Harry Groener

Harry Groener (born September 10, 1951) is a German-born American actor and dancer, perhaps best known for playing Mayor Wilkins in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (seasons 3, 4 and 7).

Early life

Groener was born in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany to an opera singer mother and a father who worked as a concert pianist, office clerk, and composer. He emigrated to the United States with his family at the age of two. As a teenager, Groener was apprenticed at the San Francisco Ballet; he went on to study drama at the University of Washington.

Career

Groener's reputation in New York City rests almost entirely on his work in musical theater, although the bulk of his roles outside New York have been in classical drama or contemporary plays like Eastern Standard. His Broadway credits include Is there life after high school?, Will Parker in Oklahoma! (Tony Award nomination, Theatre World Award), Munkustrap in Cats (Tony nomination), Georges/George in Sunday in the Park with George, and Bobby Child in Crazy for You (Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations). In 1999 he performed off-Broadway with Twiggy at the Lucille Lortel Theater in If Love Were All, a musical revue based on the friendship of Noël Coward and Gertrude Lawrence. He has performed in regional theatres across the country, including the San Diego Old Globe Theatre (where he is an associate artist), Mark Taper Forum, Westwood Playhouse, South Coast Repertory, Pasadena Playhouse, Long Wharf Theater, A.C.T., and the Williamstown Theater Festival.