George Coulouris

Infobox actor
name = George Coulouris


caption = George Coulouris, c. 1970
birthdate = Birth date|1903|10|1|df=y
birthplace = Manchester, England
deathdate = death date and age|1989|4|25|1903|10|1|df=y
deathplace = London, England

George Coulouris (October 1, 1903 – April 25, 1989) was a prominent English film and stage actor.

Biography

Personal life

Coulouris was born in Manchester, England, the son of Abigail (née Redfern) and Nicholas Coulouris, a merchant. [ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/73/George-Coulouris.html George Coulouris Biography (1903-1989) ] ] He was brought up both there and in Urmston, Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School. [cite web |url=http://www.coulouris.net/gc_archive/pieces/outline.html |author= |title=George Coulouris |publisher= |date=1989 |accessdate=2007-08-14] He was the son of a Greek immigrant father and English mother. He attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama, in the company of fellow students Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft.

Coulouris was married to Louise Franklin (1930–1976) and Elizabeth Donaldson (1977–1989) and was the father of computer scientist George Coulouris and artist Mary-Louise Coulouris. He died on April 25 1989, of heart failure following Parkinson's disease in London.

Career

Coulouris's stage debut was in 1926 with "Henry V" at the Old Vic, and by 1929 he made his first Broadway appearance, followed by his first Hollywood film role in 1933.

A major impact on his life was Orson Welles, whom he met in 1936. He joined Welles' "Mercury Theatre", and played Mark Antony in their opening modem dress production of Julius Caesar. "Even 'Friends, Romans, countrymen' sounds on his tongue as if it were a rabble-rousing harangue he is uttering for the first time," noted John Mason Brown in the New York Post. Perhaps his most famous role was again with Welles, "Citizen Kane" (1941). Coulouris played Walter Parks Thatcher, the JP Morgan-esque financier. George Coulouris won a National Board of Review 'Best Actor' award in 1941 for his performance in Citizen Kane. Orson Welles was the only other "Citizen Kane" actor to win the same award.

During the 1930s and 1940s he remained a regular figure on the stage and screen, starring in his own Broadway production of "Richard III" in 1943. His films in this period included "For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943), "Mr. Skeffington" (1944) and "Watch on the Rhine" (1943), for which he received an Oscar nomination. He also gave a notable performance as Robert de Baudricourt, in the Technicolor spectacular, "Joan of Arc", starring Ingrid Bergman. Whle most of his performances are "strong" ones, usually as a "heavy" or "villain", occasionally he could turn his serious characterizations into humorous ones. "Thatcher" is fussy and pompous at times, and reveals his own unwitting role as a straight man to "Charles Foster Kane" in his own diary accounts of their run-ins. A better (if briefer) example was in Mr. Skeffington as "Dr. Byles", planning to go on a well-deserved, long-delayed vacation only to find an unwanted delayed by a selfish, impossible "Fanny Skeffington" (Bette Davis).

Coulouris returned to Britain after 1950, and appeared in more films, theatre and television productions. His stage work was the most well regarded and included the title role in "King Lear" at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre (1952); a role in "An Enemy of the People"; Peter Flynn in Sean O'Casey's "The Plough and the Stars"; a part in August Strindberg's "The Dance of Death"; and Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams's "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof".

Later film roles included parts in the "Doctor in the House" films, "Papillon", the biography of "Mahler", "The Long Good Friday" and "Murder on the Orient Express". During his life he played in over eighty films.

Radio roles were also numerous, and his television roles included parts in "Danger Man" and "The Prisoner", and an appearance as Arbitan in the "Doctor Who" serial "The Keys of Marinus".

Partial filmography

*"All This, and Heaven Too" (1940)
*"Citizen Kane" (1941)
*"This Land Is Mine" (1943)
*"For Whom the Bell Tolls" (1943)
*"Watch on the Rhine" (1943)
*"Between Two Worlds" (1944)
*"Mr. Skeffington" (1944)
*"None But the Lonely Heart" (1944)
*"A Song to Remember" (1945)
*"Hotel Berlin" (1945)
*"Lady on a Train" (1945)
*"Confidential Agent" (1945)
*"Nobody Lives Forever" (1946)
*"The Verdict" (1946)
*"Where There's Life" (1947)
*"Sleep, My Love" (1948)
*"A Southern Yankee" (1948)
*"Joan of Arc" (1948)
*"Appointment with Venus" (1951)
*"Outcast of the Islands" (1952)
*"The Heart of the Matter" (1953)
*"The Runaway Bus" (1954)
*"Doctor in the House" (1954)
*"Arabesque" (1966)
*"The Assassination Bureau" (1969)
*"Blood from the Mummy's Tomb" (1971)
*"The Final Programme" (1973)
*"Papillon" (1973)
*"Mahler" (1974)
*"Murder on the Orient Express" (1974)
*"Shout at the Devil" (1976)

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0183459|name=George Coulouris
*tcmdb name|id=39942|name=George Coulouris
*ibdb name|id=14508|name=George Coulouris
* [http://www.coulouris.net/gc_archive/ The George Coulouris Archive] , material related to the actor, compiled by George Coulouris, jr.
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6804492 Find-A-Grave profile for George Coulouris]