Biff McGuire

Biff McGuire, born William Joseph McGuire Jr. on October 25, 1926, in New Haven, Connecticut, was an American actor whose stage and screen career spanned more than five decades. He died on March 9, 2021, at the age of 94.

McGuire grew up in Hamden, Connecticut, where he attended Hamden High School before enrolling at the University of Massachusetts to study agricultural engineering. His nickname derived from his time playing football. He left the university to serve in the U.S. Army, and while stationed in England he studied at Shrivenham University. It was there that he painted sets and performed in a local theater production, an experience that led directly to a role in a London play and set the course of his professional life.

His Broadway debut came in 1944 with Bright Boy, launching a stage career that continued through 2002. Among his most notable Broadway appearances were starring roles in Finian's Rainbow and Happy Town, as well as Camelot, in which he played King Arthur on the national tour in 1963. He also appeared in Conversations With My Father. McGuire earned two Tony Award nominations for Best Featured Actor in a Play — in 1997 for The Young Man from Atlanta and in 2002 for Morning's at Seven. He married English actress and singer Jeannie Carson in 1960; Carson had starred in the CBS sitcom Hey, Jeannie! from 1956 to 1957 and co-starred with McGuire in the 1960 Broadway revival of Finian's Rainbow, in which he played the role of Woody.

On screen, McGuire built a substantial body of work in both film and television. His film credits include The Phenix City Story (1955), in which he played Fred Gage; The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) as Sandy; Serpico (1973) as Captain McClain; and Midway (1976) as Captain Miles Browning. He became particularly well known to television audiences for portraying Inspector Cramer in the 1979 production of Nero Wolfe. He was a regular on the ABC program Herb Shriner Time from 1951 to 1952 and played Dr. Michael Malloy in the NBC drama Gibbsville in 1976. His television work also included four episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents between 1956 and 1958, appearances on CBS's Appointment with Adventure, and roles in long-running series including Gunsmoke, Hawaii Five-O, The Secret Storm, All My Children, JAG, and Frasier.