When George Segal married Sonia Schultz Greenbaum, his high school sweetheart for the third time, he proved that “love lasts forever.” Continue reading to learn more about the wonderful love story that took nearly 50 years to complete!

George Segal, who starred in the film Goldberg, had a romantic life that was straight out of a fairytale.

He met the love of his life early in life and then parted ways with her, only to experience heartbreak. After five decades and two disastrous relationships, Segal reconnected with Sonia Schultz Greenbaum, his long-lost love.

Greenbaum was his sweetheart in high school

Only the fortunate are given the opportunity to reunite with their first love, and Segal was one of them. After nearly fifty years, he married his high school sweetheart.
Segal and Greenbaum met as teenagers at George School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and fell in love.

However, their relationship was short-lived because the two went their own ways following graduation. Segal wanted to further his education, so he enrolled in a college and then the military. He briefly served in the United States Army before deciding to pursue acting.

Before being signed by Columbia Pictures, the Academy Award winner ran into a few roadblocks. He made his debut as a member of The Young Doctors. Greenbaum was working as a waitress in a New York cafe at the time.
During their time apart, the two lived their separate lives and focused on raising their individual families. While Greenbaum was married to her ex-husband and had three children with him, he enjoyed his previous marriage to Freed.

Had Married Twice Before

On November 19, 1937, the Goldbergs actor married producer and screenwriter Freed for the first time.

Polly and Elizabeth, the couple’s two daughters, were born to them. They dated for approximately 25 years until breaking up in 1963. (At the age of 77, Freed died of a fatal illness.)
Following his divorce, the actor married Linda Sue Rogoff for the second time on October 9, 1983. In this partnership, the vows of “till death do us part” were fulfilled when he lost Rogoff to a severe illness in 1996.

Segal was depressed after Rogoff died. When he received an invitation to his 45th high school reunion celebration, he was at his “lowest point.” As a result, he turned down the offer, thereby jeopardizing any hope of rekindling his adolescent romance.

“I declined the invitation because I was at the lowest time of my roller-coaster life. With Linda dying, I lost interest in everything. I worked to make a living. Acting, like life, became a joyless job. And so I couldn’t make the high school reunion. “

Greenbaum’s Relationship Has Rekindled

The organizers of the reunion celebration wanted the actor to attend, so they approached Greenbaum to persuade him to come.
They talked for hours after she contacted him and felt comfortable with each other. Furthermore, the veteran actor stated that reminiscing with her about their former days made him feel better.

“It was magic. It was like all that spiritual stuff I had heard about, but when it happens in your life, you believe in miracles. She put the joy back in my life. “

The long-lost love birds wasted little time in rekindling their childhood romance, and on September 28, 1998, they married.

Died At the age of 87

On March 23, 2021, Segal said his final goodbyes to Sonia Schultz Greenbaum, his wife of 22 years. At the age of 87, he died as a result of complications after bypass surgery.
Greenbaum, his loving wife, announced his death the same day in a statement to Sony Television. “The family is heartbroken to report that George Segal passed away this morning as a result of complications from bypass surgery,” she said.

Adam F. Goldberg, the producer of The Goldbergs, also paid tribute to the late actor on Twitter, writing that Segal was “a kid at heart with a brilliant spark.” He described him as “the ideal person for the role of Pops.”