WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers
Born: 13th February 1934
Died: 23rd March 2021
Most of us know George Segal as the fun ‘Pops’ from The Goldbergs but he started his life in New York City born the fourth child of George and Bonnie Segal. Both sets of grandparents were Russian-Jewish migrants but he was raised in a secular household. At the age of 13 his father died and he and his mother moved back to New York City from Great Neck, New York where he’d spent most of his youth. He attended a Quaker boarding school before attending Haverford College where he learnt to play the banjo which he continued to play whilst studying for his Bachelor of Arts in performing arts and drama at Columbia University – which is where he started performing in a jazz band. He played in a band called Corporal Bruno’s Sad Sack Six whilst he served in the U.S Army during the Korean War.
His love of acting started at the age of 9 when he saw Gun for Hire but it wasn’t until he had finished his education and stint in the army that he actually made steps towards an acting career studying at the Actors Studio. His first job was as an understudy in an off-Broadway production of The Iceman Cometh; he continued to act on and off Broadway until he signed for Columbia Pictures aged 27. During his early years he starred with many famous names including Yul Brynner, Vivien Leigh, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton but it took another ten years for him to move away from their shadows and get leading roles of his own. His film career took a slight downturn during the ‘80s but picked up again in the ‘90s and continued both on the big and small screen, including being cast as Albert ‘Pops’ Solomon in The Goldbergs, until his death.
At first appearance I thought George Segal might have been a little light relief in 2012, a slightly cheesy, predictable, ‘end of the world’ disaster film but I was wrong. Tony Delgatto (George’s character, one part of a jazz duo) is in it for such a short time it’s almost a pointless cameo, adds nothing to the plot at all, yet for me he had one of the most poignant moments in the film. Look Who’s Talking is a typical 80s film in which George plays Albert, the older, married man who is the father of Mollie’s baby, Mikey (there seemed to be a lot of these sorts of characters in the 80s – a very misogynistic era obviously!). Although George Segal is closer in age to Olympia Dukakis, Mollie’s mum, he doesn’t look it and it is easy to understand why Mollie falls for his character; smart, charming and handsome with all the right words to woo any woman (which he does several times). To be honest I think his next film, Love and Other Drugs, let him down and didn’t use him to his full potential. Dr James Randall is the disappointed father of three adult children he has gone through the whole medical career and is now lecturing so considering the way the film goes I am so disappointed that he is not seen in any more than the one scene – from that one scene there seemed to be so much potential for his character to be developed. Next we have yet another cameo for George as ‘Steven’s Father’ in The Cable Guy so you can probably guess that he is in the film very little. So little that all I can say is that he plays the typical dad role and that the casting of him and Matthew Broderick as father and son is very good. And finally we have the 1962 film The Longest Day but it is very hard to comment on George’s role as a US Army Ranger because I didn’t recognise him at all! I have seen very little of his early work but thought I might have recognised a voice at least but to pick one man out of a possible hundred is very difficult unless they have a character name. Considering this was only George’s second feature film to have it in his top five of international box office hits must have been an accomplishment he could have been proud of. Because of the little role he has in The Longest Day I have moved down on his list to The Mirror Has Two Faces and am I glad I did! The Mirror Has Two Faces is probably classified as a Rom-Com but for me it’s as much a Rom-Com as When Harry Met Sally. Segal plays Harry Fine, friend of our lead man, you can’t say he’s the funny man (this is a comedy after all) but I would say he is a conduit to the humour as our lead man is probably the closest we have to a ‘straight’ man – that’s straight as in a humour way not in a sexual way. This is a role that suits Segal as he seems to excel when he takes a back seat to the limelight, he can shine just as easily when he has others to reflect off of.
To be honest I do not have an extensive knowledge of George Segal’s films but there is something about The Owl and the Pussycat that caught my eye. It is based on a play, a two-hander by Bill Manhoff, which is probably why I felt it missed a few scenes throughout but I found it a nice comedy about two people pretending to be what they are not. George Segal plays Felix, an inspiring writer alongside Barbra Streisand’s Doris, an aspiring actress/model. The humour comes from both sides with George taking on the more serious role when needed with subtlety and finesse. It was nice to see to see this side of Mr Segal as I am used to seeing him in light comedy roles. The juxtaposition of his nervousness around the brash Streisand is brilliant and the final realisation… well the outcome was expected but I was not expecting the final scene to play out the way it did – George Segal unnerved me a little in the harsh way he treats Doris but when it all turns round it is a lovely piece of acting. This wasn’t the only time Segal and Streisand worked together, she directed and starred in The Mirror Has Two Faces twenty six years later.
George Segal was an award winning actor and a recording artist – he released four albums (including two soundtracks and two jazz albums). He was married three times – first to a film editor who went onto become an associate producer on several of his films she was also the mother of his only children (two daughters), his second wife he met whilst playing with his band, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band, at Carnegie Hall and his third wife he had first met at boarding school and was 64 when they married. He died of complications from bypass surgery at the age of 87 in 2021.
