LOS ANGELES: Oscar-nominated actor George Segal, who sparred with Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” romanced Glenda Jackson in “A Touch of Class” and won laughs in the TV sitcom “The Goldbergs,” has died at the age of 87.
Segal excelled in dramatic and comedic roles, most recently playing laid-back widower Albert “Pops” Solomon on the comedy series “The Goldbergs.” “Today we lost a legend,” Adam F. Goldberg, who created the TV series that was based on his own life, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday.
Segal’s long time manager Abe Hoch said in a statement that he would miss his friend’s “warmth, humor, camaraderie and friendship. He was a wonderful human.”
Segal’s acting career began on the New York stage and television in the early 1960s. He quickly moved into films, playing an artist in the star-studded ensemble drama “Ship of Fools” and an American corporal in a World War Two prisoner-of-war camp in “King Rat” in 1965.
Two years later he earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor in the harrowing, marital drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.
“Elizabeth and Richard were the king and queen of the world at that moment and there was a lot of buzz about it,” Segal said in 2016. “For me, there was a great satisfaction of being involved with it.”
Segal cemented his star status in a string of comedies in the 1970s with A-list directors and co-stars such as Jackson, who won an Oscar for her performance in “A Touch of Class.” Segal played a lawyer in the 1970 dark comedy “Where’s Poppa” with Ruth Gordon, a gem thief along with Robert Redford in 1972’s “The Hot Rock,” an out-of-control gambler in Robert Altman’s “California Split” and a philandering Beverly Hills divorce attorney in Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love” in 1973.
He starred opposite Jane Fonda in “Fun with Dick and Jane,” fell for the charms of Barbra Streisand in “The Owl and the Pussycat” and played Natalie Wood’s husband in “The Last Married Couple in America.”
George Segal was born on February 13, 1934, in Great Neck, Long Island in New York. Although his ancestors were Russian Jewish immigrants, his family was not religious.
Segal was a shy child but said he felt free on the stage. After seeing the film “This Gun for Hire” when he was 9 years old, he knew he wanted to act. Following a stint in the Army and graduating from Columbia University with a drama degree, he made his film debut in “The Young Doctors” in 1961.
Two of Segal’s most acclaimed performances – in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and as Biff Loman in the 1966 TV movie of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” – were in roles that actor Robert Redford had turned down.
Segal appeared in TV films and series when his film career waned in the 1980s before returning to the big screen in supporting roles. Segal said he did not contemplate retirement because people kept offering him interesting roles.
