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Will Geer

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Will Geer
Geer (withEllen Corby) as Grandpa "Zeb" Walton inThe Waltons
Born
William Aughe Ghere

(1902-03-09)March 9, 1902
Frankfort, Indiana,U.S.
DiedApril 22, 1978(1978-04-22)(aged 76)
Los Angeles, California
Occupations
  • Actor
  • musician
  • social activist
Years active1927–1978
Spouse
​
​
(m.1934;div.1954)​
PartnerHarry Hay(1932-1934)[1]
Children3, includingEllen Geer
RelativesWillow Geer(granddaughter)

Will Geer(bornWilliam Aughe Ghere;March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist who was active in labor organizing and other movements in New York City andSouthern Californiain the 1930s and 1940s. In California he befriended rising singerWoody Guthrie.They both lived in New York City for a time in the 1940s. He wasblacklistedin the 1950s byHollywoodafter refusing, in testimony before Congress, to name persons who had joined theCommunist Party USA.

In his later years, Geer was best known for his role as Grandpa Zebulon "Zeb" Walton in the TV seriesThe Waltonsfrom 1972 until his death in 1978.

Early life

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Geer was born inFrankfort, Indiana,the son of Katherine (née Aughe), a teacher, and Roy Aaron Ghere, a postal worker.[2][3]His father left the family when he was 11 years old. Will was deeply influenced by his grandfather, who taught him the botanical names of the plants in Indiana, his native state. Will began to be abotanist;he received a master's degree in botany at theUniversity of Chicago.He was also a member of theLambda Chi Alphafraternity.

Career

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Geer created the role of Mr. Mister in the 1937Federal Theatre Projectproduction ofThe Cradle Will Rock.

Anglicizinghis name, Will Geer began his acting career touring intent showsand onriverboats.He worked on several social commentaries for documentaries, including narratingSheldon Dick'sMen and Dustaboutsilicosisamong miners.

He created the role of Mr. Mister inMarc Blitzstein's 1937The Cradle Will Rock,played Candy inJohn Steinbeck's theatrical adaptation of his novellaOf 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 includingWinchester '73(asWyatt Earp),Broken Arrow,andComanche Territory,all in1950; as well asBright Victory(1951). He became a dedicated activist touring government work camps of theCivilian Conservation Corpsin the 1930s withfolk singerssuch asBurl IvesandWoody Guthrie(whom he introduced to thePeople's Worldand theDaily Worker).[4][5]In 1956, Guthrie and Geer released an album together onFolkways Records,titledBound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie.In his biography,Harry Haydescribed Geer's activism and their activities while organizing for the strike.[6]: 64, 67 Geer introduced Guthrie toPete Seegerat the 'Grapes of Wrath' benefit which he organized in 1940 for migrant farm workers.

Geer acted with theGroup Theatre (New York)studying underHarold Clurman,Cheryl CrawfordandLee Strasberg.Geer acted in radio appearing asMephistopheles(the devil) in the 1938 and 1944 productions ofNorman Corwin'sThe Plot to Overthrow Christmas.[7]Geer also acted in the radio soap operaBright Horizon.[8]

Blacklist

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Geer was blacklisted in the early 1950s for refusing to testify before theHouse Committee on Un-American Activities.[9][10]As a result, he appeared in very few films over the next decade. Among those wasSalt of the Earth(1954). He starred in it; it was produced, directed, and written by blacklisted Hollywood personnel. It told the story of a miners' strike inNew Mexicofrom a pro-union standpoint. The film was denounced as "subversive", consequently it faced difficulties during production and in distribution.

Later years

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In 1951, Geer founded the Will GeerTheatricum BotanicuminTopanga, Californiawith his wife, actressHerta Ware.He combined his acting and botanical careers at the Theatricum, cultivating every plant mentioned inShakespeare's plays. During the late 1950s and early 1960s, he played several seasons at theAmerican Shakespeare FestivalinStratford, Connecticut.He created a second Shakespeare Garden on the theater's grounds. By that time, he was working sporadically again onBroadway.In 1964, he was nominated for theTony AwardforBest Featured Actor in a Musicalfor110 in the Shade.In 1967 he performed a soliloquy as the prosecutor delivering the closing argument against the two murderers in the filmIn Cold Blood.In 1972, he played the part of Bear Claw inJeremiah Johnson.

In 1972, he was cast as Zebulon Walton, the family patriarch onThe Waltons,a role he took over fromEdgar Bergen.Bergen played the character in the TV movie upon which the series was based. He won anEmmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama SeriesforThe Waltonsin 1975. When Geer died shortly after completing the sixth season ofThe Waltons,the death of his character was written into the show's script. His final episode, the last episode of the 1977–1978 season, showed him reuniting with his onscreen wife Esther (played byEllen Corby;she had been absent for the entire season due to a stroke). His character was mourned onscreen during the first episode of the 1978–1979 season, titled "The Empty Nest".

Personal life

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Geer married actress Herta Ware in 1934; they had three children, Kate Geer, Thad Geer, and actressEllen Geer.Ware also had a daughter, Melora Marshall, who was an actress, from another marriage. Although he and Ware divorced in 1954, they remained close for the rest of their lives.

