George Macready
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George Macready | |
|---|---|
 Macready in Johnny Allegro (1949) | |
| Born | August 29, 1899 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | July 2, 1973 (aged 73) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Brown University |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1926–1973 |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Patterson (m. 1931; div. 1943) |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | John Macready (grandson) |
George Peabody Macready Jr.[1] (August 29, 1899 – July 2, 1973)[2] was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains.[3]
Early life[edit]
Macready was born in Providence, Rhode Island[4] on August 29, 1899. He graduated from the local Classical High School[1] and, in 1917, from Brown University.[5]
Shortly thereafter, Macready suffered a disfiguring injury, which, as the actor would later note, proved a mixed blessing: affording him a reliably steady supply of jobs, but only within a rigidly circumscribed range.[5][6] As of October 1958, by Macready's own count, he had been cast as the "mastermind criminal" type in at least 65 of his 75 television and motion picture assignments. He explained:
Producers have found it effective to emphasize my rather nasty looking cheek scar, which I received in an auto accident many years ago.[7]
Macready also claimed to be a descendent of the 19th-Century English actor William Charles Macready, whose example he cited as the chief inspiration for his own pursuit of acting.[8]
Acting career[edit]
Theatre[edit]
Macready made his Broadway debut in 1926, performing in the role of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in an adaptation of The Scarlet Letter.[9] Through 1958, he appeared in fifteen plays, both drama and comedy, including The Barretts of Wimpole Street, based on the family of the English poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
Macready's penchant for acting was spurred in part by the director Richard Boleslawski. His Shakespearean stage credits included Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing (1927), Malcolm in Macbeth (1928), and Paris in Romeo and Juliet (1934). On film, he played Marallus in the 1953 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. He also portrayed Prince Ernst in the original stage version of Victoria Regina (1936), starring Helen Hayes.
Film[edit]
Macready's first film was Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942), which starred Paul Muni. In Gilda (1946), Macready's character Ballin Mundson enters a deadly love triangle with characters played by co-stars Rita Hayworth and Glenn Ford. He again played opposite Ford several years later in the postwar adventure The Green Glove (1952).
Stanley Kubrick's antiwar film Paths of Glory (1957) provided Macready with his other great role, the sadistic and self-serving French World War I General Paul Mireau, who is brought down by Kirk Douglas's character, Colonel Dax. He had worked with Douglas previously in Detective Story (1951), and later he appeared with Douglas in two more films: Vincente Minnelli's Two Weeks in Another Town (1962) and John Frankenheimer's Seven Days in May (1964). In 1965, he was cast in a rare comedy role as General Kuhster in Blake Edwards's film The Great Race.
One of Macready's last film roles was as United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull in Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), a depiction of the events leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
Television[edit]
Macready made four guest appearances on Raymond Burr's Perry Mason, including the role of murder victim Milo Girard in the 1958 episode "The Case of the Purple Woman". He was also cast regularly in such series as Four Star Playhouse, General Electric Theater, The Ford Television Theatre, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Adventures in Paradise and The Islanders.
Macready performed in a variety of television series produced in the 1950s and 1960s, including many Westerns such as Bat Masterson, Bonanza, The Dakotas, Gunsmoke, Have Gun - Will Travel, The Rebel (once in the role of Confederate General Robert E. Lee), The Rifleman, Lancer, Laramie, Riverboat, The Rough Riders, Chill Wills's Frontier Circus, The Texan and Steve McQueen's Wanted: Dead or Alive. Also on TV, he was seen in episodes of The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Boris Karloff's Thriller, Kentucky Jones, Get Smart with Don Adams, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with Robert Vaughn.
Macready was cast as Cyrus Canfield, a vengeful father searching for his runaway teenage daughter, played by Floy Dean, in the May 26, 1962, series finale of NBC's The Tall Man.
He played publishing magnate Glenn Howard in the TV movie Fame Is the Name of the Game (1966) starring Anthony Franciosa, but was replaced by Gene Barry in the role when the film was subsequently used as the pilot for the television series The Name of the Game with Franciosa, Barry, and Robert Stack revolving in the lead.
