George Gaynes
Birthday: Born in 1917-05-16 in Helsinki, Finland
Deathday: 2016-02-15
George Gaynes (1917–2016) is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television. He may be best-known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy film series, and to television fans as Henry Warnimont on Punky Brewster.
TV Credits
Columbo
Character: Everett
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline....
The Gallant Men
Character:
The Gallant Men is a 1962–1963 ABC television series which depicted an infantry company of American soldiers fighting their way through Italy in World War II....
WKRP in Cincinnati
Character: Henri
When a Cincinnati radio station switches from sedate music to top-40 rock 'n' roll, its staff of oddball characters is forced to switch gears quickly. New programming director Andy Travis brings in a new DJ named Venus Flytrap to work with the station's burned-out veteran, Dr. Johnny Fever. Neurotic newsman Les Nessman, eager beaver Bailey Quarters, sleazy salesman Herb Tarlek, blonde bombshell Jennifer Marlowe, who serves as the station's ultra-capable receptionist, and station manager Arthur C...
Matlock
Character: Judge Hollis D. Dunaway
Matlock is an American television legal drama, starring Andy Griffith in the title role of criminal defense attorney Ben Matlock. The show, produced by The Fred Silverman Company, Dean Hargrove Productions, Viacom Productions and Paramount Television originally aired from September 23, 1986 to May 8, 1992 on NBC; and from November 5, 1992 until May 7, 1995 on ABC. The show's format is similar to that of CBS's Perry Mason, with Matlock identifying the perpetrators and then confronting them in dr...
Hawaii Five-O
Character: Thurman Elliott
Hawaii Five-O is an American police procedural drama series produced by CBS Productions and Leonard Freeman. Set in Hawaii, the show originally aired for 12 seasons from 1968 to 1980, and continues in reruns. Jack Lord portrayed Detective Lieutenant Steve McGarrett, the head of a special state police task force which was based on an actual unit that existed under martial law in the 1940s. The theme music composed by Morton Stevens became especially popular. Many episodes would end with McGarrett...
Quincy, M.E.
Character:
Los Angeles County medical examiner Quincy routinely engages in police investigations....
Hearts Afire
Character: Senator Strobe Smithers
Frustrations and sparks fly in Washington, D.C. when a strict conservative hires a free spirited journalist as his boss's press secretary. Their mismatched political views lead to arguments... and attraction....
Hotel
Character:
Hotel is an American prime time drama series which aired on ABC from September 21, 1983 to May 5, 1988 in the timeslot following Dynasty. Based on Arthur Hailey's 1965 novel of the same name, the series was produced by Aaron Spelling and set in the elegant and fictitious St. Gregory Hotel in San Francisco. Establishing shots of the hotel were filmed in front of The Fairmont San Francisco atop the Nob Hill neighborhood. Episodes followed the activities of passing guests, as well as the personal ...
Hogan's Heroes
Character:
Hogan's Heroes is an American television sitcom that ran for 168 episodes from September 17, 1965, to July 4, 1971, on the CBS network. The show was set in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Bob Crane starred as Colonel Robert E. Hogan, coordinating an international crew of Allied prisoners running a Special Operations group from the camp. Werner Klemperer played Colonel Wilhelm Klink, the commandant of the camp, and John Banner was the inept sergeant-of-the-guard, Hans Schultz. ...
Cannon
Character:
Cannon is a CBS detective television series produced by Quinn Martin which aired from March 26, 1971 to March 3, 1976. The primary protagonist is the title character, private detective Frank Cannon, played by William Conrad. He also appeared on two episodes of Barnaby Jones. Cannon is the first Quinn Martin-produced series to be aired on a network other than ABC. A "revival" television film, The Return of Frank Cannon, was aired on November 1, 1980. In total, there were 124 episodes....
Chicago Hope
Character: Brook Austin
Chicago Hope is an American medical drama television series, created by David E. Kelley. It ran on CBS from September 18, 1994, to May 4, 2000. The series is set in a fictional private charity hospital in Chicago, Illinois. The show is set to return in the fall of 2013 on TVGN in reruns....
It's Punky Brewster
Character:
It's Punky Brewster is an animated spin off of the live action television show Punky Brewster. The show was animated by Ruby-Spears Productions....
The Quest
Character:
The Quest is an American Western series which aired on NBC from September to December 1976. The series stars Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson. The Quest's pilot episode aired as a television film on May 13, 1976....
Carter Country
Character:
Carter Country is an American television sitcom that ran from 1977 to 1979 on ABC....
