George Segal Biography

There's always been something a little odd about New York native George Segal. It's as if he's always playing a little off key so that you can recognize the song but the backbeat is off, or the melody is not quite right, or the piano is playing behind the beat. The musical metaphors are apt since as a kid Segal was a conductor and vocalist with Bruno Lynch and his Imperial Jazz Band. After graduating from college, he also put food on the table as a jazz musician—as well as janitor and usher. And it was to music he returned in the '80s during a break from his film career, even performing at Carnegie Hall in 1981 with the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.

But we're talking about Segal the film actor here. Barely five years into his film career, in 1966, Segal was nominated for an Oscar for his work in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Before that, he was very good in King Rat, Ship of Fools and The Longest Day. But after his Oscar nomination, he wasn't offered major roles like before, so he took a turn onto the small screen, starring on the series Take Five in 1987 and Murphy's Law from 1988 to 1989. He returned to the big screen in the mid-90s with performances in Flirting With Disaster (1996) and The Cable Guy(1996).

However, despite being a major movie star in the 1960s, '70s and '80s, when he returned to television in the late 1990s, his career took off to new heights. He landed starring roles on a number of series. He received two Golden Globe nominations for his role as magazine publisher Jack Gallo on the long-running TV series Just Shoot Me! in 1999 and 2000. In 2020 he shared a CinEuphoria Award with the ensemble cast of The Goldbergs, on which he played Albert "Pops" Solomon from 2013 to 2021. In 2017, he received the ultimate compliment when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his work in television.

Known for being one of the all-time great character men, Segal passed away at the age of 87 in Santa Rosa, California, due to complications from bypass surgery. Married three times, he was survived by his third wife Sonia and his two daughters Elizabeth and Polly from his first marriage.