George Macready

Infobox actor
name = George Macready


caption =
birthdate = August 29, 1899
birthplace = Providence, Rhode Island
deathdate = July 2, 1973
deathplace = Los Angeles, California

George Macready (August 29, 1899 – July 2, 1973) was an American stage, film, and television actor who was noted for playing polished villains.

He was born in Providence, Rhode Island and claimed to be a descendant of the 19th-century Shakespearean actor William Charles Macready. He graduated from Brown University.

He was a newspaper reporter briefly until he switched to acting on the advice of director Richard Boleslawski. Macready made his Broadway debut in 1926 and had major roles in a number of Broadway plays into the 1930s. His Shakespearean credits include Benedict in "Much Ado About Nothing" (1927), Malcolm in "MacBeth" (1928), and Paris in "Romeo and Juliet" (1934). He also played Prince Ernst in "Victoria Regina" (1936), starring Helen Hayes.

His first film was "Commandos Strike at Dawn" in 1942, featuring Paul Muni. His voice and appearance, including a scar on his cheek (the result of a car accident), made him ideal as a cultured villain. Two performances in particular stand out. As Ballin Mundson in "Gilda" (1946), he is part of a deadly love triangle with the characters played by co-stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. Stanley Kubrick's anti-war classic, "Paths of Glory" (1957), provided his other great role, self-serving French World War I General Paul Mireau, who is brought down by Kirk Douglas's Colonel Dax.

In 1948, Macready turned to television. He portrayed Martin Peyton in the popular soap opera "Peyton Place" (1965-1968). In all, he made more than 200 appearances in the new medium.

A cultured and expert art collector, he and his good friend, fellow-actor Vincent Price, were partners in a Los Angeles art gallery in the 1940s.

The veteran actor is father of actor/producer Michael Macready and the grandfather of U.S. gymnast John Macready.

Macready died from emphysema in 1973 and is on a short-list of entertainers to donate their body to a medical school, joining Walter Pidgeon, Bobby Darrin, Butterfly McQueen, Spring Byington, among others.

Partial filmography

*"Commandos Strike at Dawn" (1942) film debut
*"Follow the Boys" (1944)
*"The Seventh Cross" (1944)
*"The Monster and the Ape" (1945 serial)
*"Counter-Attack" (1945)
*"My Name is Julia Ross (1945)
*"Gilda" (1946)
*"Down to Earth" (1947)
*"The Big Clock" (1948)
*"Knock on Any Door" (1949)
*"Alias Nick Beal" (1949)
*"Rogues of Sherwood Forest" (1950)
*"A Lady Without Passport" (1950)
*"Tarzan's Peril" (1951)
*"The Desert Fox" (1951)
*"Detective Story" (1951)
*"The Green Glove" (1952)
*"The Golden Blade" (1953)
*"Julius Caesar" (1953)
*"Vera Cruz" (1954)
*"A Kiss Before Dying" (1956)
*"Paths of Glory" (1957)
*"The Alligator People" (1959)
*"Two Weeks in Another Town" (1962)
*"Taras Bulba" (1962)
*"Seven Days in May" (1964)
*"Dead Ringer" (1964)
*"Where Love Has Gone" (1964)
*"The Human Duplicators" (1965)
*"The Great Race" (1965)
*"Fame Is the Name of the Game" (1966 TV movie)
*"Count Yorga, Vampire" (1970) narrator
*"Tora! Tora! Tora!" (1970)
*"The Return of Count Yorga" (1971)

External links

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* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6621001 Older Photo]