Harry Groener

Harry Groener
Harry Groener, September 2006
Born	(1951-09-10) September 10, 1951 Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany
Occupation	Actor, dancer

Harry Groener (born September 10, 1951) is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (seasons 3, 4 and 7).

Early life

Groener was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany to an opera singer mother and a father who worked as a concert pianist, office clerk, and composer.^[1] He emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two. As a teenager, Groener was apprenticed at the San Francisco Ballet; he went on to study drama at the University of Washington.

Career

Groener's reputation in New York City rests almost entirely on his work in musical theater, although the bulk of his roles outside New York have been in classical drama or contemporary plays like Eastern Standard. His Broadway credits include Is there life after high school?, Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Tony Award nomination, Theatre World Award), Munkustrap in Cats (Tony nomination), Georges/George in Sunday in the Park with George, and Bobby Child in Crazy for You (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). In 1999 he performed off-Broadway with Twiggy at the Lucille Lortel Theater in If Love Were All, a musical revue based on the friendship of Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. He has performed in regional theatres across the country, including the San Diego Old Globe Theatre (where he is an associate artist), Mark Taper Forum, Westwood Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, A.C.T., and the Williamstown Theater Festival.

Groener has performed regularly on TV, including guest appearances on Star Trek: The Next Generation (1990), Star Trek: Voyager (1996), Star Trek: Enterprise (2005) and several dozen other series; he was also a series regular on the sitcom Dear John. In 1998 and 1999, Groener portrayed Richard Wilkins, the evil mayor of Sunnydale on the third season of cult TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Groener reprised his role in cameo appearances in Buffy's 4th and 7th seasons. From 2004 to 2006 he appeared as the chef Gunther on the TV series Las Vegas. Notable film work includes Road to Perdition and About Schmidt. He also appeared in two episodes of The West Wing as the Secretary of Agriculture and the Bones episode "The Woman at the Airport" as a plastic surgeon, Henry Atlas. In 2009, Groener appeared in the second season episode of Breaking Bad, "Bit by a Dead Bee", as protagonist Walter White's psychiatrist. He also portrayed the role of Clint, Ted's stepdad, in How I Met Your Mother.

He was a regular vocalist for the Varèse Sarabande label, performing on such recordings as Shakespeare on Broadway, Cole Porter: A Musical Toast, and various installments of the Unsung Broadway and Lost in Boston series. He played King Arthur in Monty Python's Spamalot during 2006. In 2010, he appeared as the title role in the Antaeus Company's production of King Lear. He won the L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award for this performance. In 2012 he starred in the debut of Christopher Hampton's play Appomattox at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, playing a dual role as both U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1865 and Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965.^[2]

Awards and nominations

Ovation Awards

• 2010: Won the award for Featured Actor in a Play for the role of Richard in the Geffen Playhouse production of Equivocation^[3]

Joseph Jefferson Award

• 2011: Won the Jeff Award for Actor in a Principal Role - Play for The Madness of George III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater^[4][5]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Harry Groener.

• Harry Groener at the Internet Movie Database
• Harry Groener at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• The Somewhat Official Harry Groener Page