EG Marshall

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EG Marshall (born June 18, 1914 as Everett Eugene Grunz in Owatonna , Minnesota , † August 24, 1998 in Bedford , New York ) was an American actor . Marshall worked as an actor for over seven decades and was active in all areas of acting, from theater to film to television and radio. He had one of his best-known roles as Juror No. 4 in the court drama The Twelve Jurors .

life and career

Edward Eugene Grunz was born in 1914 - few sources also mention the year of birth 1910 - as the son of Charles G. Grunz (1882–1959) and his wife Hazel Irene (1892–1975). His paternal grandparents were immigrants from Germany . He attended Carleton College and the University of Minnesota . After completing his training, he began working as an actor in 1933 and joined a Shakespeare drama group traveling through America . He also took the stage name EG Marshall . Marshall refused to explain the meaning of the initials in his stage name until his death . When he was asked about it in an interview, he just said: "Everybody's Guess". In fact, he is said to have officially changed his name to EG Marshall by the authorities. Between 1942 and 1981 Marshall was seen with at least 19 plays on Broadway in New York. He played in the original line-ups of Thornton Wilder's We Got Away Again (1942) and Arthur Miller's Witch Hunt (1952). He also played in the first American performances of Jacobowsky and the Colonel (1944) and as the vagabond Wladimir in Waiting for Godot (1956). Marshall was among the first 50 members of the famous Actors Studio when it was founded in the late 1940s.

In 1945 EG Marshall made his film debut in Das Haus on 92. Straße with a small supporting role. In the next few years he played a few smaller film roles, but without achieving the breakthrough. Marshall became known in the early 1950s primarily through numerous guest roles on American television. He had his first major film role in 1954 as the accuser of the mutineers in the drama The Caine Was Fate with Humphrey Bogart and José Ferrer . In 1957 he had what is perhaps his most famous film role as the controlled and analytical juror No. 4 in the classic film The Twelve Jurors , who holds the boy guilty and argued against Henry Fonda's character on a factual level for a long time . For decades, Marshall was often used in film and television as a strict and respectable authority figure; as a lawyer, doctor, politician or general. In the course of his film career, he embodied several American presidents. He had one of his few leading roles as an agent in the international film production Mohn ist auch eine Blume (1966) directed by Terence Young . In his later film career he played the grumpy father of Chevy Chase in the holiday comedy Christmas Vacation (1988) and the seedy Attorney General John N. Mitchell in the film drama Nixon alongside Anthony Hopkins .

Marshall was also a busy actor on American television for decades. Between 1969 and 1973 he played a successful doctor in the television series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors . In the mid-1990s, he took on the role of Dr. Arthur Thurmond in 13 episodes of Chicago Hope . His greatest television success was probably the experienced lawyer Lawrence Preston in the Preston & Preston series of lawyers between 1961 and 1965, who and his son - who is also a lawyer - were confronted with sensitive issues such as abortion, euthanasia and racism at the time. For this role, he received two Emmy awards in a row . Shortly before his death, he played Lawrence Preston again in two television films alongside Beau Bridges in a reprint of Preston & Preston. In addition to his screen work, Marshall accompanied the CBS radio play series Radio Mystery Theater as an emcee for many years .

EG Marshall was a supporter of the Democratic Party all his life and also supported it in election campaigns. In 1939 he married Helen Wolf, with whom he had two children. The divorce took place in 1953. He led another marriage with Emy de Haze Winkelman and Judith Coy. Marshall and Coy remained married and had five children until his death. He died of lung cancer in 1998 and was buried in the Middle Patent Rural Cemetery in North Castle near New York. He worked as an actor until shortly before his death.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ other sources also give 1910, but 1914 is mentioned more often
  2. ^ Ancestors of EG Marshall
  3. ↑ Biography about EG Marshall ( Memento of the original from January 7, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.biography.com
personal data
SURNAME Marshall, EG
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grunz, Everett Eugene (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION US-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH uncertain: June 18, 1910 or June 18, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Owatonna , Minnesota , USA
DATE OF DEATH August 24, 1998
Place of death Bedford , New York , USA