Biff McGuire

William Joseph McGuire Jr. (he was nicknamed 'Biff' when playing football at high school) initially pursued studies in agricultural engineering at the University of Massachusetts. Deciding "that farming wasn't for me", he dropped out and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Stationed in Oxfordshire during the latter stages of World War II, he became interested in the performing arts while attending the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom at Shrivenham. Put to work as a set painter, Biff appeared in a local stage production, at which time he was spotted by a drama critic who talked him into going to London to audition (as it turned out, successfully) for a part in William Saroyan 's play The Best Years of Our Lives. Upon his return to the U.S., he acted on Broadway in the original 1949 production of South Pacific. His many subsequent performances on the 'Great White Way' during the next half century included a leading turn in Fininan's Rainbow in 1960, which also co-starred his wife, the Englis