George Gaynes Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

George Gaynes (born George Jongejans; May 16, 1917 Helsinki) is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television. He may be best known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series, and to television fans as the curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster, in which his wife, Allyn Ann McLerie, guest-starred as his love interest, and as Frank Smith, the mob boss brought down by Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) on the soap opera General Hospital. Gaynes was born in Helsinki, Finland, the son of Iya Grigorievna De Gay (later known as Lady Iya Abdy), an... MORE

George Gaynes (born George Jongejans; May 16, 1917 Helsinki) is a Finnish-born American actor of stage, screen and television. He may be best known as Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy series, and to television fans as the curmudgeonly Henry Warnimont on the NBC series Punky Brewster, in which his wife, Allyn Ann McLerie, guest-starred as his love interest, and as Frank Smith, the mob boss brought down by Luke Spencer (Anthony Geary) on the soap opera General Hospital. Gaynes was born in Helsinki, Finland, the son of Iya Grigorievna De Gay (later known as Lady Iya Abdy), an artist, and Gerrit Jongejans, a Dutch businessman. His uncle was actor Gregory Gaye. A United States citizen for most of his life, Gaynes rapidly built a reputation as a Broadway musical comedy performer in the 1940s and 1950s (his best-known appearance was in Wonderful Town, the musical version of My Sister Eileen). He 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 his role as Bob Baker in the original production of Wonderful Town (1953), Jupiter in the Cole Porter LESS