Will Geer

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Will Geer
Birth name William Auge Ghere
Born March 9, 1902(1902-03-09)
Frankfort, Indiana
Died April 22, 1978 (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s) Herta Ware (1934-1954)

Will Geer (born 9 March 1902 in Frankfort, Indiana – died 22 April 1978 in Los Angeles) was an American actor. Geer's real name was William Auge Ghere. He is best known for his portrayal of the character Grandpa Walton, in the popular 1970s TV series The Waltons.

Geer was heavily influenced by his grandfather, who taught him the botanical names of the plants in his native Indiana. He started out to become a botanist, studying the subject and obtaining a master's degree from the University of Chicago.

Geer was a social activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie, and participating in the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike.[1] According to fellow activist Harry Hay, who first mentioned it 12 years after Geer's death, the two had a brief relationship while organizing for the strike.[2] Geer is credited with introducing Guthrie to Pete Seeger at the Grapes of Wrath benefit Geer organized in 1940 for migrant farm workers.

He began his acting career touring in tent shows and on river boats. He worked on several left-oriented documentaries, including narrating Sheldon Dick's Men and Dust, about silicosis among miners. In the 1950s he was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. During that period, he built the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga Canyon, California, which he and Herta Ware helped to found. He combined his acting and botanical careers at the Theatricum, by making sure that every plant mentioned in Shakespeare was grown there.

He eventually made his way to Broadway, and in 1964 received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for 110 in the Shade.

He was married to the actress Herta Ware, best known for her performance as the wife of Jack Gilford in the film Cocoon (1985). Geer and Ware had 3 children, including actress Ellen Geer. Although they eventually divorced, they remained close. Ware also had a daughter, actress Melora Marshall, by another marriage.

As Will Geer was dying on April 22, 1978, of a respiratory failure at the age of 76, his family sang Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land" at his deathbed, and recited poems by Robert Frost. Geer was cremated, and his ashes buried at the Theatricum Botanicum in the "Shakespeare Garden." .

Contents

  1. ^ Michael Bronski, "The real Harry Hay", Boston Phoenix, 31 October 2002 [1]
  2. ^ Judith Lowder Newton, From Panthers to Promise Keepers: Rethinking the Men's Movement (2005), page 81.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Geer"
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