Oscar Profile #580: George Segal

Born February 13, 1934 New York, New York, George Segal (Jr.) was raised in Great Neck, Long Island, New York by his father, a malt and hop agent, and his wife.

Interested in acting since seeing Alan Ladd in This Gun for Hire when he was nine, he moved back to Manhattan with his mother after the death of his father when he was 13. After a stint in the Army during the Korean War, he studied drama at Columbia University, graduated with Bachelor of Arts Degree in Performing Arts and Drama. He then studied at the Actors Studio before becoming an understudy in the 1956 off-Broadway revival of The Iceman Cometh.

In various TV productions from 1957 on, he made his film debut in 1961’s The Young Doctors and had a featured role in 1962’s The Longest Day. On stage, TV and in occasional films such as Act One and The New Interns for which he won a Golden Globe, stardom came with his roles in 1965’s Ship of Fools and King Rat. He received his first and only Oscar nomination for 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? .

Post-Oscar nomination in 1967, Segal starred in TV movie adaptations of the classic films, The Desperate Hours and Of Mice and Men. He then starred in 1968’s Bye Bye Braverman and No Way to Treat a Lady, receiving a BAFTA nomination for the latter.

Segal starred in three major films in 1970, Loving, Where’s Poppa? , and The Owl and the Pussycat. He repeated the feat with three more back-to-back hits with 1972’s The Hot Rock and 1973’s Blume in Love and A Touch of Class, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for the latter.

The actor had sporadic success through the 1970s and 80s with such films as California Split, Fun with Dick and Jane, Rollercoaster, Who Is killing the Great Chefs of Europe? , and Look Who’s Talking.

In character roles in later years, Segal was memorable in such 1990s films as For the Boys, To Die For, It’s My Party, Flirting with Disaster, and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

In more recent years, he has been appearing almost exclusively on TV, most memorably in the series, Just Shoot Me! from 1997-2003, Retired at 35 from 2011-2012, and The Goldbergs from 2013-2021.

George Segal was married three times and had two children with his first wife, Marion Segal. He died on March 23, 2001. He was 87.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

SHIP OF FOOLS (1965), directed by Stanley Kramer

Segal was seventh billed of the twelve stars of Kramer’s highly anticipated film of Katherine Anne Porter’s best-seller. He and sixth billed Elizabeth Ashley play young artists in love on the doomed voyage. Nominated for 8 Oscars and winner of 2, the film is best remembered for the performances of Oscar nominees Simone Signoret as a neurotic countess, Oskar Werner as the ship’s sympathetic doctor, and Michael Dunn’s as the wise dwarf who comments on his fellow passengers, as well as Vivien Leigh in her last role as a divorced socialite, Lee Marvin as a forceful baseball player, Jose Ferrer as a Nazi, and Heinz Ruhmann as an anti-Nazi.

WHO’S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? (1966), directed by Mike Nichols

Nominated for 13 Oscars and winner of 5, this groundbreaking film featured award-winning performances from its four stars – Richard Burton as a history professor, Elizabeth Taylor as his bitter wife, Segal as a new member of the faculty, and Sandy Dennis as his mousey wife engaged in a night of drinking. Although all four were nominated for most of the year’s acting awards, with Burton, Taylor, and Dennis winning many of them, Segal went home empty-handed at all of them. Taylor and Dennis won Oscars with Burton losing to Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons and Segal losing to Walter Matthau in The Fortune Cookie.

NO WAY TO TREAT A LADY (1968), directed by Jack Smight

Segal’s first comedy role was in Bye Bye Braverman earlier in the year, but this film from William Goldman’s novel based on the Boston Strangler serial killings established his ability to be engagingly funny in the midst of the horrors surrounding him. Rod Steiger was top billed as the serial killer, a master of disguises and voices, having elected to play that role instead of the amiable cop who solved the case, the role that went to Segal. Lee Remick co-starred as a glamorous tour guide who becomes Segal’s love interest, with Eileen Heckart as his overbearing mother. Segal was nominated for a BAFTA for his performance.

A TOUCH OF CLASS (1973), directed by Melvin Frank

A box-office hit on both sides of the Atlantic, this forced, unfunny comedy received a head-scratching five Oscar nominations including Best Picture. It was nominated for a like number of Golden Globes, winning Best Actor and Actress Musical or Comedy awards for Segal as a lecherous garment industry boss and Glenda Jackson as the English divorcée he cheats on his wife with. Jackson then went on to win a surprise second Oscar for keeping her dignity despite the nonsense surrounding her. Jackson barely deserved a nomination in a weak year for actresses, but the usually fine Segal is insufferable in this.

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER (1996), directed by David O. Russell

Segal returned to film as a character actor after years of sublimating his screen career to TV work. He was at his best playing the adopted father of star Ben Stiller opposite Mary Tyler Moore as his wife. Alan Alda and Lily Tomlin were equally fine as the parents of Patricia Arquette as Stiller’s wife, as were Josh Brolin as Arquette’s gay friend and Richard Jenkins as his lover. Moore was nominated for various awards while Tomlin and Jenkins were nominated for Spirit Independent awards. Segal was also memorable as Jeff Bridges’ friend in the same year’s The Mirror Has Two Faces.