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George D. Wallace was born in New York and, at 13, moved with his mother and her new husband to McMechen, West Virginia, a coal mining town where he started working in the mines. He joined the Navy in 1936, left in 1940, but re-enlisted when World War II began. Serving as a chief boatswain's mate, he finished eight years in the service and settled in Los Angeles. To support himself, he took various odd jobs, including working for a meat packer ("knockin' steers in the head") and lumberjacking in the High Sierras. His time as a singing bartender caught the eye of Hollywood columnist Jimmy Fidler, who helped launch his show business career. In the late 1940s, Wallace attended drama school while working as a greenskeeper at MGM. He soon secured roles in films and television, most famously as Commando Cody in the Republic serial Radar Men from the Moon (1952). On Broadway, he debuted in Richard Rodgers' "Pipe Dreams," replaced John Raitt in "The Pajama Game," and earned a Tony nomination for his lead role in "New Girl in Town" with Gwen Verdon. His other stage credits include "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" opposite Ginger Rogers, "Jennie" with Mary Martin, "Most Happy Fella" (where he met his future wife, actress Jane A. Johnston), "Camelot" as King Arthur, "Man of La Mancha," "Company," and more. In 1960, his career was interrupted when a horse fell on him during filming of a TV episode of The Magical World of Disney's "Swamp Fox," breaking his back. His recovery lasted seven painful months. To avoid confusion with comic George Wallace, he sometimes used the billing George D. H. Wallace.
