George Robert Segal, who passed away in 2021 at the age of 87, was a big American actor from New Jersey. He was born in 1925 to Jewish parents and served in the US Navy during World War II. After his service, he studied at Syracuse University and then moved to California to become a painter. Acting came next, but he really only became famous for portraying mobsters or other low-lifes, such as in The Front (1976), The Grifters (1990), and Just Shoot Me! (1997). In recent years, George Segal has been hosting a weekly radio show on KCRW called “KCRW’s Movie Date” where he talks about films with people from the entertainment industry.
He was married to the actress and singer Nan Segal from 1966 until her death in 1991. The couple had a daughter, Elizabeth Segal, who is also an actress. George also had two sons with his second wife; Robert Segal (an actor) and Jonathan Segal (a film editor). He died in 2021 of pneumonia at his home in Santa Monica, California.
George Segal starred in two movies that are basically about art theft. One is called The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and the other is Art Heist (2004). As it happens, both movies were directed by the same man; Norman Jewison. However…did you know that both movies are actually based on the same real-life story? Well, it’s true. I’ve actually read an old newspaper article about this story and will tell you everything I know about it. So
Art Heist (2004) is about an art heist that took place in 1990 at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts. Due to poor communication between the security company, which was run by a man named Anthony Amore, and the actual museum staff, two men were able to break into the building during visiting hours and steal 13 pieces of art. The total value of the stolen art today would be around $500 million and among the pieces that were taken was a painting by Rembrandt, an etching by Govaert Flinck and five sketches made by Edgar Degas.
The movie follows the same basic outline as what really happened: two men dressed in police uniforms come to the museum at night. After one of them is shot in the leg by a security guard, they are able to overpower him and tie him up. The thieves then spend nearly an hour walking around the museum before stealing all thirteen pieces of art, which would be very strange considering that there were several other pieces that were more valuable than what they took. After stealing the art, the thieves left in a car that was waiting for them outside.
The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is located just north of Boston’s Fenway Park and it was founded by Isabella Stewart Gardner in 1903, when she died at age 81. The place was built to resemble an Italian palace with 32 rooms for different types of art, including Italian Renaissance paintings and sculpture, tapestries, furniture, rare books and medieval decorations. As you can see in the photo below, no one really knew what to do with all of this stuff.
