Grizzard, George

George Grizzard was born in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, on April 1, 1928. He graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington D.C., and from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1949. Grizzard appeared in local amateur theatre during college and made his professional debut at Arena Stage in Washington in 1950, appearing in The Delectable Judge, The Taming of the Shrew, and Alice in Wonderland.

In 1951, Grizzard went to New York, where he studied acting with Sanford Meisner, and made his television debut in an episode of Crime Photographer. He spent 1952 to 1954 back at the Arena Stage Theatre, working on over twenty productions. Returning to New York in 1955, he made his Broadway debut in The Desperate Hours, and worked regularly on television for the next few years, appearing in such series as Star Tonight, Justice, Playwrights '56, The Kaiser Aluminum Hour, and Goodyear Playhouse. Grizzard's stage career proceeded simultaneously, with Broadway shows like The Happiest Millionaire (1956), for which he won a Theatre World Award, and The Disenchanted (1958), for which he received his first Tony Award nomination.

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