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| George Gaynes |
Gaynes was born George Jongejans in Helsinki in 1917 to a Russian artist mother and Dutch businessman father. He was raised in France, England and Switzerland and studied opera in Italy before World War II and a brief internment in Spain derailed his schooling. He spent the rest of the war serving in the Royal Dutch Navy. At the war's end, he headed to America, where he performed with the New York City Opera, as well as Broadway, where he joined the cast of "Out of This World."
In 1953, he was cast in Leonard Bernstein's "Wonderful Town," changed his last name to Gaynes and married actress Allyn Ann McLerie, with whom he spent the rest of his life. They had a daughter, Iya, and a son, Matthew, a world-class kayaker who missed out on the Olympics due to the 1980 boycott. He died in a 1989 car accident in India.
On television, Gaynes played Sam Reynolds on CBS soap opera Search for Tomorrow, and the original Frank Smith on ABC's General Hospital. Other credits included Columbo, Hawaii Five-0 and Quincy, M.E.