Search
Character:
Search is an American science fiction series that aired on Wednesday nights on NBC at 10 pm ET, from September 1972 to August 1973. It ran for 23 episodes, not including the two-hour pilot film originally titled Probe. When picked up for series production, the title had to be changed because Probe was the name of an existing PBS series. In the UK the series aired on BBC 1 under the title Search Control. The show was created by Leslie Stevens, and produced by Leslie Stevens, Robert Justman, John...
McCloud
Character:
Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud of the small western town of Taos, New Mexico is assigned to the metropolitan New York City Police Department (NYPD) as a special investigator....
City of Angels
Character:
City of Angels is a 1976 television series created by Stephen J. Cannell and Roy Huggins, who had previously worked together on The Rockford Files. American mystery novelist Max Allan Collins has called City of Angels "the best private eye series ever."...
The New Lassie
Character:
The New Lassie is an American children and family oriented drama series which aired in first-run syndication from September 8, 1989 to February 15, 1992. The series stars Will Estes as Will McCullough, Lassie's new master. Real life husband and wife Christopher and Dee Wallace-Stone co-starred as Will's parents. The New Lassie is essentially a sequel to the 1954 series, and was the latest in the line of works featuring the Lassie character, which debuted in the 1943 film Lassie Come Home, follo...
The Patty Duke Show
Character:
The Patty Duke Show is an American sitcom which ran on ABC from September 18, 1963 to April 27, 1966, with reruns airing through August 31, 1966. The show was created as a vehicle for rising star Patty Duke. A total of 104 episodes were produced, most written by Sidney Sheldon....
Blue Thunder
Character: Dr. Willi Von Hartig
Blue Thunder is a 1984 ABC television series based on the movie of the same title featuring the Blue Thunder helicopter. The series uses the converted Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter and large portions of stock footage from the 1983 film. A ground unit named "Rolling Thunder" backed up the helicopter in the television series. This was a large support van with a desert camouflage off-road vehicle stored inside. The television series cast includes James Farentino, Dana Carvey, and former profess...
Punky Brewster
Character: Henry Warnimont
An abandoned waif and her dog are taken in by a cranky apartment manager who becomes her guardian in this family-friendly sitcom....
Police Academy: The Series
Character: Commandant Eric Lassard
Police Academy: The Series is a syndicated 1997 television series spin-off from the Police Academy series of films. Michael Winslow was the only actor from the Police Academy films to have a recurring role on the show, although several of the film's cast made occasional guest appearances. The series was written by Paul Maslansky and produced by James Margellos and Gary M. Goodman. Music by Ari Wise and Jim Guttridge...
Bonanza
Character: Senator Purdy
The High-Sierra adventures of Ben Cartwright and his sons as they run and defend their ranch while helping the surrounding community....
Mission: Impossible
Character: Dr. Paul van Bergner
Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the th...
The Six Million Dollar Man
Character: General Wiley
Follow the adventures of Steve Austin, cybernetically enhanced astronaut turned secret agent, employed by the OSI, under the command of Oscar Goldman and supervised by the scientist who created his cybernetics, Rudy Wells. Steve uses the superior strength and speed provided by his bionic arm and legs, and the enhanced vision provided by his artificial eye, to fight enemy agents, aliens, mad scientists, and a wide variety of other villains....
Rich Man, Poor Man - Book II
Character: Max Vincent
Weekly series spun off from the miniseries....
Baa Baa Black Sheep
Character: Claire Lee Chennault
The dramatized World War II adventures of US Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and his Marine Attack Squadron 214, AKA The Black Sheep Squadron....
Scruples
Character: John Prince
The title of the bestselling 1978 novel by Judith Krantz is the name of an ultra-chic Bevery Hills boutique that rags-to-riches Billy Ikehorn (Lindsay Wagner) established to fill the void left in her life by the illness of her elderly tycoon husband (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and his subsequent death. To help make Scruples what it has become, Billy had brought in top fashion photographer Spider Elliott (Barry Bostwick) and fashion designer Valentine O'Neill (Marie-France Pisier), and it is the intert...
Cheyenne
Character: Rod Delaplane
Cheyenne is an American western television series of 108 black-and-white episodes broadcast on ABC from 1955 to 1963. The show was the first hour-long western, and in fact the first hour-long dramatic series of any kind, with continuing characters, to last more than one season. It was also the first series to be made by a major Hollywood film studio which did not derive from its established film properties, and the first of a long chain of Warner Brothers original series produced by William T. O...
