Will Geer

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.

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). The leading lady in the musical was Inga Swenson, who was also nominated.

Was briefly considered for the part of "Amos McCoy" for The Real McCoys - The Lost Episode (1957) when original choice, Walter Brennan, was unavailable. However, since show creator Irving Pincus created the part with Walter Brennan in mind, he decided to wait until Brennan was available.

His fervent, active interest in liberal politics resulted in his Hollywood blacklisting in 1951. He built the Will Geer Theatrical Botanicum during those hard times in order to find an acting haven for himself and his many blacklisted friends.

Claimed that he was cast as "Slim" in the Broadway play version of John Steinbeck's "Of Mice and Men (1939)" by Steinbeck himself because he showed up to the audition in bluejeans and Steinbeck thought he looked the part. Steinbeck was sitting outside the stage door on a chair when he made the decision as Geer filed past him.

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.