A veteran Broadway and Shakespearean actor, he was one of the twenty-seven founding members of the American Conservatory Theater.
Shenar was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the second of four boys (one older brother John, two younger brothers Michael and Marc), born from Mary Rosella (née Puhek) and Eugene Joseph Shenar. He was of Polish and Slovenian descent.
Shenar became involved in theater at an early age, working in Milwaukee playhouse productions. After graduating from high school, he enlisted in the United States Air Force. Following his military career he began acting again. Shenar gained attention playing larger-than-life entertainment legends in 1970s television films—Orson Welles in The Night That Panicked America and Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr., in Ziegfeld: The Man and His Women. He portrayed the character John Carrington in Part II of the miniseries Roots.

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