Will Geer (born William Aughe Ghere; March 9, 1902 – April 22, 1978) was an American actor, musician, and social activist who was active in labor organizing and communist movements in New York City and Southern California in the 1930s and 1940s.

Geer was born in Frankfort, Indiana, the son of Katherine (née Aughe), a teacher, and Roy Aaron Ghere, a postal worker.

He worked on several social commentaries for documentaries, including narrating Sheldon Dick's Men and Dust about silicosis among miners.

From 1948 to 1951, he appeared in more than a dozen movies, including Winchester '73 (as Wyatt Earp), Broken Arrow, and Comanche Territory, all in 1950; as well as Bright Victory (1951).

He became a dedicated activist touring government work camps of the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s with folk singers such as Burl Ives and Woody Guthrie (whom he introduced to the People's World and the Daily Worker).

Geer acted with the Group Theatre (New York) studying under Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford, and Lee Strasberg.

Geer acted in radio appearing as Mephistopheles (the devil) in the 1938 and 1944 productions of Norman Corwin's The Plot to Overthrow Christmas.

When Geer died shortly after completing the sixth season of The Waltons, the death of his character was written into the show's script.

Later in the year, they performed in support of the 1934 West Coast waterfront strike, where they witnessed police firing on strikers and killing two.

[8]: 64–65 [16][17] Geer introduced Hay to Los Angeles' communist community and together they were activists, joining demonstrations for laborers' rights and the unemployed.

[19] He had a small vacation house in Solana Beach, California, where his front and back yards were cultivated as vegetable gardens rather than lawns.

As he was dying, his family sang folk songs that he and Woody Guthrie had written, and recited poems by Robert Frost at his bedside.