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Will Geer
Age: 76 (passed away Apr. 22nd, 1978)
Height: 6' 2"
Birth Place: Frankfort, Indiana, USA
Born: Mar. 9th, 1902
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Will Geer's Main TV Roles
NOTE: Complete List of Works can be found at
IMDB
BIOGRAPHY: Will Geer admired his grandfather, a man who said hello to trees by their Latin names and who had used what he brought back to Indiana from the California gold rush to build Frankfort's first opera house. Will pursued a college major in botany, from Chicago through a Master's degree at Columbia, but ultimately gave in to his need to perform. Starting with touring company tent shows and river boats, his six-decade career included Broadway, movies, television; many Shakespeare roles; one-man performances as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain. His best know role was his last, Zebulon Walton, grandpa in the long-running television series "The Waltons" (1972). Less well-known was his life-long role as a political agitator and radical ("Someone who goes to the roots, which is the Latin derivation of radical") and folklorist/folksinger - he toured U.S. government work camps in the 1930s, singing with Woody Guthrie and Burl Ives. He was blacklisted during the McCarthy era for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Affairs. In 1951, he formed the "Theatricum Botanicum," a repertory theater in Topanga Canyon, California, where he not only coached actors but also encouraged outdoor philsophical discussion and, of course, folksinging. At his deathbed, his family sang "This Land Is Your Land" and recited Robert Frost poems. His ashes lie in a corner of the Shakespearean garden on the grounds of his Theatricum Botanicum.
TRIVIA:
- Geer was an early boyfriend of 'Harry Hay' (qv), the Los Angeles Communist and radical who founded America's first large-scale gay activist organization, the Mattachine Society.
- Was briefly considered for the part of Amos McCoy for "The Real McCoys" when original choice, Walter Brennan was unavailable. However since show creator Irving Pincus created the part with Walter Brennan in mind, he decided to wait until Brennan was available.
- Was a member of 'Orson Welles' (qv)' and 'John Houseman (I)' (qv)'s Project 891 theatre company...sponsored by the Federal Theatre Project.
- Father of Kate Geer, Thad Geer, and 'Ellen Geer' (qv)
- Changed his last name from Ghere to Geer because it was simpler to spell.
- His fervant, active interest in liberal politics resulted in his Hollywood blacklisting in 1951. He built the Will Geer Theatrical Botanicum during those hard times in order to find an acting haven for himself and his many blacklisted friends.
- Had a most unusual hobby of raising all the plants mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.
- Claimed that he was cast as "Slim" in the Broadway play version of 'John Steinbeck' (qv)'s "_Of Mice and Men (1939)_ (qv)" by Steinbeck himself because he showed up to the audition in bluejeans and Steinbeck thought he looked the part. Steinbeck was sitting outside the stage door on a chair when he made the decision as Geer filed past him.
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