WATN: George Gaynes

by Matt Holmes

GEORGE GAYNES

AS

CMNDT. ERIC LASSARD

(1€“7)

Born in Helsinki in 1917, George Gaynes is an accomplished Broadway actor who made his first television appearance in 1955 at almost forty years old. His pre-Police Academy career reads like a list of classic US TV series; from Mission: Impossible to The Six Million Dollar Man to Hawaii Five-O.

He has appeared as the bumbling Cmndt. Eric Lassard in each of the Police Academy films and was a series regular on 80€™s sitcom Punky Brewster for it€™s four season run. Following the most recent Police Academy; 1994€™s Mission to Moscow, Gaynes appeared in three episodes of hospital drama Chicago Hope and played a Senator in Barry Levinson's Wag the Dog alongside Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro. His most recent screen appearance was in 2003 in the Ashton Kutcher/Brittany Murphy romantic €˜comedy€™ Just Married. Now the ripe-old age of 91, Gaynes is retired, although if the rumoured eighth installment of Police Academy ever escapes from development hell we may yet see him reprise his role as Eric Lassard.
 
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Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.