George Dzundza

George Dzundza is an American actor born on July 19, 1945, in Rosenheim, Germany, shortly after the end of World War II. His father, Roman Dzundza, was Ukrainian, originally from Kalush, and his mother, Maria Humenecka, was Polish, originally from Lviv, both cities now located in Ukraine. Each parent had been conscripted into forced labor under the Nazi regime, and Dzundza spent his earliest years in displaced persons camps with them. The family relocated to Amsterdam in 1949 and emigrated to the United States in 1956, settling on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Dzundza became a naturalized American citizen, attended Xavier High School and St. John's University, and studied theatre under Stella Adler and Harold Clurman.

Dzundza began acting during his freshman year of college at the encouragement of a fellow student. His professional stage debut came in 1973 with a New York Shakespeare Festival production of King Lear, which was subsequently broadcast as an episode of Great Performances. That same year he joined the Festival's national tour of That Championship Season, one of four Broadway productions that would define his stage career between 1973 and 1976. His Broadway credits also include Legend, The Ritz, and Mert & Phil. He additionally appeared at the Public Theatre in A Prayer for My Daughter.

His screen career gained early momentum with a role in the acclaimed 1978 film The Deer Hunter, and he went on to accumulate a substantial body of film work. In 1981 he portrayed American Nazi leader Frank Collin in the television film Skokie. Two years later he starred in Robert Altman's Streamers, based on the David Rabe play, and the film's ensemble cast collectively received the Best Actor Award at the 40th Venice International Film Festival. His subsequent film appearances include No Way Out (1987), in which he played Sam Hesselman, a disabled man in a wheelchair, and The Beast (1988), in which he portrayed Commander Daskal. Further film credits span Impulse (1990), White Hunter Black Heart (1990), The Butcher's Wife (1991), Basic Instinct (1992), Crimson Tide (1995), Dangerous Minds (1995), and City by the Sea (2002).

On television, Dzundza starred in the short-lived 1981 sitcom Open All Night, playing the owner of a convenience store in Inglewood, California. He was an original cast member of the NBC drama Law & Order, playing NYPD Sergeant Max Greevey during the show's first season in 1990–91 before departing the series. He later starred as Tom Grzelack on Hack from 2002 to 2003 and portrayed Harold O'Malley, George O'Malley's father, on Grey's Anatomy from 2005 to 2007. In 2005 he also appeared in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Threads," playing the character Anubis, referred to as "Jim." Additional television work includes an appearance on The Waltons in 1975, a role as an Archie Bunker-like father in the Christina Applegate sitcom Jesse, and a guest appearance on Matlock, Season 8, Episode 18, in which he played district attorney Brennan. In the DC Animated Universe, Dzundza provided the voices of Arnold Wesker, also known as the Ventriloquist, in Batman: The Animated Series, and Perry White in Superman: The Animated Series.

Dzundza has been married to Mary Jo Vermeulen since 1982. They have three daughters and two grandchildren. Now semi-retired, he lives in Astoria, Oregon, where he directs community and regional theatre productions.