In 1932, Geer metHarry Hayat the Tony Pastor Theatre where Geer was working as an actor. They soon became lovers.[11]Geer and Hay participated in a milk strike in Los Angeles. Later in the year, they performed in support of the1934 West Coast waterfront strikewhere they witnessed police firing on strikers and killing two.[12][6][page needed]Geer was a committed leftist; Hay later described him as his political mentor.[6]: 64–65 [13][14]Geer introduced Hay to Los Angeles' leftist community and together they were activists, joining demonstrations for laborers' rights and the unemployed. Once they handcuffed themselves to lampposts outsideUCLAand handed out leaflets for theAmerican League Against War and Fascism.[6]: 64–65 Geer became a member of the Communist Party of the United States in 1934. After Hay was increasingly political, Geer introduced him to the party.[6]: 67, 69 [15]Geer became a reader of thePeople's World,a West Coast Communist newspaper.[5]

He maintained a garden at his vacation house, called Geer-Gore Gardens, inNichols, Connecticut.He was often there and attended the localFourth of Julyfireworks celebrations, sometimes wearing a black top hat or straw hat and always his trademark denim overalls with only one suspender hooked.[16]He had a small vacation house inSolana Beach, California,where his front and back yards were cultivated as vegetable gardens rather than lawns.

Death

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Geer died ofrespiratory failureat the age of 76 on April 22, 1978. As he was dying, his family sang Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"and recited poems byRobert Frostat his bedside.[citation needed]His remains were cremated and his ashes are buried at the Theatricum Botanicum in the Shakespeare Garden inTopanga Canyon,California.[17]

TV and filmography

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Discography

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  • Folkways: The Original Vision(2005)Smithsonian Folkways
  • Ecology Won: Readings by Will Geer and Ellen Geer(1978)Folkways Records
  • Woody's Story: As Told by Will Geer and Sung by Dick Wingfield(1976) Folkways Records
  • American History in Ballad and Song, Vol.2(1962) Folkways Records
  • Mark Twain: Readings from the Stories and from "Huckleberry Finn"(1961) Folkways Records
  • Hootenanny at Carnegie Hall(1960) Folkways Records
  • Bound for Glory: Songs and Stories of Woody Guthrie(1956) Folkways Records

References

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  1. ^Kathleen Kennedy; Sharon Rena Ullman (2003).Sexual Borderlands: Constructing an American Sexual Past.Ohio State University Press. pp. 289–90.ISBN978-0-8142-0927-1.
  2. ^American National Biography: Fishberg-Gihon, John Arthur Garraty, Mark Christopher Carnes, American Council of Learned Societies, Oxford University Press, 1999[1]
  3. ^"Christine-Alcorn - User Trees".genealogy.com.
  4. ^Michael Bronski"The real Harry Hay",Boston Phoenix,October 31, 2002
  5. ^abDenning, Michael,The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century,Verso (1998),ISBN1-85984-170-8,ISBN978-1-85984-170-9,p. 14
  6. ^abcdeStuart Timmons,The Trouble With Harry Hay: Founder of the Modern Gay Movement(1990)
  7. ^""The Plot to Overthrow Christmas: Norman Corwin",Tangentonline ".Archived fromthe originalon September 21, 2017.RetrievedJuly 1,2013.
  8. ^Dunning, John(1998).On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio(Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 119.ISBN978-0-19-507678-3.RetrievedSeptember 17,2019.
  9. ^"H. Rept. 82-2516 - Annual report of the Committee on Un-American Activities for the year 1952. December 28, 1952. (Original release date.) January 3, 1953. -- Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed".GovInfo.gov.U.S. Government Printing Office. December 28, 1952. p. 45.RetrievedJune 29,2023.Appeared Apr. 11, 1951, and refused to affirm or deny membership in Communist Party.
  10. ^"H. Rept. 82-378 - Report on the Communist" peace "offensive. A campaign to disarm and defeat the United States. April 25, 1951. -- Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed".GovInfo.gov.U.S. Government Printing Office. April 25, 1951. pp. 105, 108, 109.RetrievedJune 29,2023.
  11. ^Kevin Starr,Golden Dreams: California in an Age of Abundance 1950–1963,Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 469
  12. ^Hay, Harry; Roscoe, William.Radically Gay: Gay Liberation in the Words of Its Founder,Beacon Press, 1996, p. 356
  13. ^Levy, Dan (June 23, 2000)."Ever the Warrior: Gay rights icon Harry Hay has no patience for assimilation".San Francisco Chronicle.p. DD–8.Archivedfrom the original on June 18, 2013.
  14. ^John Gallagher, "Harry Hay's Legacy" (obituary)The Advocate,November 26, 2002; pp. 15; No. 877; ISSN 0001-8996
  15. ^D'Emilio, p. 59
  16. ^"An interview with Will Geer from 'The Waltons'".Archived fromthe originalon June 7, 2011.RetrievedFebruary 22,2011.
  17. ^Wilson, Scott.Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons,3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Location 17144). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
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