George Segal was born in Great Neck, N.Y. Feb. 13, 1934. He began his career as a musician, playing the banjo for Bruno Lynch and the Imperial Jazz Band (and is still very much a banjo aficionado today). He was in the military and attended Columbia University. Following his graduation in 1955, he became a credited actor. In 1965, he achieved notoriety for playing David in Ship of Fools; the same year he was a very memorable Biff Loman in Death of a Salesman. The next year, he was nominated for an Oscar for playing Nick in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. More film roles followed, including The Owl and The Pussycat, Born to Win and The Hot Rock, co-starring Paul Newman. In 1973, he co-starred in A Touch of Class with Glenda Jackson, who won an Oscar.

In the '80s, he made his living primarily as a TV star, appearing in Deadly Game, The Cold Room and Murphy's Law. In 1989, Segal returned to film with Look Who's Talking and later reprised his role in its sequel. In 1993, NBC cast him as raffish magazine publisher Jack Gallo in Just Shoot Me! (co-starring Hot in Cleveland's winsome Wendie Malick) in its "Must See TV" block. After the show's successful seven-year run, he guested on Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Boston Legal and Law & Order: SVU. He also portrayed Hollywood manager Murray Berenson in the HBO hit Entourage. He returned to the big screen in 2012, and as Jake Gyllenhaal's father in Love and Other Drugs.

Segal lives in L.A. with his wife Sonia.