'Touch of Class' Actor George Segal Dies at Age 87

FILE PHOTO: Actor George Segal attends the 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Actor George Segal attends the 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
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'Touch of Class' Actor George Segal Dies at Age 87

FILE PHOTO: Actor George Segal attends the 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Actor George Segal attends the 40th Anniversary Chaplin Award Gala at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York April 22, 2013. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly/File Photo

George Segal, the Oscar-nominated actor who sparred with Richard Burton in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” romanced Glenda Jackson in “A Touch of Class” and won laughs in the TV sitcom “The Goldbergs,” has died at the age of 87.

“The family is devastated to announce that this morning George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery,” his wife Sonia Segal said in a statement on Tuesday.

Charming and witty, Segal excelled in dramatic and comedic roles, most recently playing laid-back widower Albert “Pops” Solomon on the comedy series “The Goldbergs.”

“Today we lost a legend,” Adam F. Goldberg, who created the TV series that was based on his own life, wrote on Twitter on Tuesday, Reuters reported.

“It was a true honor being a small part of George Segal’s amazing legacy. By pure fate, I ended up casting the perfect person to play Pops. Just like my grandfather, George was a kid at heart with a magical spark,” Goldberg added.

Segal’s long time manager Abe Hoch said in a statement that he would miss his friend’s “warmth, humor, camaraderie and friendship. He was a wonderful human.”

Segal’s acting career began on the New York stage and television in the early 1960s. He quickly moved into films, playing an artist in the star-studded ensemble drama “Ship of Fools” and a scheming, wily American corporal in a World War Two prisoner-of-war camp in “King Rat” in 1965.

Two years later he earned an Academy Award nomination as best supporting actor in the harrowing, marital drama “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” with Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

“Elizabeth and Richard were the king and queen of the world at that moment and there was a lot of buzz about it,” Segal told The Daily Beast in 2016. “For me, there was a great satisfaction of being involved with it.”

But it was in comedies that Segal cemented his star status in a string of films in the 1970s with A-list directors and co-stars such as Jackson, who won an Oscar for her performance in “A Touch of Class.”

Segal played a lawyer in the 1970 dark comedy “Where’s Poppa” with Ruth Gordon, a gem thief along with Robert Redford in 1972’s “The Hot Rock,” an out-of-control gambler in Robert Altman’s “California Split” and a philandering Beverly Hills divorce attorney in Paul Mazursky’s “Blume in Love” in 1973.

He credited an early appearance on the late-night talk show “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” for his switch to comedic roles.

“It was the first time that the people who make movies saw me doing comedy and having this funny interchange with Carson,” Segal told the Orlando Sentinel in 1998.

He said he considered himself lucky in a business that he compared to gambling because you’re always waiting for your lucky number, or a great part, to come up.

He also had a life-long passion for the banjo and performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 1981 with his group, the Beverly Hills Unlisted Jazz Band.



‘Severance,’ ‘The Penguin’ Lead Nominations for TV’s Emmy Awards

US actor Adam Scott attends PaleyFest LA screening of the season finale of "Severance" at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 21, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Adam Scott attends PaleyFest LA screening of the season finale of "Severance" at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 21, 2025. (AFP)
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‘Severance,’ ‘The Penguin’ Lead Nominations for TV’s Emmy Awards

US actor Adam Scott attends PaleyFest LA screening of the season finale of "Severance" at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 21, 2025. (AFP)
US actor Adam Scott attends PaleyFest LA screening of the season finale of "Severance" at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, on March 21, 2025. (AFP)

Psychological thriller "Severance" from Apple TV+ and HBO's crime drama "The Penguin" stacked up the most nominations for Emmy Awards on Tuesday, outpacing "The Studio" and "The White Lotus" in the contest for television's highest honors.

"Severance" received a leading 27 nominations and was nominated for the top prize of best drama alongside Star Wars series "Andor,The Pitt,The White Lotus" and others.

"The Penguin," set in the DC Comics universe and starring Colin Farrell, earned 24 nominations and will compete for best limited series against Netflix hit "Adolescence," among others.

Hollywood satire "The Studio," an Apple TV+ show featuring Seth Rogen as a nervous film executive, and HBO's "The White Lotus," about murder and misdeeds at a luxury resort, received 23 each.

"What the heck?!! We never thought this would happen," Rogen said in a statement.

Comedy nominees included defending champion "Hacks," previous winner "The Bear,Nobody Wants This" and "Abbott Elementary."

The 23 nominations for "The Studio" tied the record for a comedy in a single season, set last year by Chicago restaurant tale "The Bear."

Winners of the Emmys will be announced at a red-carpet ceremony in Los Angeles, broadcast live on CBS on September 14. Comedian Nate Bargatze will host.

The television industry is undergoing a contraction as media companies curtail the sky-high spending they shelled out to compete in the shift to streaming platforms led by Netflix.

Longtime Emmy favorite HBO and the HBO Max streaming service topped all programmers with 142 nominations, a record for the network.

Walt Disney collected 137 nominations, including six for ABC's "Abbott Elementary," one of the few broadcast shows in the Emmy mix. "Andor," on Disney+, received 14.

Netflix garnered 120 nods and Apple scored 81, its highest total since launching its streaming service in 2019.

"Severance" tells the story of office workers who undergo a procedure to make them forget their home life at work, and vice versa.

"It's distinctive in every way - in terms of its storytelling, in terms of style, in terms of its directing, its tone," said Matt Cherniss, head of programming at Apple TV+.

Star Adam Scott, a best actor nominee, said the cast was unsure how viewers would respond.

"The fact that it's resonated at all has been just such an incredible feeling," Scott said. "We thought it was something that might be too weird."

WYLE, FORD IN THE RUNNING

Noah Wyle received his first Emmy nomination since 1999 for his role as an emergency room doctor on "The Pitt." Wyle was nominated five times for "ER" but never won.

"I'm humbled and grateful," Wyle said of the recognition for "The Pitt," which received 13 total nominations.

Harrison Ford, 83, earned his first Emmy nod, for playing a grumpy therapist on "Shrinking."

Ron Howard, the former "Happy Days" star turned Oscar-winning director, also landed his first acting nomination, a guest actor nod for playing himself on "The Studio." He will compete with fellow director Martin Scorsese, also a guest star on the show.

Other notable acting nominees included Farrell and Cristin Milioti for "The Penguin,The Bear" actors Jeremy Allen White and Ayo Edebiri, "Hacks" stars Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder, Kathy Bates for "Matlock" and Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey for "The Last of Us."

Eight "White Lotus" actors were recognized.

"This is a bunch of cherries on the icing on the cake that was the gift of playing such a tortured and lonely human," said Jason Isaacs, who portrayed a suicidal father facing financial ruin on the show.

Beyonce also made the Emmys list. Her halftime performance during a National Football League game on Netflix was nominated for best live variety special.

Missing from the field was Netflix's popular Korean drama "Squid Game," while the final season of previous drama winner "The Handmaid's Tale" received just one nod.

Winners will be chosen by the roughly 26,000 performers, directors, producers and other members of the Television Academy.