George Segal, the Oscar-nominated actor whose credits range from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Where’s Poppa? on Do not shoot me! and The Goldbergs, died today in Santa Rosa, CA, of complications due to bypass surgery. He was 87.
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His wife, Sonia Segal, confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that George Segal passed away this morning due to complications due to bypass surgery,” she said in a statement.
For the past eight years, Segal has been a regular series in ABC’s family comedy of the 1980s. The Goldbergs. The last episode he filmed before his death, Episode 16 of the current eighth season of the show, will air on April 7th. The series is expected to pay tribute to Segal on air.
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Segal is probably best known for his TV sitcom roles as magazine publisher Jack Gallo on NBC’s Do not shoot me! a role that earned him two Golden Globe nominations, and as the family patriarch Albert “Pops” Solomon The Goldbergs. He was also the director of the ABC detective drama in the late 80’s. Murphy’s Law, the 1987 CBS comedy Take Five a TV Land sitcom Retired at 35.
But Segal was also nominated for an Oscar for Mike Nichols’ adaptation of Edward Albee in 1966. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – along with A-listers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton – and a leading man in films. He stars in films by legends such as Stanley Kramer (Ships of fools, 1965), Roger Corman (The massacre on Saint Valentine, 1967), Sidney Lumet (Bye Bye Braverman, 1968), Carl Reiner (Where’s Poppa? 1970), Herbert Ross (The Owl and the Pussycat, 1970), Paul Mazursky (Blume in Love, 1973) and Robert Altman (California Split, 1974).
He also starred in two films by writer-director Melvin Frank – 1973s A little class, opposite Glenda Jackson, and 1976s The Duchess and the Dirty Fox, with Goldie Hawn – and across from Barbra Streisand in The mirror has two faces (1996), which she also directed.
Segal’s many other major roles on the big screen include The terminal man, The Black Bird, fun with Dick and Jane, Russian roulette, who killed the great chefs of Europe ?, All’s Fair, Time of Darkness, For the Boys, two See who’s talking films and David O. Russell’s Flirt with disaster.
Some of his first film credits were The young doctors (1961) and plays an Army Ranger The longest day, the 1962 D-Day epic that included the ensemble John Wayne, Henry Fonda, Richard Burton, Robert Mitchum, Peter Lawford, Eddie Albert, Rod Steiger, Robert Wagner, Red Buttons, Steve Forrest and a pre-Bond Sean Connery .
Segal was born on February 13, 1934 in Great Neck, NY and made a turn in the military before starting on the small screen. Naked City, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and Arrest and trial.
He also had a handful of Broadway roles, including John Lithgow in the adaptation of Rod Serling in 1985. Requiem for a heavyweight and 1999s Art with Alan Alda, Victor Garbver and Alfred Molina.
Along with his Oscar nomination, Segal was a five-time Golden Globe nominee and earned a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.