I don’t think it’s a very good line.” (laughs) I was much younger then. I sang the recitative in “Nothing Like a Dame.” There was one line that Oscar Hammerstein said wasn’t working and he was going to take it away from me. The next morning, there was a football helmet filled with flowers on the piano, which Trude wore throughout the entire rehearsal period. The keys were covered with blood because she broke Mary’s fall and probably saved her life. Then one of the girls looked down, and saw that Trude Rittman’s head had been driven into the piano keys. Mary was unconscious, so we got her out of the pit and rushed her to a doctor. One time she lost her sense of direction and went off the stage, down into the pit, and crashed on top of the pianist, Trude Rittman. When Mary (Martin) did the reprise of “Wash That Man Right Outta My Hair,” she would come back on while the girls were singing and do a somersault across the stage. There’s one story that you don’t hear about - we were on stage in the second or third week of rehearsal. NR: You were in the original cast of South Pacific on Broadway. It requires a lot of thought, and you do a certain amount of praying to make sure you’re moving in the right direction. WM: Some have been more difficult than others, but not really. NR: Are there any you did that you regretted? (smiles) I’m usually relieved that I didn’t have to do it. NR: Are there any you look back on and wish you’d taken? I’ve read them, and then I’ve recommended other people to play them. WM: I’ve been working pretty steadily for those 60 years. NR: You’ve managed to land so many wonderful roles. It just evolved when I was playing football. We had all of these big gatherings of the whole family on Saturday nights, and everybody had to do something, so that was my theater. My mother was what you would call an elocutionist when she was quite young. I wanted to do sets and that sort of thing, but I just veered off into acting. WM: Sort of, but my thought was that I wanted to design for the theater. NR: Had you had any interest in acting before that? I met with Peter Glenville, who was directing Saroyan’s play, and that was the beginning. I studied acting, directing, radio and television. They setup a situation where you could go to England and study. I had about 14 points, so I knew I’d have to start another war or something if I wanted to get home. You got so many points for being wounded, and so many points for battles. You had to have 86 points at the end of the war to go home. WM: I caught the last month of the war in Germany. NR: Were you stationed in England during the war? Back in the ‘40s I did the first production of Saroyan’s The Time of Your Life. NR: What made you go into theater initially? William McGuire: Well, I’m on my 79th birthday, and I’ve been in the Nancy Rosati: I started looking at your resumé and it went on for several pages . Not ready to retire yet, Biff McGuire is reuniting with his Mornings at Seven co-starĮstelle Parsons in Horton Foote’s latest play, The Day Emily History of the medium, from "Studio One" and "The Ford Theatre Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Serpico, and the original version of Tony nomination for The Young Man from Atlanta, and another one inĢ002 for the revival of Mornings at Seven. He was in the original South Pacific, received a With almost twenty Broadway shows to his name, dozens of films,Īnd television credits dating back to the early 1950s, he would beĭifficult to miss. Most theater fans have seen William Biff McGuire perform at one time orĪnother.
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