Diemazz

Will Geer
Grandpa in The Walton
Born	William Aughe Ghere March 9, 1902(1902-03-09) Frankfort, Indiana, USA
Died	April 22, 1978 (aged 76) Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse(s)	Herta Ware (1934-1954)
Awards won Emmy Awards Supporting Actor - Drama Series 1975 The Waltons

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

Biography

Geer was born in Frankfort, Indiana and was heavily influenced by his grandfather, who taught him the botanical names of the plants in his native state. He started out to become a botanist, studying the subject and obtaining a master's degree from the University of Chicago. While attending, he also became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity.

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.

Geer made his Broadway debut as Pistol in a 1928 production of Much Ado About Nothing, created the role of Mr. Mister in Marc Blitzstein's The Cradle Will Rock, played Slim in John Steinbeck's theatrical adaptation of his novella Of Mice and Men, and appeared in numerous plays and revues throughout the 1940s. From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies including Winchester '73, Broken Arrow, and Bright Victory.

Along with his lover, Harry Hay, who became an active member of the Communist Party of the United States, Geer became interested in communism. In 1934, Geer and Hay gave support to a labor strike of the port of San Francisco; the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike lasted 83 days. Though marred by violence, it was an organizing triumph, one that became a model for future union strikes.^[1] Geer became a reader of the West coast communist newspaper, the People's World.^[2]

Geer became a convinced activist, touring government work camps in the 1930s with folk singers like Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie (whom he introduced to the People's World and the Daily Worker; Guthrie would go on to write a column for the latter paper).^[2][1] In 1956, the duo relased an album together on Folkways Records, entitled Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie. In his biography, fellow organizer and gay rights pioneer Harry Hay details Geer's involvement in labor and social activism, and their relationship while organizing for the strike.^[3] Geer is credited with introducing Guthrie to Pete Seeger at the 'Grapes of Wrath' benefit Geer organized in 1940 for migrant farm workers.

Geer was blacklisted for refusing to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the early 1950s. During that period, he built the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, 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.

By the mid-fifties he was working sporadically on Broadway and in 1964 received a nomination for the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for 110 in the Shade.

Geer maintained a vacation home, called Geer-Gore Gardens, in Nichols Connecticut. He visited often and attended the local Fourth of July fireworks celebrations sometimes wearing a black top hat or straw hat and always his trademark denim overalls with only one suspender hooked.

When Geer died shortly after completing the Sixth Season of The Waltons, the producers had his character die, as well.

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 three children, including actress Ellen Geer. Although they eventually divorced, they remained close. Ware also had a daughter, actress Melora Marshall, from 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" in Topanga Canyon, near Santa Monica, California.

Filmography

Discography

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