GEORGE GAYNES
George
Gaynes-Best known for playing older fops, blustery vain fools, and the
curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series "Punky Brewster,"
Gaynes had a career on the opera stages of Italy and France before World
War II and in the US after the war. He alternated between stage musicals
and both comic and dramatic plays, including Gilbert and Sullivan
operettas and as Henry Higgins in the 1964 US tour of My Fair Lady.
In television, Gaynes provided Henry Warnimont's voice for the animated
series version of "Punky Brewster," and directed several
episodes of "WKRP in Cincinnati". Feature film work highlights
include The Way We Were, Nickelodeon, and Tootsie. In
1984 he played Commandant Lassard, the titular leader, in the first of
seven Police Academy movies, and, in 1994, he played Serybryalzov
in Louis Malle's acclaimed independent feature, Vanya on 42nd Street.
He was also featured in the 1996 film adaptation of Arthur Miller's The
Crucible.