Herta Ware

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Herta Ware (June 9, 1917, in Wilmington, Delaware, - August 15, 2005, in Topanga, California) was an American actress and political activist. The granddaughter of socialists and labor union activists, Ware made her Broadway debut in "Let Freedom Ring", co-starring Will Geer, whom she later married. The couple appeared together in other New York plays as well, including "Bury the Dead" (1936), "Prelude" (1936), "200 Were Chosen" (1936) and "Journeyman (1938).

The politically-minded couple moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s and settled in Santa Monica, California where Geer pursued a movie career, but ultimately became best known as "Grandpa Walton" on the TV series The Waltons. Geer and Ware were also social and labor activists, and in the 1950s they were blacklisted for Geer's refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Ware herself was probably best known for her performance as the ailing wife of embittered Jack Gilford in Cocoon. Geer and Ware had 3 children, including actress Ellen Geer. Although they eventually divorced they remained close. Ware also had a daughter, actress Melora Marshall, by another marriage.

During that period, she helped found the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, where every plant mentioned in the works of Shakespeare is grown.