George Cooper Grizzard Jr. (April 1, 1928 – October 2, 2007) was an American stage, television, and film actor.[1] He was the recipient of a Grammy Award, a Primetime Emmy Award and a Tony Award, among other accolades.
George Grizzard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | George Cooper Grizzard Jr. April 1, 1928 |
| Died | October 2, 2007 (aged 79) Manhattan, New York City, U.S. |
| Education | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1955–2006 |
| Partner | William Tynan |
Biography
edit
Early life and education
editGrizzard was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina and raised in Washington, DC. He once told an interviewer that he was "an only child and probably very lonely, so I made up children to play with — Gene and Bounds and Mrs. Pig and Mrs. Hog and their children and a town called Scottina. It was all a child's fantasy, but I guess that just kind of developed into wanting to create people."[1] He appeared in student productions in junior high school and decided to become an actor while attending Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington, where he was president of the drama club. He went on to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied advertising and drama.[2]
Career
editHe returned to Washington after graduation to work in advertising while appearing in amateur productions. He began his professional acting career in 1950 at Washington's Arena Stage, appearing in some of its earliest productions, with his first leading role in Dark of the Moon. He went to New York frequently for stage roles, and studied with Sanford Meisner, Philip Burton, and Alan Schneider.[2]
Grizzard's stage debut was as in the role of Miner in The Corn Is Green in 1944.[2] He made his Broadway debut in The Desperate Hours in 1955, about jailbreakers terrorizing a family, in which he played Hank Griffith, the younger brother of a character played by Paul Newman.[1] He frequently appeared in the plays of Edward Albee, and was in the original 1962 production of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? He played Nick alongside Melinda Dillon as his wife Honey, a young couple visiting Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill as the warring spouses, Martha and George.[1] The role won him a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album along with his castmates.
Grizzard played an unscrupulous United States Senator in the film Advise and Consent in 1962. Beginning in 1963, Grizzard was a member of the original company of the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, which also included Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. He played the title role in the Guthrie's inaugural production of Hamlet alongside Tandy, and featured in many productions from the Guthrie's first two seasons, including roles in Henry V, Three Sisters, and Saint Joan.
Grizzard also appeared on Broadway in The Disenchanted in 1958, Face of a Hero in I960 and Big Fish, Little Fish in 1961.[2]
His film roles included the drama From the Terrace with Paul Newman (1960), the Western Comes a Horseman with Jane Fonda (1978), and a Neil Simon comedy, Seems Like Old Times (1980).[1]
He also appeared in the 1996 revival of A Delicate Balance and the 2005 revival of Seascape. He also starred in You Know I Can't Hear You When the Water's Running. He won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for A Delicate Balance. Additional Broadway credits include The Creation of the World and Other Business, The Glass Menagerie, The Country Girl, The Royal Family, and California Suite.[1]
Grizzard guest-starred several times during the 1990s on the NBC television drama Law & Order as defense attorney Arthur Gold. He also portrayed President John Adams in the Emmy Award winning PBS miniseries The Adams Chronicles, produced by WNET. In 1980, he won an Emmy for his work in The Oldest Living Graduate. He starred as reporter Richard Larsen in The Deliberate Stranger, a television movie about serial killer Ted Bundy.[1][3]
Grizzard declined to discuss his acting technique, saying it was intensely personal, and that he "didn't think it was anybody's business." But he once said that actors needed to "have this mystery to lure an audience in order for them to do part of your work, to involve them. Don't do it all for them."[2]
He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2002.[4]
Death
editGrizzard died in Manhattan of complications from lung cancer. According to his New York Times obituary, his only survivor was his long-time companion William Tynan. Grizzard had kept his homosexuality private during his life.[1]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | From the Terrace | Alexander "Lex" Porter | |
| 1962 | Advise and Consent | Senator Fred Van Ackerman | |
| 1967 | Warning Shot | Walt Cody | |
| 1971 | Happy Birthday, Wanda June | Dr. Norbert Woodley | |
| 1978 | Comes a Horseman | Neil Atkinson | |
| 1979 | Firepower | Leo Gelhorn | |
| 1980 | Seems Like Old Times | Governor | |
| 1982 | Wrong is Right | President Bedford Forrest "Frosty" Lockwood | |
| 1984 | Bachelor Party | Ed Thompson | |
