Harry Groener

Harry Groener is an American actor and dancer born on September 10, 1951, in Augsburg, Bavaria, West Germany. His mother was an opera singer and his father worked as a concert pianist, office clerk, and composer. Groener immigrated to the United States with his family when he was two years old. As a teenager he trained at the San Francisco Ballet, and he later attended the University of Washington's School of Drama, earning his degree in 1976.

Groener's Broadway career spans from 1979 to 2006 and encompasses a range of musicals and plays. His credits include Is There Life After High School?, the role of Will Parker in Oklahoma!, Munkustrap in Cats, Georges/George in Sunday in the Park with George, Bobby Child in Crazy for You, Sleight of Hand, Harrigan 'n Hart, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, and Imaginary Friends. His performance as Will Parker in Oklahoma! earned him both a Theatre World Award in 1980 and a Tony Award nomination. He received additional Tony Award nominations for his work in Cats and Crazy for You, with the latter also bringing an Outer Critics Circle Award nomination. In 2006 he played King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot.

Beyond Broadway, Groener has worked extensively in regional theater. He is an associate artist at the San Diego Old Globe Theatre and has performed at the Mark Taper Forum, Westwood Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, A.C.T., and the Williamstown Theater Festival. In 1999 he appeared off-Broadway alongside Twiggy at the Lucille Lortel Theater in If Love Were All, a musical revue centered on the friendship between Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. In 2010 he took on the title role in the Antaeus Company's production of King Lear, a performance that won him the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award. Two years later, in 2012, he starred in the debut production of Christopher Hampton's Appomattox at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, playing a dual role as Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.

On television, Groener is perhaps most widely recognized for portraying Mayor Richard Wilkins on the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer during 1998 and 1999, a role he reprised in cameo appearances in the series' fourth and seventh seasons. He was a series regular on the sitcom Dear John and appeared as the chef Gunther on Las Vegas from 2003 to 2006. His television work also includes guest appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1990, Star Trek: Voyager in 1996, and Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, as well as roles on The West Wing as the Secretary of Agriculture, Bones as plastic surgeon Henry Atlas, Breaking Bad in the second-season episode "Bit by a Dead Bee" as Walter White's psychiatrist, and How I Met Your Mother as Clint, Ted's stepfather. In January 2018 he appeared in an episode of Young Sheldon. His film credits include Road to Perdition and About Schmidt.

Groener has also recorded extensively for the Varèse Sarabande label, contributing vocals to releases including Shakespeare on Broadway, Cole Porter: A Musical Toast, and multiple volumes of the Unsung Broadway and Lost in Boston series. As of 2023, he serves as an honorary board member at the Alpine Theater Project in Whitefish, Montana.