George Segal, the Oscar-nominated actor whose credits range from Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Where’s Poppa? to Just Shoot Me! and The Goldbergs, died today in Santa Rosa, CA, of complications from bypass surgery. He was 87.
His wife, Sonia Segal confirmed the news. “The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” she said in a statement.
For the past eight years, Segal had been a series regular on ABC’s 1980s-set family comedy The Goldbergs. The last episode he filmed before his death, Episode 16 of the show’s current eighth season, is set to air April 7. The series is expected to pay tribute to Segal on-air.
Segal probably is best known for his TV sitcom role as magazine publisher Jack Gallo on NBC’s Just Shoot Me!, which earned him two Golden Globe nominations, and as family patriarch Albert “Pops” Solomon on The Goldbergs. He also headlined the late-’80s ABC detective drama Murphy’s Law, the 1987 CBS comedy Take Five and TV Land sitcom Retired at 35.
But Segal also was an Oscar nominee for Mike Nichols’ 1966 Edward Albee adaptation Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? — co-starring opposite A-listers Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton — and a leading man in movies. He starred in films by such legends as Stanley Kramer (Ships of Fools, 1965), Roger Corman (The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, 1967), Sidney Lumet (Bye Bye Braverman, 1968), Carl Reiner (Where’s Poppa?, 1970), Herbert Ross (The Owl and the Pussycat, 1970), Paul Mazursky (Blume in Love, 1973) and Robert Altman (California Split, 1974).