From Broadway to Hollywood and into living rooms via radio and television, performers from Indianapolis have entertained audiences for generations. Locally, theatergoers have enjoyed live stage productions for over a century with talented actors bringing the house to tears or roaring laughter. Among these Indianapolis performers for over three decades was George Willeford, one of the city’s most accomplished actors who hit his mark in over eighty-five major plays and in numerous other productions.
George William Willeford was born in Indianapolis on November 27, 1920, to William W. Willeford and Marie Sophie Schmidt Willeford. His father was a receiving clerk for G & J Tire Co. and the family lived on the east side of the city at 248 Dorman St., across from Highland Park, later moving to 57 Brookville Ave. (N. Ewing St) near Sherman Dr.
Willeford attended Minnie Hartman School No. 78, 436 N. Sherman Dr. and learned to play the violin from Charles Bromley, director and instructor of the Masters’ School of Music. He was the “kid violinist” on a Saturday afternoon show on radio station WIRE. Willeford continued his education at Arsenal Technical “Tech” High School where he won a regional violin contest and was a member of the cast in Big Hearted Herbert and Naughty Marietta.
Following his graduation in 1939, Willeford was awarded the Indiana University Hoosier Music Festival Scholarship in violin and enrolled in the School of Music. While at IU, he was a member of the Pro-Music Club, the Student University Symphony Orchestra, and the Glee Club. Willeford also was the student director of radio music. He performed with the IU Theater, co-authored the Jordan River Revue, and was a member of Theta Alpha Pi, national theatre honors fraternity. Willeford was also a member of Alpha Mu Omega fraternity.
Willeford joined the U. S. Navy V-5 program (Naval Flight Preparatory School) at IU. and when he received his B.P.S.M. (Bachelor of Public School Music) degree in 1943, he was commissioned an ensign in the United States Naval Reserve, on April 29, 1943. Four months later, he married Helen Marie Burton (27 Mar 1921-10 Sep 2000), a fellow School of Music student, at her family home in Sandborn, Indiana on August 22, 1943. The couple went to Norfolk, Virginia where Ensign Willeford was stationed. They would become the parents of Eileen Marie Willeford (20 Apr 1945-7 Jul 20 25) and Stephen “Steve” Warren Willeford (13 Apr 1948-23 Jul 2003).
Willeford was discharged from the service on February 8, 1946, and returned to Bloomington, Indiana where he pursued a Master’s degree and resumed acting with the University Theatre as a cast member in William Saroyan’s Time of Your Life. He continued to perform in plays and skits while directing the University Radio Ensemble. As a staff announcer for WTOM radio, Willeford gave the play-by-play for IU football and basketball games. He briefly was a salesman and announcer at radio station WITZ in Jasper, Indiana, returning to WTOM as assistant manager in 1949. The following year, Willeford was vice president of Collegiate Record Bar, Inc, a store handling over 125 different labels.
In the summer of 1951, Willeford was named program director for Indiana University’s laboratory FM radio station WFIU and later he was appointed program director of the IU Radio and Television Service. In 1956, Willeford wrote a 45-minute fictional drama dealing with civil rights on a college campus that was performed over a Sunday program on WTTV, Channel 4. He also was co-host of “Sunday Morning,” a television show airing on WTTV. Willeford came to Indianapolis in the fall of 1957 to host “Standout,” a program airing on WLWI, Channel 13, posing “the questions to Hoosier personalities.” He made his home in Irvington at 440 N. Irvington Ave.
At WLWI, Willeford was host of a daily movie show and later he had a five-minute spot called “Critic at Large” where he appraised plays, movies, books, and “anything else that strikes his fancy.” He also made his dramatic television debut as a “bad guy” in an episode of ABC-TV’s “Rifleman.” Willeford was the weekday weatherman, whose offbeat wit made the routine report palatable, and his Saturday night show, “By George,” was a program of talk, comedy monologues (written by him), and guest nightclub comedians and vocalists. In addition to being a TV personality and emcee, Willeford returned to the stage as a seaman in the Avondale Playhouse production of Mr. Roberts and continued with the show for a week in Detroit.
Willeford was the moderator in WLWI’s high school quiz show, “Exercise in Knowledge,” and his “hair trigger humor” kept the program on a quick pace. However, in August 1965 it was announced that “a schedule shakeup” at WLWI made Willeford’s “services no longer necessary.” He continued to perform in Avondale Playhouse productions like Affairs of State in the candy-striped tent at the Meadows Shopping Center and playing the violin Saturday evenings at the Italian Village restaurant. He also joined the Paul Lennon Ad Agency and was with the advertising department of WIFE radio. Willeford later was the advertising manager for Greater Indianapolis, a monthly magazine of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.
Starlight Musicals at the Hilton U. Brown Theater on the Butler University campus also provided Willeford with opportunities to “tread the boards.” He appeared in supporting roles in Oklahoma! and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. Willeford also played the tycoon in the “naughty” comedy, Any Wednesday, and the errant husband in The Seven Year Itch on the stage of the Booth Tarkington Civic theater. He often appeared in special performances of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as a violinist or narrator.
In 1970, Willeford won the Civic Theatre’s best actor gold award for his role as the convict Joseph in My Three Angels. He also joined the Butler University faculty as professor and chair of the drama department of the Jordan College of Fine Arts, while continuing stage performances at the Black Curtain Dinner Theater in 1923 Skidoo, a revue written by, directed by, and starring George Willeford, and as a member of the Athenaeum Players of the Athenaeum Turners Theater, playing Lt. Cmdr. Queeg in the Caine Mutiny Court Martial.
Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1990s, Willeford could be found directing and performing at any venue in Indianapolis that had a stage. A prolific author of musical revues and comedy sketches that entertained countless audiences, Willeford became professor emeritus in 1986 and the following year he starred as Benjamin Franklin in the Civic Theatre’s production of 1776. In 1988, the Encore Association presented Willeford with the E. Edward Green Award, honoring his many years of service to community theater. Willeford was a “talented, hard-working, dedicated, sarcastic, irascible, demanding, opinionated, and interesting” individual. One of his last roles was Grandpa Joad in the Edyvean Theatre’s production of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath.
George Willeford died in Community Hospital East on July 15, 1994, and was buried in Memorial Park Cemetery. He was a member of Grace United Methodist Church and the IU School of Music Alumni Association. Willeford built model ships in his spare time.