McMillan & Wife
Character: Burton Rhoner
McMillan & Wife is a lighthearted American police procedural that aired on NBC from September 17, 1971 to April 24, 1977. Starring Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James in the title roles, the series premiered in 90-minute episodes as part of the wheel series NBC Mystery Movie, in rotation with Columbo and McCloud. Initially airing on Wednesday night, the original line-up was shifted to Sundays in the second season, where it aired for the rest of its run. This was the first element to be created spe...
Dinosaurs
Character: Elder in Chief (voice)
Dinosaurs follows the life of a family of dinosaurs, living in a modern world. They have TV's, fridges, microwaves, and every modern convenience....
Sliders
Character: Old Quinn Mallory
In his basement in San Francisco, boy-genius Quinn Mallory unlocks the doorway to an infinite number of Earths. During a test run, Quinn invites co-worker Wade Welles and his teacher Professor Maximillian Arturo to see his new invention. But an increase in power and an early departure leave all three, plus a washed-up soul singer named Rembrandt "Crying Man" Brown, lost in a parallel world. Now they must "slide" from world to world, not only adapting to their changing surroundings, but also tryi...
The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
Character: Arthur Feldman
Molly Dodd — a mid-30s, divorced woman living in New York — faces the comedy and drama of a widely changing career, difficulties of apartment living, love life and its consequences, and more....
Delvecchio
Character: Commissioner Schaub
Delvecchio is an American television series that aired on CBS during the 1976-77 season. It starred Judd Hirsch as the title character, Dominick Delvecchio, an Italian-American detective who worked for the LAPD and also studied to become a lawyer. A writer of eight episodes of the series, Stephen Bochco, would later import cast members Charles Haid and Michael Conrad, along with guest-stars James B. Sikking and George Wyner, to his masterpiece Hill Street Blues. One episode of the Delvecchio s...
Cheers
Character: Malcolm Kramer
The story about a blue-collar Boston bar run by former sports star Sam Malone and the quirky and wonderful people who worked and drank there....
Columbo
Character: Frenchman
Columbo is a friendly, verbose, disheveled-looking police detective who is consistently underestimated by his suspects. Despite his unprepossessing appearance and apparent absentmindedness, he shrewdly solves all of his cases and secures all evidence needed for indictment. His formidable eye for detail and meticulously dedicated approach often become clear to the killer only late in the storyline....
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
Character: Mr. Campbell
A continuation of the anthology series “Alfred Hitchcock Presents”, hosted by the master of suspense and featuring thrillers and mysteries....
Mannix
Character: Professor Brendan
Mannix is an American television detective series that ran from 1967 through 1975 on CBS. Created by Richard Levinson and William Link and developed by executive producer Bruce Geller, the title character, Joe Mannix, is a private investigator. He is played by Mike Connors. Mannix was the last series produced by Desilu Productions....
Movie Credits
The Way We Were
Character: El Morocco Captain
Two desperate people have a wonderful romance, but their political views and convictions drive them apart....
The Fantastic Four
Character: Professor
When dosed with cosmic rays, four intrepid astronauts are given incredible powers. They decide to form a superhero group called the Fantastic Four to fight their arch-enemy, Dr. Doom....
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
Character: Commandant Lassard
The Russians seek help in dealing with the Mafia from the veterans of the Police Academy. They head off to Moscow, in order to find evidence against Konstantin Konali, who marketed a computer game that everyone in the world is playing....
To Be or Not to Be
Character: Ravitch
A bad Polish actor is just trying to make a living when Poland is invaded by the Germans in World War II. His wife has the habit of entertaining young Polish officers while he's on stage, which is also a source of depression to him. When one of her officers comes back on a Secret Mission, the actor takes charge and comes up with a plan for them to escape....
Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Character: Dr. Forrest
Juliet Forrest is convinced that the reported death of her father in a mountain car crash was no accident. Her father was a prominent cheese scientist working on a secret recipe. To prove it was murder, she enlists the services of private eye Rigby Reardon. He finds a slip of paper containing a list of people who are 'The Friends and Enemies of Carlotta'....
Vanya on 42nd Street
Character: Serybryakov
An uninterrupted rehearsal of Chekhov's 1899 play "Uncle Vanya" played out by a company of actors. The setting is their run down theater with an unusable stage and crumbling ceiling. The play is shown act by act with the briefest of breaks to move props or for refreshments. The lack of costumes, real props and scenery is soon forgotten....
