John McGiver(1913-1975)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
John Irwin McGiver came to acting relatively late in life. He held B.A. and
Master's degrees in English from Fordham, Columbia and Catholic Universities
and spent his early years teaching drama and speech at Christopher
Columbus High School in the Bronx. He had an early flirtation with the
acting profession in 1938 as actor/director for the Irish Reperatory Theatre,
but found his weekly income of $26.42 insufficient for daily survival. The
next year he enlisted and saw action during World War II, fighting with the U.S.
7th Armored Division in Europe (including the Battle of the Bulge). When he
was demobbed after six years in the army, he held the rank of Captain. He
returned to teaching drama, with occasional forays into off-Broadway acting.
In 1947, he married Chicago scenic designer Ruth Shmigelsky and settled
down to live in a converted 19th-century former Baptist church.
There are conflicting stories as to how McGiver ended up becoming a
film and television actor, but it happened sometime after one of his
part-time acting performances in September 1955, either through the
offices of an old University classmate turned stage producer or
through the persuasive abilities of an agent from the Music Corporation
of America. In any case, the portly, balding, owl-like and
precisely spoken McGiver quickly developed an inimitable style as a
comic (and occasionally serious) actor on television and in films. He
was most memorable as the obtuse landscape contractor in
The Gazebo (1959), a pompous jewelry
salesman in
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
and an inept twitcher in
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962).
He also played Mr. Sowerberry in a television version of
Oliver Twist (1959)
and starred in his own (sadly short-lived) TV show,
Many Happy Returns (1964),
as the complaints manager of a department store. His dramatic roles
included a senator in
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
and, on television, the corrupt mayor in
The Front Page (1970),
plus a rare villainous role in the TV episode
The Birds and the Bees Affair (1966).
Among his numerous guest starring roles on television, he was at his
best as the self-absorbed Roswell Flemington, who learns a moral
lesson in
Sounds and Silences (1964)
(1964).
Master's degrees in English from Fordham, Columbia and Catholic Universities
and spent his early years teaching drama and speech at Christopher
Columbus High School in the Bronx. He had an early flirtation with the
acting profession in 1938 as actor/director for the Irish Reperatory Theatre,
but found his weekly income of $26.42 insufficient for daily survival. The
next year he enlisted and saw action during World War II, fighting with the U.S.
7th Armored Division in Europe (including the Battle of the Bulge). When he
was demobbed after six years in the army, he held the rank of Captain. He
returned to teaching drama, with occasional forays into off-Broadway acting.
In 1947, he married Chicago scenic designer Ruth Shmigelsky and settled
down to live in a converted 19th-century former Baptist church.
There are conflicting stories as to how McGiver ended up becoming a
film and television actor, but it happened sometime after one of his
part-time acting performances in September 1955, either through the
offices of an old University classmate turned stage producer or
through the persuasive abilities of an agent from the Music Corporation
of America. In any case, the portly, balding, owl-like and
precisely spoken McGiver quickly developed an inimitable style as a
comic (and occasionally serious) actor on television and in films. He
was most memorable as the obtuse landscape contractor in
The Gazebo (1959), a pompous jewelry
salesman in
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
and an inept twitcher in
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962).
He also played Mr. Sowerberry in a television version of
Oliver Twist (1959)
and starred in his own (sadly short-lived) TV show,
Many Happy Returns (1964),
as the complaints manager of a department store. His dramatic roles
included a senator in
The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
and, on television, the corrupt mayor in
The Front Page (1970),
plus a rare villainous role in the TV episode
The Birds and the Bees Affair (1966).
Among his numerous guest starring roles on television, he was at his
best as the self-absorbed Roswell Flemington, who learns a moral
lesson in
Sounds and Silences (1964)
(1964).