George Segal

George Segal Jr., the Oscar-nominated actor who starred in classics “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” “Where’s Poppa?,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” and “Fun with Dick and Jane”, died Tuesday. He was 87.

According to his family, Segal died of complications from bypass surgery in Santa Rosa, California.

Segal was born on Feb. 13, 1934, in Great Neck, Long Island in New York and was the youngest of four children. His father, George Segal Sr., was a malt-and-hops agent and his mother, Fanny, a housewife.

Segal was a shy child but felt free on the stage, and after seeing the film “This Gun for Hire” when he was nine years old, he knew he wanted to act.

Segal attended George School, a private Quaker boarding school, in Newton, Pennsylvania, and then attended Haverford College.

Segal was then drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed on Staten Island, where he was able to attend Columbia University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in drama in 1955.

Segal’s acting career began on the New York stage and television in the early 1960s and would quickly transition to films, playing an artist in the star-studded ensemble drama “Ship of Fools.” He would then follow it up by playing the role of an American corporal in a World War II prisoner-of-war camp in “King Rat” in 1965.

Two years later, he earned an Academy Award nomination for best-supporting actor in the martial drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” alongside Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

“Elizabeth and Richard were the king and queen of the world at that moment and there was a lot of buzz about it,” Segal told The Daily Beast in 2016. “For me, there was a great satisfaction of being involved with it.”

Segal would further elevate his star status in the 1970s, starring in comedies such as “A Touch of Class” alongside A-list co-stars such as Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar for her performance in the film.

Segal then played a lawyer in the 1970 dark comedy “Where’s Poppa” with Ruth Gordon, followed by 1972’s “The Hot Rock,” in which he played a gem thief alongside Robert Redford. He then played an out-of-control gambler in Robert Altman’s “California Split” and a philandering Beverly Hills divorce attorney in Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love” in 1973.

Segal’s successful comedic acting career included roles opposite Jane Fonda in “Fun with Dick and Jane” and Barbra Streisand in “The Owl and the Pussycat.” He also played Natalie Wood’s husband in “The Last Married Couple in America.”

Segal’s film career declined in the 1980s, appearing in TV films and series, before returning to the big screen in supporting roles that included “Look Who’s Talking” in 1989 and 1996’s “The Cable Guy” with Jim Carrey.

He later garnered a younger generation of fans in the hit TV comedy “Just Shoot Me,” which ran from 1997 to 2003. Most recently his starred in the hit TV comedy, “The Goldbergs.”

In addition to his acting career, Segal had a life-long passion for the banjo and performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1981 with his group, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.

Segal was married three times: to film editor Marion Sobel from 1956 until their 1983 divorce; to music manager Linda Rogoff from 1983 until her death in 1996; and to Sonia Schultz Greenbaum, his high school sweetheart, since 1996.

Survivors also include his daughters, Polly and Elizabeth.