E.G. Marshall biography

Synopsis

Early Life

In all likelihood, E.G. Marshall was born on June 18, 1914, in Owatonna, Minnesota. However, both the date of his birth and his true name are the source of some controversy. While many public records list Marshall's birthday as June 18, 1910, in a 1997 interview Marshall insisted that his true birthday was four years later. Since his death in 1998, certain pieces of social security information have emerged that appear to confirm the 1914 date. An even greater mystery than Marshall's date of birth is the origin of the initials "E.G."

When asked to state his full name in interviews, Marshall insisted, "My full name is E.G. Marshall. I am known by no other." When pressed as to what the "E.G." stood for, Marshall typically responded in jest. Some of his more noteworthy responses were "Enigma Gregarious," "Everybody's Guess" and "Edda Gunnar," an obscure reference to a book of Norse legends. While many hypothesize that his real name is Everett Gunnar, the true meaning of his initials (as his son-in-law David Sayer suggested shortly before Marshall's death) "will go with him to his grave."

Marshall became interested in theater and acting at a very young age. "I used to watch movies—silent movies—and stock companies and theater whenever I could," he later recalled. He also began performing wherever he could—in school, at church, at the YMCA, and in community theater productions. But in Minnesota during the Great Depression, there were few opportunities for advanced training in acting. "There were no acting schools back then," Marshall said. Instead, he attended the University of Minnesota and Carleton College, where he indirectly honed his acting skills by majoring in speech and music.

Theater Actor

After graduating, Marshall worked briefly for a radio station in Minneapolis before joining the American Art Theater, an itinerant Shakespearean theater company. As Marshall put it, he "joined a touring Shakespearean company in the Deep South and spent three or four years playing Guildenstern and all the really terrible parts." He recalled, "We were doing Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet and Faust, and we used the same set for them all ... It was pretty bare." Asked by an interviewer whether the actors were paid, Marshall responded, "We got fed. That was more important."

After spending several years touring the country with the American Art Theater, Marshall and two actor friends packed their bags for New York City, arriving with no jobs but big dreams of making a splash on Broadway. Marshall spent his first few months in the Big Apple living in a boarding house, eating cabbage and beans while working odd jobs just to make ends meet.