Biff McGuire

William Joseph McGuire Jr. (he was nicknamed 'Biff' when playing football at high school) initially pursued studies in agricultural engineering at the University of Massachusetts. Deciding "that farming wasn't for me", he dropped out and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Stationed in Oxfordshire during the latter stages of World War II, he became interested in the performing arts while attending the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom at Shrivenham. Put to work as a set painter, Biff appeared in a local stage production, at which time he was spotted by a drama critic who talked him into going to London to audition (as it turned out, successfully) for a part in William Saroyan 's play The Best Years of Our Lives. Upon his return to the U.S., he acted on Broadway in the original 1949 production of South Pacific. His many subsequent performances on the 'Great White Way' during the next half century included a leading turn in Fininan's Rainbow in 1960, which also co-starred his wife, the English actress Jeannie Carson. In the course of many years, the 'McGuires' made many successful stage appearances together in off-Broadway plays, including Mary, Mary, Camelot and Cactus Flower. Both were also long-standing members of the Seattle Repertory Theatre. The tall, lean-framed stage thesp eventually broke into TV acting during the early 50s. In addition, he penned several episodic screenplays as well as managing to sell an original drama entitled "Top of the World" to the BBC. Biff only made sporadic forays into motion pictures, notably as a character actor or second-string lead in The Phenix City Story (1955), The Thomas Crown Affair (1968) and The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968). On the small screen, he starred in several episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) and was one of the three principal characters (Dr. Michael Malloy) in the nostalgic newspaper drama series Gibbsville (1976), alongside Gig Young and John Savage. Prior to his retirement from acting in 2013 he also had recurring appearances on the soaps Search for Tomorrow (1951) and Santa Barbara (1984).