Late Cloris Leachman met her only beloved husband, George Englund, through his sister Patsy. Leachman was fond of her future sister-in-law because she was not easily intimidated by those in authority and was a straightforward person.
Veteran actress Cloris Leachman met her only spouse George Englund in 1950. The couple was introduced by Englund’s sister Patricia, affectionately known as Patsy.
Leachman and Patsy co-starred in the Broadway “As You Like It” at the time, and she played Celia. The two ladies shared a dressing room.
The eight-time Emmy Award winner revealed why she loved his sister so much in her autobiography titled “Cloris Leachman with George Englund.” Leachman explained the fellow actress earned her respect when one afternoon, they went out for lunch and got back to the theater a few minutes later:
“Karl Nielsen, our very military stage manager, immediately reprimanded us and gave us a terse lecture on our responsibility to be on time. Patsy, unintimidated, spoke up, ‘Karl, you are absolutely right. It won’t ever happen again.’”
Leachman said that’s all it took, and the case was closed, adding the “Last Wish” star was laudable in many ways. She even wondered if Patsy had a brother.
Thankfully for her, she did. On one evening, her brother George, including their stepfather Ken Englund and their pal Herb Sargent walked toward her and Patsy.
On another evening, George came backstage, “and the car I was driving suddenly changed lanes,” said Leachman, adding that they became husband and wife not long after.
The comedienne retold the story to FilmFestival.com in 2017 and revealed she and George, a film director, first crossed paths after she moved to New York City in the 1950s:
“I was in a play called ‘As You Like It’ on Broadway for a year with Katharine Hepburn. It was there that I met George Englund, whose sister was in the play.”
The pair lived together for four years and decided to make things official by walking down the aisle in April 1953. That same year, the newlyweds welcomed their first child, Adam. Leachman and George had four more kids, George Jr., Dinah, Morgan, and their late son Bryan.
George was born in June 1926 to actress Mabel Albertson and Harold Austin Ripley. He was named George Howe Ripley at birth, but that changed when his parents divorced. His mother remarried and wed Ken, a screenwriter who adopted him and his sister Patsy.
Per the LA Times, the Washington D.C native studied at Black-Foxe Military Institute and earned an English and Philosophy degree. George also took part in sports as the captain of the basketball and tennis teams.
Like his wife, the film editor was also a Hollywood star. But as an actor, he had only appeared in a few films and TV shows. George’s main focus was being a screenwriter, a producer, and a director.
He assisted in creating “The Eddie Fisher Show,” including credits in movies such as “The Ugly American,” “See How She Runs,” “Dark of the Sun,” and “The Streets of LA.”
As a family man, George was hardly home because of work. Sometimes he was gone for weeks, leaving his wife with the housekeeper and their brood. That led to him and Leachman being at loggerheads with each other.
The Iowa native revealed when her husband came home; that he would be surprised at why things they agreed on were undone. Wondering why the kids seemed unkempt and, in some ways, uncared for. Leachman added:
“If there was one giant source of stress between us, it was, and I’m sure always will be, how the children should be raised. George feels our disagreement about it was what kept us separated so much of the time.”
The couple lived on Beverly Glen Boulevard, two doors away from George’s mother, so they saw her daily. When Mabel and her son talked about him getting a stable job, she pointed out that he was overly impatient.
The actress suggested he get a job as a television stage manager and work his way up. George told her that he did not want to be a stage manager:
“Muth, I’ve done that. I did my apprenticeship in New York. I don’t want to be a stage manager. I want to be a producer and director.”
Meanwhile, his spouse was happy to be a mom on-and-off screen, saying nothing could top that experience. But the issues the couple had still lingered. “George and I had a conflict about the same old thing, how the children should be raised,” said Leachman.
She starred in the 1954 drama series “Lassie” at the time, which aired for 19 seasons. All the while, George’s co-star actress Joan Collins allegedly had an eye on him.
After Leachman exited the show while still in the dark about her husband’s relations with Collins, she took her kids and visited her sister Mary in Darien, Connecticut. She explained, “I was concerned about the boys, who were now aged one and half, three, and four and a half.
Life in Darien was good for Leachman and her children. They were warmly welcomed with open arms by Mary and her husband Bob Castle, a vice president of the J. Walter Thompson Company, an advertising agency. She stated
:
“They welcomed my boys, and Bob was a loving surrogate father. Life was so appealing. I bought a little house nearby for fifteen thousand dollars, and the boys and I moved in.”
While she had found a new life with her children, her spouse was full-time in New York and would visit. One night, he came over, and Leachman conceived. Soon after, she got a call to go to Los Angeles to do a television show.
Leachman had to leave instantly, and George offered to pick up his sons and bring them back with him to LA. While filming for the TV show, the “Raising Hope” alum had to run, jump and run around repeatedly.
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