David Groh

David Lawrence Groh (May 21, 1939 – February 12, 2008) was an American actor born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mildred and Benjamin Groh. He grew up with a sister, Marilyn, and received his secondary education at Brooklyn Technical High School before earning a degree in English literature from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His formal training continued at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, which he attended on a Fulbright scholarship, and he later studied at The Actors Studio in New York City. Between his time abroad and his return to New York, Groh served in the United States Army from 1963 to 1964. Earlier in his career he performed with the American Shakespeare Theatre.

Groh made his television debut in 1968 with silent walk-on appearances in two episodes of the ABC daytime soap opera Dark Shadows, though widespread recognition came with the CBS sitcom Rhoda. Premiering on September 9, 1974, the series cast him as Joe Gerard, a New York City building demolition company owner who became romantically involved with Rhoda Morgenstern, a character previously established as the best friend of Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Joe and Rhoda's wedding, broadcast in the seventh episode, drew approximately 50 million viewers and ranked among the most-watched single episodes in television history. The couple's storyline shifted in the third season, when the characters separated and eventually divorced. Groh was reduced to recurring status that season and subsequently written out of the series entirely before Rhoda was canceled in the fall of 1978.

In the spring of 1978, Groh starred opposite Joan Hackett in the short-lived ABC series Another Day. That same period marked his Broadway debut in Neil Simon's Chapter Two. From 1983 to 1985, he portrayed D.L. Brock on the ABC soap opera General Hospital. His New York stage work continued off-Broadway in 1986 with Be Happy for Me, a production in which New York Times critic Frank Rich described Groh as "completely convincing as the brash gold-chain-and-bikini-clad Lothario." He also appeared in the New York production Road Show in 1987 and returned to Broadway in The Twilight of the Golds in 1993, giving him a Broadway career spanning from 1977 to 1993.

Groh accumulated an extensive list of television guest appearances, including roles on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, L.A. Law, Baywatch, Law & Order, Murder She Wrote, Melrose Place, The X-Files, and JAG. His film work included Two-Minute Warning (1976), Smash-Up on Interstate 5 (1976), Victory at Entebbe (1976), A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich (1978), The Dream Merchants (1980), The Return of Superfly (1990), and Get Shorty (1995), among other independent productions.

Outside of his professional life, Groh was an avid collector of antique furniture and folk art, housing part of his collection in a second home in Connecticut. He resided primarily in Santa Monica, California, with his third wife, Kristin, and his son Spencer. Groh died of kidney cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on February 12, 2008, at the age of 68.