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Will Geer

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Will Geer
File:Tvg82176.jpg
Will Geer (center) with Waltons costars Richard Thomas and Ellen Corby (TV Guide, August 21, 1976)
Born
William Auge Ghere
SpouseHerta 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. But he eventually succumbed to the allure of acting.

He began his career touring in tent shows and on river boats. 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 poignant performance as the wife of Jack Gilford in Cocoon. 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.

Geer was also a social activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie. In fact, he is credited with introducing Guthrie to Pete Seeger at the Grapes of Wrath benefit Geer organized in 1940 for migrant farm workers. 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.

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."

Filmography

1930s

1940s

1950s

1960s

1970s

Trivia

In the German dubbed version of The Waltons, the first name of Geer's character, Zeb Walton, was altered to Samuel "Sam" Walton because "Zeb" sounded too similar to "Sepp", a Bavarian short form of the name "Joseph", which was considered a cliché for an older man. The real Sam Walton was the founder of Wal-Mart.

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