The romcom player – who has died at 87 – appeared opposite everyone from Barbra Streisand to Glenda Jackson before almost disappearing from screens. But a late-career turn on TV brought new admirers
George Segal was the handsome, easy-going, romantic
comedy player of the 1970s, pretty much the male equivalent of Goldie Hawn, with whom he starred in the 1976 western romp The Duchess and the Dirtwater Fox. His A-list
Hollywood career began and ended with the decade itself and, in a way, defined the 1970s, or at least a part of it. He had a string of leading-man roles opposite top leading ladies, including Glenda Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Jane Fonda, Goldie Hawn, Jacqueline Bisset and Natalie Wood – before he got embroiled in a nasty legal dispute with producer-director Blake Edwards over dropping out of his comedy 10. This briefly soured his reputation in the film business, ended his hot streak and ushered in another
shooting star of Hollywood romantic comedy, Dudley Moore.
Related: George Segal, TV star and Oscar nominee, dies aged 87