George Spelvin

See also: Alan Smithee, Walter Plinge, David Agnew. Steiger has a Bacon number of 2. William Rufus Shafter has a Steiger number of 8. See: Small world phenomenon. The one-act play The Actor's Nightmare by Christopher Durang features a main character named George Spelvin. The average Steiger number of a movie actor is 2.679 (compared to Bacon's 2.955). Georgina Spelvin has fallen out of general use since it was adopted as a screen name by pornographic actress Dorothy May, who was credited by that name in The Devil in Miss Jones and her subsequent films. Rod Steiger is the most linkable actor in the Internet Movie Database. George Spelvin and Georgina Spelvin are the traditional pseudonyms used in programs in American theatre by actors whose names would otherwise appear twice because they are playing more than one role in a production. Rod Steiger has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

He is interred in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery. He died in Los Angeles of pneumonia and kidney failure at the age of seventy-seven. Steiger called this refusal his "dumbest career move." He also turned down The Godfather. The role was then given to George C. Scott, who won the Oscar.

He was offered the title role in Patton but turned it down because he did not want to glorify war. Steiger had five wives, actress Sally Gracie (married 1952-divorced 1958), actress Claire Bloom (married 1959-divorced 1969), Sherry Nelson (married 1973-divorced 1979), Paula Ellis (married 1986-divorced 1997) and actress Joan Benedict (married 2000-his death 2002). He was nominated for the Academy Award for his roles in On the Waterfront (1954), The Pawnbroker (1965) and The Hurricane (1999). He won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Sheriff Bill Gillespie in the 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night (1967) opposite Sidney Poitier.

Steiger appeared in over 100 motion pictures. After the war, he returned to New Jersey and joined a drama group before studying drama full-time under Lee Strasberg and Elia Kazan at The Actor's Studio. He ran away from home at age sixteen to join the US Navy during World War II. He was born Rodney Stephen Steiger in Westhampton, New York.

Rod Steiger (April 14, 1925 - July 9, 2002) was an American actor.