George Gaynes, 98; versatile character actor . NEW YORK - George
Gaynes, who played a grouchy foster parent on the 1980s sitcom "Punky
Brewster," the beleaguered commandant in seven "Police Academy" films,
and a soap opera star with a crush on Dustin Hoffman in drag in the
Hollywood hit "Tootsie," died Feb. 15 at his daughter's home in North
Bend, Wash. He was 98. His death was confirmed by his daughter, Iya
Gaynes Falcone Brown. With his baritone voice, chiseled good looks, and
versatility as a character actor and singer, Mr. Gaynes appeared in
hundreds of episodes of sitcoms and dramas on television, 35 Hollywood
and made-for-TV films, and many plays, musical comedies, and operas in
New York and Europe. Critics often applauded his work in supporting
roles, and his face became familiar to millions of Americans. But he
never achieved leading man stardom. "Anyone who believes in happy
endings will take consolation from the career of George Gaynes, about
to become a television celebrity at the age of 64," The New York Times
reported (erroneously; he was 67 ) in 1984, shortly before NBC telecast
the first episode of "Punky Brewster. The show ran for four seasons,
first on NBC and then in syndication. Mr. Gaynes, in the television
role for which he was probably best known, played a building manager,
Henry Warnimont, who finds an abandoned little girl, played by Soleil
Moon Frye, in an empty apartment and becomes first her foster parent
and then her adoptive father. Their tender relationship was the heart
of the show. There was a puppy, too. "The two things an actor dreads
most are children and dogs," he told The Times in 1984. "I have both in
this series. Mr. Gaynes got the part on the heels of two of his
strongest film performances. In the first, in "Tootsie," released in
1982, he was a misguided would-be paramour pursuing his leading lady
(Hoffman), an unemployed actor who wins celebrity by masquerading as a
woman on a daytime soap opera. Then, in 1984, he was the commandant in
charge of misfit recruits in the first "Police Academy" movie, which
critics called crude and noisy - although some found it also hilarious
- and which spawned six sequels, all of them with Mr. Gaynes in the
cast. Writing about Mr. Gaynes's performance in "Tootsie," Vincent
Canby of The Times called him "priceless as the seedy but tirelessly
lecherous leading man on the soap" and "so memorably funny in such
memorably funny circumstances that I doubt he'll much longer remain one
of those actors whose looks are as familiar as his name, though one
never puts the two together. "Tootsie" was a hit and received 10
Academy Award nominations, although only Jessica Lange won, for best
supporting actress. George Gaynes was born George Jongejans in
Helsinki, on May 16, 1917, to Iya Grigorievna de Gay, a Russian artist
later known as Lady Iya Abny, and Gerrit Jongejans, a Dutch
businessman. His uncle was the actor Gregory Gaye, who played a Nazi
Reichsbank official in "Casablanca. Raised in France, England, and
Switzerland, Mr. Gaynes was introduced to opera by his mother's friend,
the Russian basso Feodor Chaliapin. He studied in Milan and performed
in Italy and France. But his career was interrupted by World War II. He
crossed the Pyrenees and was interned in Spain for three months. After
being released, he went to Britain and enlisted in the Royal Dutch Navy
for the duration. He landed in New York after the war, joined the New
York City Opera and played Figaro, Leporello in "Don Giovanni" and
assorted fathers, monks and ragpickers. He also appeared in Gilbert and
Sullivan operettas. But he considered himself primarily an actor. "I
was an acting opera singer, and that's one of the reasons I left
opera," he said. On Broadway, he appeared in Cole Porter's "Out of This
World" (1950) and was Rosalind Russell's suitor in "Wonderful Town"
(1953), a musical version of "My Sister Eileen" with music by Leonard
Bernstein and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green. That same year,
he changed his surname to Gaynes and married Allyn Ann McLerie, an
actress, who survives him. In addition to his wife and daughter, he
leaves one granddaughter and two great-granddaughters. His son,
Matthew, died in a car crash in 1989. Mr. Gaynes appeared in many
television series in the 1960s and '70s. He also acted in the daytime
soap operas "General Hospital" and "Search for Tomorrow.
