aka Grandpa Walton
Born: 9 March 1902
Died: 22 April 1978
Starting
with touring company tent shows and river boats, Will Geer's six-decade
acting career included Broadway, movies, television; many Shakespeare
roles; one-man performances as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain. He received
a 1964 Tony nomination as Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his role
in "110 In The Shade," a musical version of the film "The
Rainmaker" (1956), but his best known role was his last, Zebulon
Walton, grandpa in the long-running television series "The Waltons"
(1972-78).
Less
well-known was Geer's life-long role as a political agitator 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,
and opened a theatre for Blacklisted actors and folk singers on his Topanga
property. He also cultivated a large garden and, unable to find work in
Hollywood, Will and his family earned a living by selling vegetables,
fruit, herbs, and theatre. Geer had a most unusual hobby of raising all
the plants mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.
With
the advent of television's "The Waltons" and subsequent popularity
of Will's portrayal of Grandpa, in 1973 Geer co-founded a non-profit corporation,
The Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum.
Audiences flocked to free workshop performances of Shakespeare, folk plays,
and concerts featuring such well-known artists as Pete Seeger, Arlo Gutherie,
Della Reese & Burl Ives, among others. The
beautiful site exists to this day as a professional repertory theatre,
incorporating educational programs and musical events.
A
check of High Times magazines from 1976/77, the year
that pranksters changed the Hollywood sign to read "Hollyweed"
as a New Year's joke, reveals that Will Geer said he likes marijuana in
his strawberry tea. Geer is sometimes credited as High Ghere (the original
spelling of his last name name) and appeared as himself in "Shooting
the Moonshine War" (1970) (uncredited).
Another
grandpa--Al Lewis from TV's "The Munsters" (1964-66), ran for
governor of New York in 1988 on a platform to repeal that state's horrific
Rockefeller Drug Laws. We should start listening to our elders.
Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002095/bio
Will
Geer 