Monday, July 20, 2015

George Coe Dead at 86

George Coe
Oscar-nominated actor George Coe died July 18 after a long illness. He was 86.

Coe acted for more than 50 years of film, television, commercial and stage work. He had a lengthy career as a commercial performer both on camera and voiceover, including six years as the voice of Toyota.

He served more than a dozen years on the SAG national board of directors, having the vice president title for two years and creating the template for what became SAG’s first low-budget production contract.

George Coe was born May 10, 1929, in Queens, New York. After graduating from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Manhattan, he was cast in the 1963 cabaret show "Money," in which he played 22 different roles. His Broadway theater career began in 1957 and included performing as M. Lindsey Woolsey opposite Angela Lansbury in the original cast of Jerry Herman’s “Mame” and as Owen O’Malley in “On The Twentieth Century.”

Coe was also an original member of “Not Ready For Prime Time Players,” the original cast of Saturday Night Live, and was credited as a cast member for the first show in October, 1975.

He portrayed the head of an ad agency in Kramer vs. Kramer and was nominated for an Academy Award for the 1968 comedy short film The Dove, a parody of Ingmar Bergman’s films, which he co-directed as well as starred in.

Coe’s TV credits included Star Trek: The Next Generation, Hillstreet Blues, Murder, She Wrote, Bones, Judging Amy, L.A. Law, Nip/Tuck, Grey’s Anatomy, Columbo, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Gilmore Girls, The Golden Girls and The West Wing.

He voiced the character of Woodhouse in the FX animated series Archer and the Autobot Wheeljack in Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

In 1971-72, he played Leo Kurtz on NBC soap opera Somerset. He also appeared as Scott Conrad on daytime drama The Doctors.

The Hollywood Division of SAG awarded Coe with the Ralph Morgan Award for service to the guild in 2009.

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