George Hearn

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With Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd
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With Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd

George Hearn (born June 18, 1934, in St. Louis, Missouri), is an American actor, primarily in Broadway musical theatre.

Hearn studied philosophy at Southwestern University before he embarked on a career in the theater, training for the stage with legendary actress turned acting coach Irene Dailey. Most of Hearn's early performances were in traditional productions at the New York Shakespeare Festival and theaters at Lincoln Center.

He first garnered a notice as John Dickinson in the acclaimed 1969 award-winning musical 1776, and as Liv Ullmann's leading man in the musical version of I Remember Mama (1979). Hearn grabbed headlines later that year, when he replaced Len Cariou in the title role of Stephen Sondheim's dark musical Sweeney Todd on Broadway, opposite Dorothy Loudon as a woman who bakes his character's murder victims into pies. Hearn and the show's original star, Angela Lansbury, later headed the show's touring company, then reprised their roles for a Showtime production of the musical, which brought him an Emmy Award for his chilling portrayal of the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street".

Hearn and Lansbury remained friends, and the actress invited him to guest star on several episodes of her long-running CBS sleuth series Murder, She Wrote in the early 1990s.

His recordings include Sweeney Todd Live at the New York Philharmonic, Mack & Mabel (1988 London Concert Cast), I Remember Mama (1985 Studio Cast), Follies in Concert (1985 Live Performance), and A Stephen Sondheim Evening (1983 Concert Cast).

Hearn's spouses include Susan Babel (? - ?) (divorced); Mary Harrell (? - 1962) (divorced), 1 child (1962); Dixie Carter (1977 - 1979) (divorced); Betsy Joslyn (1979 - 1984) (divorced); and Leslie Simons (1985 - present) 2 children (1997, 1999).

Contents

[edit] Major Broadway credits

[edit] Tony Awards and nominations

  • 1980 Best Featured Actor in a Play (Watch on the Rhine) (nominee)
  • 1983 Best Actor in a Musical (A Doll's Life) (nominee)
  • 1984 Best Actor in a Musical (La Cage aux Folles) (winner)
  • 1995 Best Featured Actor in a Musical
  • 2000 Best Actor in a Musical (Putting It Together) (nominee)

[edit] Film credits

  • The Silence (1975)
  • Sea Marks (1976)
  • Sanctuary of Fear (1979)
  • A Piano for Mrs. Cimino (1982)
  • Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (1984)
  • See You in the Morning (1989)
  • Fire in the Dark (1991)
  • Sneakers (1992)
  • The Vanishing (1993)
  • The Pagemaster (1994)
  • Annie - A Royal Adventure! (1995)
  • All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (1996)
  • The Devil's Own (1997)
  • Barney's Great Adventure (1998)
  • Sarah Plain and Tall: Winter's End (1999)
  • Sweeney Todd in Concert (2001)
  • Flags of Our Fathers (2006)

[edit] External links