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Bill Macy

Bill Macy’s path to acting was built on persistence rather than a quick break. Born Wolf Martin Garber on May 18, 1922, in Revere, Massachusetts, he was raised in the East Flatbush section of New York. He served in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946, spending time in the Philippines, New Guinea and Japan with the 594th Engineer Boat and Shore Regiment. Before making a living as an actor, Macy worked as a cab driver for a decade. That long stretch behind the wheel gives his eventual move into theatre a particularly grounded shape: in 1958, he was cast as Walter Matthau’s understudy in the Broadway production of Once More, with Feeling. From there, his work would extend across the stage, television and film. Television offered an amusing echo of his earlier occupation when Macy portrayed a cab driver on the soap opera The Edge of Night in 1966. His stage career took another notable turn as an original cast member of the Off-Broadway revue Oh!, which ran from 1969 to 1972. Macy performed in the show from 1969 to 1971 and later appeared in its 1972 movie version. Asked about appearing fully nude with the rest of the stage cast, he answered with characteristic directness: “The nudity didn’t bother me. I’m from Brooklyn.” He also performed on the 1970 P. Bach album The Stoned Guest. Macy’s career crossed theatrical, television and movie acting, shaped by years of work before the screen became his profession. His story is less about instant arrival than the steady progress of a working actor who found opportunities in several corners of American entertainment. Macy died in 2019 at the age of 97.