After being drafted then discharged from the army, Segal returned to the States to study at Columbia University and then the acclaimed Actors Studio in New York City. In the early 1960s, he began his career in theater and eventually Hollywood, where he first starred in serious roles, but eventually grew to be known for his comedic chops. Just a few years after becoming a professional actor, in 1965, Segal won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer for his role in The New Interns. He also went on to win another Golden Globe for the film A Touch of Class and was nominated for an additional three Golden Globes throughout his six decades as an actor. In the late-1960s, he starred in three iconic dramas adapted for TV: The Desperate Hours, The Death of a Salesman, and Of Mice and Men. He also appeared opposite legends like Barbra Streisand in The Owl and the Pussycat, Jane Fonda in Fun With Dick and Jane, and Elizabeth Taylor in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? That role is what earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor in 1967. Mike Nicholas, who directed Segal in the movie, once said, according to The New York Times, “I learned he’s not the tough guy he seems to be. What you get with George is masculinity and sensitivity, plus a brain. His conflicting quality—half rough and half gentle and the mind to control it—gives an element of surprise to whatever he does.” In the 1970s and 1980s, Segal regularly appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, sometimes as a guest host and other times playing the banjo, which he picked up as a young boy growing up in Great Neck, New York. Segal had a career resurgence in sitcoms later in life, including in the 1990s with Just Shoot Me! and in the 2010s with The Goldbergs, which is still running after eight seasons. In 1998, he joked with The New York Times that he kept popping up in Hollywood over the years. “I’m like a cork in the water, aren’t I? I keep bobbing up in all sorts of places, although I never know in advance where or when,” said Segal. Read on for a look back at Segal’s 60-year career through photos. And to honor another comedic actor we lost recently, revisit Cloris Leachman’s Life in Photos. After getting his start in theater, Segal signed a deal with Columbia Pictures in 1961 and won his first Golden Globe for The New Interns in 1964. Here he is posing for a photo the year after his breakthrough role. Here’s Segal and his first wife Marion Sobel, who he was married to from 1956 to 1983. They had two daughters together, Polly Segal and Elizabeth Segal.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Sobel, who died in 2011, was a producer, editor, and screenwriter who worked on The Golden Girls. Here’s Segal in a scene from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? with Taylor and Richard Burton. It was the role that earned Segal an Oscar nomination, as well as another Golden Globe nod. Here are Segal and Streisand in The Owl and the Pussycat wearing Halloween costumes. From left to right, here’s Ron Leibman, Segal, Robert Redford, and Paul Sand behind the scenes of the film The Hot Rock. In 1970, Segal told The New York Times he thought Redford was one of the best actors at that time, before adding “and you don’t get much handsomer than that.” For more memorable stars, check out The Biggest Male Icon Every Year Since You Were Born. In the 1970s, Segal headed to the Mediterranean to film A Touch of Class opposite Glenda Jackson, pictured here. The film earned her an Oscar and him his second Golden Globe. Here, Frank Gorshin, Kirk Douglas, and Segal perform “Give My Regards to Broadway” in honor of James Cagney at the American Film Institute. And for more celebrity news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. Segal attends the 48th Academy Awards with his first wife and their daughters. That year, he presided over the ceremony with Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, Goldie Hawn, and Gene Kelly. That wasn’t Segal and Hawn’s only time working together. Here they are in a scene from The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox that same year. In a scene from the film Fun With Dick and Jane, Fonda plants a kiss on Segal’s nose. Here are Segal and Natalie Wood playing football in a scene from The Last Married Couple in America. The film was a turning point of sorts for Segal, who later looked back on how that movie marked a downturn in his career and life. “About the time of The Last Married Couple in America, I remember Natalie saying to me—and she had been doing it since she was 6 years old—it’s one typed role after another, and pretty soon you forget everything. You forget why you’re here, why you’re doing it,” he told The Chicago Tribune in 1993. “Then my marriage started to fall apart. As I look back, it was all the same thing. I was disenchanted, I was turning in on myself, I was doing a lot of self-destructive things. But all that involved how to somehow break out and get to [the] next stage.” Segal was married to his second wife, Linda Rogoff, from 1983 to 1996. Here they are at the sixth annual American Film Market Awards. After a bit of a career lull in the 1980s, Segal returned to the small screen as a character actor and eventually, a leading man again. In 1997, the NBC workplace sitcom Just Shoot Me! premiered, which saw Segal play Jack Gallo, the owner and publisher of a New York City fashion magazine. The role earned him two Golden Globe nominations in 1999 and 2000—here he is smiling at the latter ceremony. Segal and co-stars Wendi McLendon-Covey and Troy Gentile are pictured here celebrating 100 episodes of The Goldbergs. Just a few years ago, Segal earned his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Here he is kissing his third wife Sonia Schultz Greenbaum on the forehead, who he was married to for nearly 25 years, after saying “I do” in 1998. And for the celebrities who haven’t earned this honor, check out The Most Surprising Celebrities Without Walk of Fame Stars.