Tootsie
Character: John Van Horn
When struggling, out of work actor Michael Dorsey secretly adopts a female alter ego – Dorothy Michaels – in order to land a part in a daytime drama, he unwittingly becomes a feminist icon and ends up in a romantic pickle....
Police Academy
Character: Commandant Lassard
New rules enforced by the Lady Mayoress mean that sex, weight, height and intelligence need no longer be a factor for joining the Police Force. This opens the floodgates for all and sundry to enter the Police Academy, much to the chagrin of the instructors. Not everyone is there through choice, though. Social misfit Mahoney has been forced to sign up as the only alternative to a jail sentence and it doesn't take long before he falls foul of the boorish Lieutenant Harris. But before long, Mahoney...
Micki + Maude
Character: Dr. Eugene Glztszki
TV reporter Rob Salinger longs for a baby. But his career-minded wife, Micki, is too busy for motherhood. A romantic fling with a seductive cellist, Maude, leads to her pregnancy. Rob receives another shock when Micki announces that she's also expecting! In love with both women, he marries Maude and starts leading a double life full of complicated and riotous situations....
Wag the Dog
Character: Senator Nole
During the final weeks of a presidential race, the President is accused of sexual misconduct. To distract the public until the election, the President's adviser hires a Hollywood producer to help him stage a fake war....
Musical Mel: Inventing The Inquisition
Character: Self (archive footage)
Documentary on the making of Mel Brooks' classic comedy "History of the World, Part 1."...
Joy House
Character:
A small-time con man on the run from the gangster-husband of his girlfriend hides out in a strange, brooding mansion run by two mysterious women, where he finds himself trapped in deception between the two women....
Trilogy of Terror
Character: Dr. Chester Ramsey
A horror anthology containing three stories: a female college professor is aggressively pursued by one of her students; a prudish brunette determines that her free-spirited blonde sister is evil; and a woman's night turns upside down after she purchases an ancient Zuni fetish doll....
It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
Character: Arch Angel
A man suddenly dies and makes a deal with the Archangel of Heaven to return to Earth for a week until Christmas, to show his grandson what a real white Christmas in New York is like....
A Taxi Driver in New York
Character: l'ammiraglio
The Roman taxi driver Pietro Marchetti finds himself to witness a mafia crime. Having to testify at the trial, he is checked by the police, especially when he has to go to the United States to attend the graduation of his son Francesco....
Nickelodeon
Character: Reginald Kingsley
In the silent film era, attorney Leo Harrigan and gunslinger Buck Greenway are hired to stop an illegal film production. However, they soon team up with the filmmakers and become important players in the show business industry. Leo learns he has a talent for directing, and Buck's cowboy persona quickly earns him leading-man status — but both men fall for beautiful starlet Kathleen Cooke, leading to a heated personal rivalry....
Doctors' Wives
Character: Paul McGill
The wives of several high-powered doctors feel neglected due to their husbands' focus on their careers, so they embark on a regimen of sex, drugs and booze....
Ternosecco
Character: Don Salvatore
On a hot summer night, Raffaele, the elderly manager of a Neapolitan counter-lot, is brutally strangled in his own accommodation....
Mom's On Strike
Character: The Commander
An ABC (American Broadcasting Company) Afterschool Special, about an overworked housewife, who, as the title suggests, goes on strike, in order to persuade the rest of her family to share household chores....
Police Academy 3: Back in Training
Character: Commandant Lassard
When police funding is cut, the Governor announces he must close one of the academies. To make it fair, the two police academies must compete against each other to stay in operation. Mauser persuades two officers in Lassard's academy to better his odds, but things don't quite turn out as expected......
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Character: Commandant Lassard
A new batch of recruits arrives at Police Academy, this time a group of civilian volunteers who have joined Commandant Lassard's new Citizens on Patrol program. Although the community relations project has strong governmental support, a disgusted Captain Harris is determined to see it fail....
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
Character: Commandant Lassard
Officer Carey Mahoney and his cohorts have finally graduated from the Police Academy and are about to hit the streets on their first assignment. Question is, are they ready to do battle with a band of graffiti-tagging terrorists? Time will tell, but don't sell short this cheerful band of doltish boys in blue....
Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach
Character: Lassard
The Police Academy misfits travel to Miami Beach for Commandant Lassard to be honored with a prestigious lifetime award pending his retirement. Things take a turn when Lassard unknowingly ends up in possession of stolen diamonds from a jewel heist....
