E. G. Marshall

{{Short description|American actor (1914–1998)}}

{{for|the American Union Army general with the same first initials|Elisha Marshall}}

{{Infobox person

| image = E G Marshall The Bold Ones 1970.JPG

| imagesize =

| caption = Marshall in 1970

| birth_name = Everett Eugene Grunz

| birth_date = {{birth date|1914|06|18}}

| birth_place = Owatonna, Minnesota, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1998|08|24|1914|06|18}}

| death_place = Bedford, New York, U.S.

| occupation = Actor

| years_active = 1945–1998

| spouse = {{plainlist|

  • {{marriage|Helen Wolf|1931|1953|end=div.}}
  • {{marriage|Judith Coy|1958|1998|end=death}}

}}

| children = 5

}}

E. G. Marshall (born Everett Eugene Grunz;Everett Eugene Grunz in Minnesota, U.S., Birth Index, 1900-1934, Ancestry.comEverett Eugene Grunz in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007, accessed via Ancestry.com June 18, 1914 – August 24, 1998) was an American actor. One of the first group selected for the new Actors Studio, by 1948, Marshall had performed in major plays on Broadway.

Among his film roles Marshall is perhaps best known as the unflappable and analytical Juror 4 in Sidney Lumet's courtroom drama 12 Angry Men (1957).{{cite web| url=http://www.lawzone.com/half-nor/marshall.htm| title=Norwegian American Actor E. G. Marshall| website=Norwegian-American Hall of Fame}}{{cite web| url=http://www.livetvcenter.com/everett_eugene_grunz_1903.asp| title=E. G. Marshall| website=Live TV Center| access-date=July 2, 2022}}{{cite web| url=http://shop.mnhs.org/shopping/basket.cfm?Product_ID=558&CFID=21169225&CFTOKEN=27436304| title=Everett Eugene Grunz| website=Minnesota Birth Index| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110719122343/http://shop.mnhs.org/shopping/basket.cfm?Product_ID=558&CFID=21169225&CFTOKEN=27436304| archive-date=2011-07-19}} He starred in the CBS legal drama The Defenders, played the President of the United States in Superman II (1980), and Nazi collaborator Henri Denault on the CBS prime-time drama Falcon Crest in 1982. Marshall was also known as the host of the radio drama series CBS Radio Mystery Theater (1974–1982).

Early life

Marshall was born Everett Eugene Grunz in Owatonna, Minnesota, the son of Hazel Irene (née Cobb) and Charles G. Grunz. During his life, he chose not to reveal what "E. G." stood for, saying that it stood for "Everybody's Guess."{{cite book| first1=Irving| last1=Wallace| author1-link=Irving Wallace| first2=David| last2=Wallechinsky| author2-link=David Wallechinsky| first3=Amy| last3=Wallace| author3-link=Amy Wallace| first4=Sylvia| last4=Wallace| author4-link=Sylvia Wallace| title=The Book of Lists 2| url=https://archive.org/details/peoplesalmanacpr0000unse/page/10/mode/2up?q=marshall| page=10| year=1980| publisher=Elm Tree Books| location=London| isbn=978-0-2411-0433-0}} The U.S. Social Security Claims Index states that he was listed with the Social Security Administration in June 1937 as Everett Eugene Grunz, and in December 1975 as E.G. Marshall.

Marshall claimed in interviews in later life to have attended both Carleton College and the University of Minnesota, but there is no evidence that he ever attended either institution, or had attended college at all.{{cite web |url=https://medium.com/@Jack_ElHai/e-g-marshalls-invented-past-189a879398a3 |title=E.G. Marshall's Invented Past |date=July 19, 2018 |access-date=July 2, 2022 |first=Jack| last=El-Hai| website=Medium}}

Career

He took the surname "Marshall" for his acting career. Although most familiar for his later television and movie roles, which gained wide audiences, Marshall also had a distinguished Broadway career. In 1948, having already performed in the original New York productions of The Skin of Our Teeth and The Iceman Cometh, Marshall joined Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Julie Harris, Kim Stanley, and 45 others to make up the first group of actors granted membership in the newly formed Actors Studio.{{cite news| first=Dick| last=Kleiner| author-link=Dick Kleiner| url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19561221&id=5AUdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zYoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6848,5227672| title=The Actors Studio: Making Stars Out of the Unknown| agency=Newspaper Enterprise Association| newspaper=Sarasota Journal| date=December 21, 1956| page=26| quote=That first year, they interviewed around 700 actors and picked 50. In that first group were people like Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Tom Ewell, John Forsythe, Julie Harris, Kim Hunter, Karl Malden, E.G. Marshall, Margaret Phillips, Maureen Stapleton, Kim Stanley, Jo Van Fleet, Eli Wallach, Ray Walston and David Wayne.| access-date=July 2, 2022}} In subsequent years, he landed the leading roles in The Crucible and Waiting for Godot.{{cite web| url=http://www.ibdb.com/person.php?id=68240| title=E. G. Marshall| website=Internet Broadway Database}}

Marshall achieved perhaps his highest profile as top-billed star of the CBS-TV legal drama The Defenders (1961-5). Marshall portrayed Manhattan defense attorney Lawrence Preston, for which he won two Emmys. He later played Dr. David Craig in the television series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors (1969–73), and Nazi collaborator Henri Denault on the CBS prime-time drama Falcon Crest in 1982.

In 1973, Marshall returned to the live stage to play the title role in a well-received production of Macbeth at the Virginia Museum Theatre in Richmond, Virginia, under the direction of Keith Fowler. The production was highly praised by the New York Times.{{cite news| title=Stage: Fowler 'Macbeth'| first=Clive| last=Barnes| author-link=Clive Barnes| date=February 12, 1973| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1973/02/12/archives/stage-fowler-macbeth-a-vigorous-production-staged-in-richmond-the.html| newspaper=The New York Times| url-access=subscription}} From January 1974 until February 1982, Marshall was an occasional participant and the original host of the popular nightly radio drama, The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.

