In Memoriam entertainment that saw him frequent the boards of Broadway, the West End, and our living rooms on the telly.” Waldhorn was born in London in 1943 to Liselotte and Siegfried Waldhorn, Austrian Jews who escaped to England in 1938. He received his bachelor’s degree from The Ohio State University in 1962 and performed with summer stock theaters in the Midwest before moving to New York City. At Yale, Waldhorn met his future wife, director, choreographer, and author Christie Dickason ’67. The two appeared in a 1966 student production of Peer Gynt. That October, Dickason directed Waldhorn in a workshop of Pinter’s The Birthday Party. Dickason and Waldhorn married in 1967. They welcomed their son in 1970. “Gary was in his third year when I was in my second; he was what I wanted to be. He had that Richard Burton voice and rakish good looks and a kind a raffish charm and sense of humor,” shares David Ackroyd ’68. “I remember his performance as Macheath in The Beggars’ Opera. It was in the Ex, and I was part of the stage crew. I watched every performance in complete awe of his talent and charisma. He was just so damned delightful to watch.” A noted Shakespearean, Waldhorn performed regularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He appeared in the RSC’s 1982 Broadway transfer Good by C.P. Taylor. His other credits include numerous productions at the National Theatre, the Old Vic, and theaters throughout the West End. Few genres escaped his abilities. Waldhorn lent his vocal talents to national ad campaigns for quintessential British brands like Marmite and the pickled chutney Branston. He appeared in several classic British sitcoms, such as Brush Strokes and the sketch show French and Saunders, from the late 1960s to 2020. Waldhorn is survived by his wife, his son, and two grandchildren, Cooper and Bayley.
Geoffrey Johnson Casting Director
Geoffrey Johnson ’55, an acclaimed Broadway casting director whose credits include Cats, Les Misérables, The Phantom of the Opera, Miss Saigon, Dreamgirls, and many more, passed away on November 26, 2021. He was 91. Johnson was born in New York City in 1930 and raised in Larchmont, New York. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received his MFA from the School of Drama in 1955. His original plan was to act, and he made his Broadway debut in the 1956 production of Shaw’s Saint Joan. Acting was not to be his final theatrical calling, however, and his talents in other areas were soon recognized. He became a highly regarded stage manager and worked on the Broadway shows Oliver!, Cactus Flower, and I Do! I Do!. In 1961, Noël Coward hired him to manage the musical Sail Away. It was the beginning of a professional friendship that would last until the playwright’s death in 1973. Johnson later served as a trustee of the Noël Coward Foundation. In 1975, Johnson and his business partner, Vincent Liff, formed what would become one of the most successful casting agencies on Broadway. Over the following 25 years, Johnson-Liff was responsible for the casting of more than 150 Broadway productions and touring companies, among them some of the biggest hits in Broadway
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