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege
Character: Lassard
Our favourite police men are called together to deal with a gang who rob banks and jewelers. Using their various talents as well as their extraordinary luck, the crooks stand no chance against our men and women in blue....
Woman of the Year
Character: Harding
The story of the tumultuous marriage of a gruff sportswriter and a sophisticated international reporter who work together on the same newspaper....
The Flying Misfits
Character: Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault
The dramatized World War II adventures of US Major Gregory "Pappy" Boyington and his Marine Attack Squadron 214, AKA The Black Sheep Squadron. The film also acted as the pilot for the television series Baa Baa Black Sheep. Former U.S. Marine pilot Greg "Pappy" Boyington is flying with the American Volunteer Group (the Flying Tigers) in China. After Pearl Harbor brings America into World War II, Greg leaves the AVG to rejoin the Marine Corps. He refuses to be relegated to a desk job and, against...
Stepmonster
Character: Norman
Todd Dougherty has an imagination driven by comic books. So when he accuses his soon-to-be stepmother of being a monster, no one believes him. When neighbors start turning up dead, it becomes a race against time for Todd to stop this hideous, carnivorous creature from marrying his dad and ruining his life....
The Girl in the Empty Grave
Character: David Alden
The police chief of a small town begins an investigation after a young woman, who was supposed to have died several months previously, starts appearing around town just before her parents are found mysteriously dead....
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
Character: Wiley
Six buddies spend the summer together at a Malibu beach house after each has separated from his wife at about the same time....
Evita Peron
Character: Evita's Doctor
Aspiring actress Eva Duarte rises from a minor celebrity to the wife of a powerful Argentine dictator, but her all consuming fiery rage, ambition, and hatred eventually become her downfall....
Marooned
Character: Mission Director
After spending several months in an orbiting lab, three astronauts prepare to return to Earth only to find their de-orbit thrusters won't activate. After initially thinking they might have to abandon them in orbit, NASA decides to launch a daring rescue. Their plans are complicated by a hurricane headed towards the launch site—and a shrinking air supply in the astronauts' capsule....
Slaughter's Big Rip Off
Character: Warren
Vigilante Slaughter comes under attack from Duncan, a local money launderer whose hit-man traps Slaughter in a car at a cliff, but Slaughter escapes, arms himself, and goes after Duncan's hideout....
Altered States
Character: Dr. Wissenschaft
A research scientist explores the boundaries and frontiers of consciousness. Using sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic mixtures from native American shamans, he explores these altered states of consciousness and finds that memory, time, and perhaps reality itself are states of mind....
I'm Going to Be Famous
Character:
A group of young actors audition for a play by a famous author starring and a famous star. These hopefuls have every weapon available to achieve their goal including blackmail, sex and murder....
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf
Character: Dr Marderosian
Little Richie Bridgestone goes to spend the weekend with his father at his secluded mountain cabin, and witnesses his father being attacked by 'a creature' that the boy recognizes as a werewolf. He tries to convince his mother and his therapist that his father is now a werewolf....
One Touch of Venus
Character: Whitelaw Savory
While touring a museum, Rodney Hatch, an unremarkable barber, places an engagement ring intended for his girlfriend on the hand of a statue of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. From Mount Olympus, Venus witnesses the event and decides to visit Rodney on Earth by magically inhabiting the statue. Hilarity ensues when she starts to fall in love with Rodney and competes with his girlfriend for his attentions. This television version of Kurt Weill's successful Broadway musical is much more fait...
Just Married
Character: Father Robert
Although Tom Leezak and Sarah McNerney come from different worlds, they are both unexpectedly swept off their feet after their first meeting. They quickly fall in love and plan to get married, despite opposition from Sarah's uptight, rich family. After their wedding, the happy couple sets off - with the highest of hopes and ideals about love and marriage - on what they expect will be the perfect honeymoon in Italy. Thanks to a relentless string of bad luck with one disaster after another, and an...
The Crucible
Character: Judge Samuel Sewall
A Salem resident attempts to frame her ex-lover's wife for being a witch in the middle of the 1692 witchcraft trials....
Song of the Succubus
Character: C.J. Meredith
The leader of a rock group is haunted by the ghost of a music star who took her own life at the turn of the century....
The Group
Character: Brook Latham
It's 1933, and eight young women are friends and members of the upper- class group at a private girl's school, about to graduate and start their own lives. The film documents the years between their graduation and the beginning of the World War in Europe, and shows, in a serialized style, their romances and marriages, their searches for careers or meaning in their lives, their highs and their lows....