In film, Marshall was known for playing Juror 4 in 12 Angry Men (1957), District Attorney Harold Horn in Compulsion (1959), Colonel Jerome Pakenham in Town Without Pity (1961), Colonel Rufus S. Bratton in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), Arthur in Interiors (1978), the President of the United States in Superman II (1980), Arthur "Art" Smith (Ellen's father) in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989), John N. Mitchell in Nixon (1995), and Walter Sullivan in Absolute Power (1997). His final performance was a reprisal of his role as Lawrence Preston in two TV Movies based on The Defenders.

Marshall was selected as a Fellow of the American Bar Association and an officer of the American Judicature Society, a national organization of judges, lawyers, and lay persons devoted to promoting the effective administration of justice.{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a-yFqzSB1oUC&dq=Everett+Eugene+Grunz+world+war+II&pg=PA132| last1=Welsh| first1=James M.| last2=Whaley| first2=Donald M.| year=2013| title=The Oliver Stone Encyclopedia| location=Lanham, Maryland| publisher=Scarecrow Press| page=132| isbn=978-0-8108-8352-9| access-date=July 2, 2022}}

Personal life

Marshall was married twice. He married Helen Wolf in 1931. They had two daughters—Jill and Degen. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1953. He married Judith Coy in 1958.{{cite news |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-e-g-marshall-1174298.html |title=Obituary: E. G. Marshall |date=August 26, 1998 |newspaper=The Independent |first=Tom |last=Vallance |access-date=October 12, 2022 }} They had two sons and a daughter — Sam, Jud, and Sarah. They remained married until his death.{{cite news| title=E. G. Marshall; Character Actor Won 2 Emmy Awards with 'The Defenders'| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104851765/the-los-angeles-times/| page=A14| first=Myrna| last=Oliver| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| access-date=July 2, 2022}}{{cite news| title=Marshall: Emmy Winning Actor (cont.)| url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/104851947/the-los-angeles-times/| first=Myrna|last=Oliver|page=A17}}

As a member of the Committee for National Health Insurance, Marshall was a long-time advocate of government-provided health care in the United States.[http://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/TL/B/B/G/D/_/tlbbgd.pdf "The Mary Lasker Papers"].{{failed verification|date=July 2022}} During the 1968 United States presidential campaign, he filmed and narrated a political advertisement endorsing Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey.[http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/commercials/1968/eg-marshall "Hubert Humphrey Campaign Ad"]. Museum of the Moving Image. Retrieved July 2, 2022.

Death

Marshall died of lung cancer at his home in Bedford, New York, on August 24, 1998, at age 84.{{cite news| title=E. G. Marshall, 84, Character Actor, Is Dead| date=August 26, 1998| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/26/arts/e-g-marshall-84-character-actor-is-dead.html| newspaper=The New York Times| url-access=subscription}}

Filmography

=Film=

{{Div col}}

{{div col end}}

=Television=

{{incomplete list|date=March 2025}}

class="wikitable sortable"

|+ {{Screen reader-only| E. G. Marshall television credits}}

YearTitleRoleNotes
1949–1958

| Studio One

| (various)

| 6 episodes

1954

| Middle of the Night

| Jerry

| Live TV broadcast. The Philco-Goodyear Television Playhouse

1955

| Studio One

| Dr. Shratt

| Episode "Donovans' Brain" {{small|(S7.E24)}}

1960

| The Islanders

| Curt Cober

| Episode: "Forbidden Cargo" {{small|(ABC)}}

1961

| Rawhide

| Ben Foley

| Episode: "Incident of the Broken Word" {{small|(S3.E11)}} {{small|(CBS)}}

1961–1965

| The Defenders

| Lawrence Preston

| 132 episodes {{small|(CBS)}}

1966

| The Poppy Is Also a Flower

| Coley Jones

| TV movie

1969

| The Littlest Angel

| God

| TV movie

1969–1973

| The Bold Ones: The New Doctors

| Dr. David Craig

| 45 episodes {{small|(NBC)}}

1970

| The Brady Bunch

| J.P. Randolph

| 1 episode

1971

| Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You

| Dr. Edward Cazalis

| TV movie

1971

| Night Gallery

| Jared Soames, The Funeral Director

| 1 episode

1972

| Ironside

| Dr. David Craig

| 1 episode

1976

| Collision Course: Truman vs. MacArthur

| President Harry S. Truman

| TV movie

1977

| Equal Justice Under Law

| Himself

| TV miniseries

1979

| Vampire

| Harry Kilcoyne

| TV movie

1982–1983

| Falcon Crest

| Henri Denault

| 3 episodes

1983

| Kennedy

| Joseph P. Kennedy

| TV miniseries

1987

| At Mother's Request

| Franklin Bradshaw

| TV miniseries

1988

| The Equalizer

| Senator Virgil Thomas Blake

| Episode: "The Last Campaign"

1988–1989

| War and Remembrance

| Dwight D. Eisenhower

| TV miniseries

1993

| The Tommyknockers

| Ev Hillman

| TV miniseries

1994–1995

| Chicago Hope

| Dr. Arthur Thurmond

| 8 episodes

1997

| Miss Evers' Boys

| The Senate Chairman

| TV movie

1997

| The Defenders: Payback

| Lawrence Preston

| TV movie

1998

| The Defenders: Choice of Evils

| Lawrence Preston

| TV movie

Discography

References

{{reflist|30em}}