| 2000 | Wonder Boys | Fred Leer | |
| 2000 | Small Time Crooks | George Blint | |
| 2006 | Flags of Our Fathers | Older John Bradley | Final film role |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956-1962 | Alfred Hitchcock Presents | Ted Lambert Hubert Winter Alan Chatterton |
Season 2 Episode 2: "Fog Closing In" as Ted Lambert (1956)
Season 5 Episode 22: "Across the Threshold" as Hubert Winter (1960) Season 7 Episode 27: "Act of Faith" as Alan Chatterton (1962) |
| 1960 | The Millionaire | Jerry Mitchell | Season 6 Episode 21: "The Story of Jerry Mitchell" |
| 1960 | Thriller | Merle Jenkins | Season 1 Episode 1: "The Twisted Image" |
| 1960 | The Twilight Zone | Roger Shackleforth | Season 1 Episode 31: "The Chaser" |
| 1963 | The Twilight Zone | Alan Talbot / Walter Ryder, Jr. |
Season 4 Episode 1: "In His Image" |
| 1963 | Espionage | Lieutenant Bridger | Season 1 Episode 10: "Festival of Pawns" |
| 1963 | Ben Casey | Jonas King | Season 3 Episode 16: "The Last Splintered Spoke of the Old Burlesque Wheel" |
| 1964 | Dr. Kildare | Douglas Martin | Season 3 Episode 24: "A Hundred Million Tomorrows" |
| 1965 | Rawhide | Captain George Ballinger | Season 7 Episode 16: "A Time for Waiting" |
| 1971 | Marcus Welby, MD | George Adams | Season 3 Episode 2: "A Portrait of Debbie" |
| 1974 | The Stranger Within | David Collins | Television movie |
| 1975 | Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan | Attorney Clay | Television movie |
| 1975 | The Lives of Jenny Dolan | Ralph Stantlow | Television movie |
| 1976 | The Adams Chronicles | John Adams | Television miniseries Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series (1977) |
| 1978 | Hawaii 5-0 | Al Marsh | Season 10 Episode 16: "Head to Head" |
| 1980 | The Oldest Living Graduate | Floyd Kincaid | Television movie Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited Series or Movie (1981) |
| 1982 | American Playhouse | Mr. Wooster | Season 1 Episode 1: "The Shady Hill Kidnapping" |
| 1984 | Trapper John, MD | Vernon Shaw | Season 5 Episode 13: "Play Your Hunch" |
| 1985 | Spenser: For Hire | Frank Silverman | Season 1 Episode 3: "The Choice" |
| 1985 | The Cosby Show | Mr. Barker | Season 2 Episode 10: "Clair's Toe" |
| 1985 | Murder, She Wrote | Dr. Aubrey Benton | Season 2 Episode 11: "Murder Digs Deep" |
| 1986 | The Deliberate Stranger | Richard Larsen | Television movie |
| 1987 | Murder, She Wrote | Professor Tyler Stoneham | Season 3 Episode 14: "Murder in a Minor Key" |
| 1988 | Murder, She Wrote | Edmund Hall | Season 4 Episode 22: "The Body Politic" |
| 1989-1990 | The Golden Girls | Jamie/George Devereaux | Season 5 Episode 8: "That Old Feeling"
Season 6 Episode 9: "Mrs. George Devereaux" |
| 1990 | Caroline? | Paul Carmichael | Television movie |
| 1990 | An Enemy of the People | Mayor Peter Stockman | Television movie |
| 1991 | Iran: Days of Crisis | President Jimmy Carter | Television movie |
| 1992–2000 | Law & Order | Defense Attorney Arthur Gold | Season 2 Episode 13: "Severance" (1992)
Season 3 Episode 22: "Benevolence" (1993) Season 4 Episode 14: "Censure" (1994) Season 7 Episode 13: "Matrimony" (1997) Season 10 Episode 8: "Blood Money" (1999) Season 11 Episode 3: "Dissonance" (2000) |
| 1993 | American Experience | John W. Davis | Season 5 Episode 8: "Simple Justice" |
| 1993 | Alex Haley's Queen | Mr. Cherry | Television movie |
| 1993 | Not in the Family | Malcolm Worth | Television movie |
| 1994 | Scarlett | Henry Hamilton | Television miniseries Sequel to Gone With the Wind |
| 1994 | The 5 Mrs. Buchanans | Frank Collins | Season 1 Episode 10: "Emma in Love" |
| 1997 | Sisters and Other Strangers | Ben Strickland | Television movie |
| 1997 | 3rd Rock from the Sun | George Albright | Season 3 Episode 4: "Dick-In-Law" |
| 1998 | 3rd Rock from the Sun | George Albright | Season 3 Episode 20: "My Daddy's Little Girl" |
| 1998 | Touched by an Angel | Charley Nott | Season 5 Episode 11: "An Angel on the Roof" |
| 2006 | Haskett's Chance | Peyton Haskett | Television movie |
References
edit- ^ a b c d e f g h Berkvist, Robert (October 3, 2007). "George Grizzard, Actor Noted for Albee Roles, Dies at 79". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c d e Bryer, Jackson R.; Davison, Richard Allan (2001). The Actor's Art: Conversations with Contemporary American Stage Performers. Rutgers University Press. pp. 70-87. ISBN 978-0-8135-2873-1.
- ^ Stewart, Jocelyn Y. (October 4, 2007). "George Grizzard, 79; versatile stage, TV and film actor originated role of Nick in 'Virginia Woolf'". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Ridge, Richard. The Theatre Hall of Fame Awards Broadway Beat. Archived November 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
External links
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- George Grizzard at the Internet Broadway Database
- George Grizzard at IMDb
- George Grizzard at the Internet Off-Broadway Database
- George Grizzard at Find a Grave
- George Grizzard papers, circa 1900-2007, held by the Billy Rose Theatre Division, New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
- Edward Albee on George Grizzard