Personal life[edit]
In 1931, Macready married actress Elizabeth Dana Patterson; they divorced in 1943.[1]
An art collector, Macready was a partner with colleague Vincent Price in a Beverly Hills art gallery called The Little Gallery, which they opened in 1943. (Macready had played Price's brother on Broadway in Victoria Regina.) According to Lucy Chase Williams' book The Complete Films of Vincent Price, "In the spring of 1943 ... Price and Macready opened The Little Gallery in Beverly Hills. 'We rented a hole in the wall next door to Martindale's book shop and a very popular bar, figuring correctly that we'd catch a mixed clientele of erudites and inebriates.' Price and Macready saw the gallery not only as an indulgence of their own interests, but as a showcase for young artists, and a way to expose the general public to art and art appreciation. The establishment merited photos and two full columns in Newsweek magazine, but rent increases forced The Little Gallery to close after two years."[10]
Death[edit]
Macready died of emphysema on July 2, 1973. His body was donated to the UCLA School of Medicine.[2]
Filmography[edit]
Partial television credits[edit]
- The Living Christ Series ("Crucifixion and Resurrection" and "Triumph and Defeat", 1951) as Cornelius
- General Electric Theater (3 episodes) as Clive/Henry/Colonel
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–1957)
- Season 1 Episode 2: "Premonition" (1955) as Douglas Irwin
- Season 1 Episode 13: "The Cheney Vase" (1955) as Herbert Koether
- Season 2 Episode 29: "Vicious Circle" (1957) as Vincent Williams
- Gunsmoke (1958) as Charlie Drain
- Perry Mason (1958–1963) (4 episodes) as Roscoe Pearce/Dr. Vincent Kenyon/Charles Slade/Milo Girard
- Bonanza ("A Rose for Lotta", 1959) as Alpheus Troy
- Tightrope! ("The Lady", 1959) as Latham Grant
- Have Gun – Will Travel ("Ambush", 1960) as Gunder – Blind Man
- The Rifleman (1958–1960) as Matt Wymerman/Judge Zephaniah Burton
- The Tall Man (1960–1962) (2 episodes) as Judge Roy A. Barlow/Cyrus Canfield
- Thriller ("The Weird Tailor", 1961) as Mr. Smith
- Bat Masterson (Tempest at Tioga Pass, 1961) as Clyde Richards
- Route 66 (Effigy in Snow, 1961) as Mr. Fontaine
- The Outer Limits ("The Invisibles", 1963, and "Production and Decay of Strange Particles", 1964) as Governor Lawrence K Hillerman / Dr. Marshall
- The Twilight Zone ("The Long Morrow", 1964) as Dr. Bixler
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1964) (Season 2 Episode 25: "The Ordeal of Mrs. Snow") as Hillary Prine
- Peyton Place (1965–1968) as Martin Peyton
- Get Smart (1968) as Mr. Fitzmaurice
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Jarrett, Diane (July 2019). "George Macready: A Loving Parent". Classic Images (529): 58–67.
- ^ a b Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed. McFarland. p. 467. ISBN 9781476625997. Retrieved June 19, 2017.
- ^ Obituary Variety, July 11, 1973, page 63.
- ^ Monush, Barry (2003). Screen World Presents the Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors: From the silent era to 1965. Hal Leonard Corporation. p. 456. ISBN 9781557835512. Retrieved July 25, 2019.
- ^ a b Gordon, Dr. Roger L. (2018). Supporting Actors in Motion Pictures: Volume II. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing. p. 146. ISBN 978-1-4809-5841-8.
- ^ "George Macready Type-Cast Again". The Roanoke Times. October 18, 1958. p. 16. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "Valuable Scar". The Modesto Bee. October 19, 1958. p. G-3. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "Macready Got Scar in Wreck". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. August 20, 1961. p. TV24. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
- ^ "George Macready, the 'Villain' in Many Plays and Films, Dies", The New York Times (Manhattan), July 4, 1973, p. 18. ProQuest Historical Newspapers, Ann Arbor, Michigan; subscription access through The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.
- ^ Williams, Lucy Chase, The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995), page. 24
