts and drama. He played banjo at Haverford and also at Columbia, where he played with a dixieland jazz band that had several different names. When he booked a gig, he would bill the group as Bruno Lynch and his Imperial Jazz Band. The group, which later settled on the name Red Onion Jazz Band, played at Segal's first wedding.

Segal served in the United States Army during the Korean War. While there, he played in a band called Corporal Bruno's Sad Sack Six.

Career

After college and the army, Segal eventually studied at the Actors Studio with Lee Strasberg and Uta Hagen and got a job as an understudy in the 1956 off-Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh starring Jason Robards. Segal continued to perform on Broadway with roles in Gideon (1961–62) by Paddy Chayefsky, which ran for 236 performances, as well as Rattle of a Simple Man (1963), an adaptation of a British hit, with Tammy Grimes and Edward Woodward.

He was signed to a Columbia Pictures contract in 1961, making his film debut in The Young Doctors. Segal became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as Ship of Fools (1965) and King Rat (1965), he co-starred in the classic drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Segal in the trailer for Lost Command

Through the next decade and a half, Segal consistently starred in notable films across a variety of genres including The Quiller Memorandum (1966), The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), No Way to Treat a Lady (1968), Where's Poppa? (1970), The Owl and the Pussycat (1970), The Hot Rock (1972), Blume in Love (1973), A Touch of Class (1973), California Split (1974), The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox (1976), Fun with Dick and Jane (1977), Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978) and The Last Married Couple in America (1980). He 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. Later in his career, he appeared in supporting roles in films such as Stick (1985), Look Who's Talking (1989), For the Boys (1991), The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996), Flirting with Disaster (1996) and 2012 (2009).

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

Personal life and death

Segal was married three times. He 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. They had two daughters and were together until their divorce in 1983. From 1983 until her death in 1996, he was married to Linda Rogoff, a one-time manager of The Pointer Sisters whom he met at Carnegie Hall when he played the banjo with his band the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band. He married his former George School boarding school classmate Sonia Schultz Greenbaum in 1998.

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

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

Filmography

Film

Stage

Television

Discography

Awards and nominations

Other honors

• 1989: A portrait of Segal by photographer Lewis Morley was acquired by the National Portrait Gallery, London.
• 2017: Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Images for kids

• 

  Segal (left) with The Goldbergs cast, 2014

See also

In Spanish: George Segal (actor) para niños