Will Geer(1902-1978)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Will Geer was born William Aughe Ghere in Frankfort, Indiana, to Katherine (Aughe), a teacher, and Roy Aaron Ghere, a postal worker. Will admired his grandfather, a man who said hello to trees by
their Latin names and who had used what he brought back to Indiana from
the California gold rush to build Frankfort's first opera house. Will
pursued a college major in botany, from Chicago through a Master's
degree at Columbia, but ultimately gave in to his need to perform.
Starting with touring company tent shows and river boats, his
six-decade career included Broadway, movies, television; many
Shakespeare roles; one-man performances as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain.
His best known role was his last, Zebulon Walton, grandpa in the
long-running television series
The Waltons (1972). Less
well-known was his life-long role as a political agitator and radical
("Someone who goes to the roots, which is the Latin derivation of
radical") 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 Activities. In 1951, he formed the "Theatricum Botanicum," a
repertory theater in Topanga Canyon, California, where he not only
coached actors but also encouraged outdoor philosophical discussion
and, of course, folksinging. At his deathbed, his family sang "This
Land Is Your Land" and recited Robert Frost poems. His ashes lie in a
corner of the Shakespearean garden on the grounds of his Theatricum
Botanicum.