Herta Ware (June 9, 1917 - August 15, 2005) was an American actress and political activist.

Ware was born in Wilmington, Delaware to an actor father and musician mother. The granddaughter of socialists and labor union activists, Ware made her Broadway debut in "Let Freedom Ring", co-starring Will Geer, whom she later married. The couple appeared together in other New York plays as well, including "Bury the Dead" (1936), "Prelude" (1936), "200 Were Chosen" (1936) and "Journeyman (1938).

The politically-minded couple moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s and settled in Santa Monica, California where Geer pursued a movie career, but ultimately became best known as "Grandpa Walton" on the TV series The Waltons. Geer and Ware were also social and labor activists, and in the 1950s they were blacklisted for Geer's refusal to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

Ware herself was probably best known for her performance as the ailing wife of embittered Jack Gilford in Cocoon. Geer and Ware had 3 children, including actress Ellen Geer. Although they eventually divorced they remained close. Ware also had a daughter, actress Melora Marshall, by another marriage.

During that period, she helped found the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, where every plant mentioned in the works of Shakespeare is grown.

The meek, docile, child-like aura and unassuming tiny frame of this veteran character lady belied a surprising survivor instinct and strong, liberal fortitude. Actress Herta Ware was born in Wilmington, Delaware, in 1917, the daughter of an actor father and musician mother. Her grandfather was a union activist who joined the Socialist Party in America during the early 1900s and grandmother a labor activist. Following stage training she made her Broadway debut in "Let Freedom Ring" co-starring husband Will Geer. The couple appeared together in other New York plays as well, including "Bury the Dead" (1936), "Prelude" (1936), "200 Were Chosen" (1936) and "Journeyman (1938). The politically-minded couple moved to Los Angeles in the early 1940s and settled in Santa Monica where Geer pursued a movie career. The couple had three children. In 1951, the passionately liberal Geer was blacklisted by Hollywood for taking the Fifth Amendment and refusing to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Financially strapped with his film career destroyed, they eventually lost their Los Angeles home. Geer and Ware subsequently co-founded the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum on land that Herta bought in Topanga Canyon. The theater remained an invitation for targeted artists to continue to hone their creative skills. Outspoken friends and performers such as Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger frequently came to their aid and often promoted and performed in their outside productions. The burgeoning theater officially opened as a summer theater in 1973. Will and Herta divorced in the 1950s but remained steadfast friends. She published her own memoir "Fantastic Journey, My Life with Will Geer" in 2000 and was at Geer's bedside when he passed away of a respiratory ailment in 1978. Herta continued performing at the Botanicum as the "Matriarch of the Topanga Community." By age 60, she had moved occasionally into TV and movie-making playing sweet old things. She is probably best known for her role as the altruistic wife of grouchy oldster Jack Gilford (I) in the popular senior citizen film Cocoon (1985), and also guested on a variety of "Golden Girls, The" (1985), "ER" (1994), and "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987). Many of her children and grandchildren have gone on to becoming performers at the Botanicum. Of her acting children Kate, Thad and Ellen (by actor Geer), Ellen Geer has been a longstanding artistic director of the theater. Her other daughter Melora Marshall, (by second husband/actor David Marshall (V)) is also a consistently vibrant presence on the outdoor stage.

Herta Ware appeared in plays, films and TV shows and helped found the popular outdoor Southern California theater Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum. Among the credits during her long career she played Capt. Jean Luc Picard's mother in an episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (1987) and appeared in such films as Cocoon (1985), "Practical Magic" and Soapdish (1991). She also appeared on television in episodes of "ER" (1994), "Golden Girls, The" (1985), "Cagney & Lacey" (1982), "Knots Landing" (1979), and other shows and, until recent years, was often in plays at the Will Geer theater, the theater named for her late ex-husband. Ware moved with her family to then-rural Topanga Canyon in the early 1950s after Geer was blacklisted from films and television for refusing to testify before Congress' House UnAmerican Activities Committee. Unable to support his family, he had lost his home in Santa Monica. The couple soon founded the Theatricum Botanicum to pursue Geer's interests of live theater and botany. They survived financially by putting on plays and concerts featuring blacklisted actors and friends like folk singers Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger. She divorced Geer in the late 1950s but remained close to him until his death in 1978. She titled her 2000 memoir, "Fantastic Journey, My Life With Will Geer." Herta Ware began acting in plays in New York City in the 1930s, appearing on Broadway in "Let Freedom Ring" in 1935.