Master Thespian

georgesirving01

We continue to admire from afar (I've never met the man) the fine actor, George S. Irving who is still doing major acting roles around — though lately not on — Broadway at the age of 92. He will soon be doing them at the age of 93 and a year after that at the age of 94 and then 95 and so on.

Here's a link to a new profile of Mr. Irving. As it will tell you, he was first seen on The Great White Way in a little flop called Oklahoma! That was 72 years ago and he's scarcely been outta work since then.

The article does not mention the vast amount of work Irving has done over the years as a voice for animation and commercials. Since the sixties, he's been on about half the cartoon shows that recorded their voices in New York, including Underdog and Go Go Gophers, and he gave one of the great tour de force performances as the Heat Miser in the 1974 Rankin-Bass special, The Year Without a Santa Claus. He reprised the role in a 2008 sequel and sounded just as heat-miserly as he had in '74.

If you would like to see a few minutes of Mr. Irving doing what he does so well, here's a video of him re-creating one of his great moments on stage. This is one of my ten-or-so favorites of the hundreds of videos I've linked to on this site. He's really a superb performer. (Keep in mind as you watch it that Irving was a much younger man at the time. He was 90.)