Tony Winner George S. Irving Dies at 94
He was not on the list.
BroadwayWorld.com is sad to report the death of actor George S. Irving at 94 years old.
During the attack on Pearl Harbor, Mr. Irving was waving a beer mug in the chorus of a touring production of The Student Prince at the National Theatre in Washington. After that close brush with history, he went on to his Broadway debut in the original company of Oklahoma!
There followed a stint among the greatest generation, and when World War II closed he returned to the stage in Call Me Mister, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Tovarich, I Remember Mama, Me and Juliet, An Evening with Richard Nixon (Drama Desk Award), So Long, 174th Street, Irene (Tony Award), On Your Toes and Me and My Girl, among others. At the New York City Opera, he sang in Regina, Street Scene, The Ballad of Baby Doe and a German production of The Threepenny Opera. At Lucille Lortel's White Barn Theatre, he played in a two-person revue, Together at Last, with his late wife, Maria Karnilova, and a one-man show, An Evening with W.S. Gilbert.
In 2008 Irving recreated the three roles he originally played in the ill-fated 1976 Joseph Stein musical So Long, 174th Street, now reworked, revised, and with its original title Enter Laughing at Off-Broadway's York Theatre Company, and received rave reviews for his rendition of "The Butler's Song". On December 8, 2008, aged 86, Irving received the 17th Oscar Hammerstein Award for Lifetime Achievement in Musical Theatre.
He is known as the voice of Heat Miser in the American Christmas television specials beginning with The Year Without a Santa Claus and the narrator on the animated series Underdog.
One of his more prominent non-Broadway roles was a voice-over for The Year Without a Santa Claus, in which he played the embittered Heat Miser opposite Dick Shawn's Snow Miser. He did another voice-over for Rankin-Bass as Mister Geppetto in Pinocchio's Christmas and was the narrator of the animated cartoon series Underdog as well as the voice of Running Board on Go Go Gophers. He also voiced Captain Contagious in Raggedy Ann and Andy: A Musical Adventure. Irving also narrated the popular Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark Audio Books.
Irving returned to television in 2008 after an absence of more than a decade to reprise his role as Heat Miser in A Miser Brothers' Christmas, a sequel to The Year Without a Santa Claus, which premiered on December 13, 2008, on cable's ABC Family. The show served as the network's first original animated special. The production was nominated for an Annie Award for Best Animated Television Production Produced for Children by the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Animated Film Society.
Irving was familiar to television audiences of the 1970s as a result of his memorable guest-starring appearance on All in the Family as Russ DeKuyper, the loudmouthed husband of Edith Bunker's cousin Amelia. He was also a regular in the cast of the short-lived 1976 sitcom The Dumplings. Irving also did some work in commercials for White Owl Cigars in the early 1970s. He appeared as a memorable Baron Mirko Zeta in the New York City Opera production of Franz Lehar's The Merry Widow, broadcast live in 1996 from the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; during the intermission he talked about the operetta's history and historical inspiration
Irving was married to actress Maria Karnilova from 1948 until her death in 2001. They had a son, Alexander of Oceanside, California, a daughter, Katherine Irving of South Salem, New York, and three grandchildren.
Productions
Oklahoma! (1943)
Call Me Mister (1946)
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1949)
Two's Company (1952)
Can-Can (1953)
Me and Juliet (1953)
Bells Are Ringing (1956)
Shinbone Alley (1957)
Irma La Douce (1960)
Bravo Giovanni (1962)
Romulus (1962)
Tovarich (1963)
Anya (1965)
The Happy Time (1968)
Promenade (off-Broadway; 1969)
An Evening with Richard Nixon and... (1972)
Irene (1973 revival)
So Long, 174th Street (1976)
Once in a Lifetime (1978 revival)
I Remember Mama (1979)
The Pirates of Penzance (1981 revival)
Copperfield (1981)
On Your Toes (1983 revival)
Me and My Girl (1986)
Busker Alley (2005)
A Wonderful Life (2005)
Filmography
Up the Sandbox (1972) - Dr. Keglin
The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974) - Heat Miser (voice)
Fore Play (1975) - Reverend/Roberto
Deadly Hero (1975) - Reilly
Raggedy Ann & Andy: A Musical Adventure (1977) - The Captain (voice)
Pinocchio's Christmas (1980) - Geppetto (voice)
A Miser Brothers' Christmas (2008) - Heat Miser (voice)
Television
Underdog - 124 episodes - (1964-1967) - Narrator / Tap Tap the Chizzler / several Characters (voice)
'Go Go Gophers - 48 episodes (1964-1966) - Running Board / Several Characters (voice)
All in the Family - episode - Amelia's Divorce (1975) - Russell DeKuyper
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