George Segal was born on February 13, 1934 in New York City, New York, to Fannie Blanche (Bodkin) and George Segal Sr., a malt and hop agent. All of his grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. After a stint in the military, he made his bones as a stage actor before being cast in his first meaty film role in Chefarzt Dr. Pearson (1961). His turns in Das Narrenschiff (1965) and the eponymous Sie nannten ihn King (1965) heralded the arrival of a major talent. He followed this up with his Oscar-nominated performance in Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966), in which he more than held his own against Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966) was a cultural phenomenon, the film that wrecked the MPDDA censorship code that had been in place since 1934, and a huge box office success to boot.
By the early 1970s, appearances in such films as Die Eule und das Kätzchen (1970), Heirat ausgeschlossen (1973), Born to Win (1971) and Vier schräge Vögel (1972) had made him a major star with an enviable reputation, just under the heights of the superstar status enjoyed by the likes of Paul Newman. He followed up Mann, bist du Klasse! (1973) (a hit film for which his co-star Glenda Jackson won an Oscar) with his brilliant performance as the out-of-control gambler in Robert Altman's California Split (1974).
At one time in the early 1970s, it seemed like George Segal would have a career like that enjoyed by his contemporary Jack Nicholson, that of an actor's actor equally adept at comedy and drama. Segal never made the leap to superstar status, and surprisingly, has never won a major acting award, the latter phenomenon being particularly surprising when viewed from the period 1973-74, when he reached the height of his career. It was at this point that Segal's career went awry, when he priced himself as a superstar with a seven-figure salary, but failed to come through at the box office. For example, Die Jagd nach dem Malteser Falken (1975) was a failure, although his subsequent starring turn opposite Jane Fonda in Das Geld liegt auf der Straße (1977) was a big hit that revitalized her career.
The thriller Achterbahn (1977) became a modest hit even during a summer which saw it competing with Star Wars: Episode IV - Eine neue Hoffnung (1977), and he gave a adroit comic performance in Die Schlemmerorgie (1978) with Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Morley, which proved another box office success. For all practical purposes, even after the failures of Die Jagd nach dem Malteser Falken (1975), and Wer schluckt schon gerne blaue Bohnen? (1976), it seemed like Segal, with a few deft career choices, could reorient his career and deliver on the promise of his early period.
At the end of the decade, he dropped out of a movie that would have burnished his tarnished lustre as a star: Blake Edwards' 10 - Die Traumfrau (1979). 10 - Die Traumfrau (1979) made Dudley Moore a star, while Arthur - Kein Kind von Traurigkeit (1981) made him a superstar in the 1980s, a lost decade for Segal. It was an example of a career burnout usually associated with the "Oscar curse" (his Bizarre Morde (1968) co-star Rod Steiger, for example, was a great character actor whose career was run off the rails by the expectations raised by the Academy Award). George Segal has never won an Oscar, but more surprisingly, has only been nominated once, for Best Supporting Actor of 1966 for his role as Nick in Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966).
That he didn't return to the promise of the early 1970s may be the unintended consequence of his focusing on comedy to the detriment of drama. The comedy Mann, bist du Klasse! (1973) made him a million dollar-per-film movie star, and that's what he concentrated on. Segal began relying on his considerable charm to pull off movies that had little going for them other than their star, and it backfired on him. These films weren't infused with the outrageously funny, subversive comedy of Wo is' Papa? (1970), a success from his first period that he enjoyed along with co-star Ruth Gordon and director Carl Reiner.
When Segal first made it in the mid-1960s, he established his serious actor bona fides with a deal he cut with ABC-TV that featured him in TV adaptations of Broadway plays. He also played a very memorable Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman (1966), shining in performance in counterpoint to the vital presence that was Lee J. Cobb's Willy Loman. It was a good life for an actor, and he took time to show off his banjo-playing skills by fronting the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, with which he cut several records.
While the 1980s were mostly a career wasteland for Segal, with no starring roles in hit films, he remained a popular figure on television, and appeared regularly on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962), where he would routinely sing and play the banjo during interviews. After a major role in the surprise hit Kuck' mal wer da spricht! (1989), he co-starred with Bette Midler and James Caan in For the Boys - Tage des Ruhms, Tage der Liebe (1991), leading to a career revival in the 1990s, using his flair for comedy as part of the ensemble cast of Just Shoot Me - Redaktion durchgeknipst (1997). In the 2010s, he co-starred as the eccentric but lovable grandfather on the hit sitcom Die Goldbergs (2013). On February 14, 2017, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Television on his 83rd birthday. George Segal died at age 87 of complication from bypass surgery on March 23, 2021 in Santa Rosa, California.
