Full Name | George Peabody Macready, Jr. |
Net Worth | $16 Million |
Date Of Birth | 1899-08-29 |
Died | 1973-07-02 |
Profession | American actor |
Residence | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
Education | Brown University |
Spouse | Elizabeth Dana Macready children |
Children | Elizabeth Macready, Michael Macready, Marcia Macready |
Nicknames | George Macready, George Peabody Macready, Jr., Macready, Jr., George Peabody, Macready, George |
# | Quote |
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1 | [Discussing a 1928 stage production of "Macbeth" in which the scene design proved to be problematic] [The settings] appeared to be huge packing boxes painted white and piled in different formations one on top of the other. These created chaos on the first "performance" in Philadelphia . . . when I tried to make my entrance in the battle scene and found every entrance blocked by these ghastly boxes. I never did make it. |
2 | [Describing his years in college and immediately thereafter, when he was trying to convince his father that he didn't want to be an engineer] I was biding my time. I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I was sure it wasn't engineering. After college I gradually persuaded my father that I wasn't cut out for an engineer. First I went to work in a bank in our home town of Providence, R.I., which at least was business--and therefore acceptable, you see, to my father. Then I got a position in the traffic department of the Daily News in New York--also business, which meant that my father was pleased but I wasn't. At the News I started out as a typist, got to be second assistant traffic manager and finally slid up to the manager's job more or less by default. I was the only one around the office who could find records and correspondence--because I had set up my own secret filing system which no one else understood--and I also was the only one who spent much time in the office. The other fellows wanted to be out on the road, which meant that they depended on me to do the office work. I was lazy and preferred to stay in the office, so I eventually found myself manager after the people above me had resigned or were transferred. |
3 | There's a much more friendly atmosphere on a movie set than there is on a Broadway stage. New York stage hands are snobbish and seldom speak to actors. What a difference in Hollywood! Here prop men and cameramen and script girls all feel they're part of the family. They give you little suggestions, tip you off to things you should know, beam at you when they like the way you play a scene. |
4 | My freshman year [at Brown University] I tried out for the dramatic club. I have been interested in the theater ever since I could remember. I worked diligently over "Friends, Romans, Countrymen . . . " and when it was my turn to try out for the club, I got to my feet and began Antony's lines. After I finished, the president of the organization turned to another member, and I heard him ask, "What in the world was he saying?" My name did not appear on the list of dramatic club fledglings the next morning when I hopefully went to look for it. |
5 | [Explaining how he got a lucky break onstage when his leading lady forgot her lines] I managed, somehow, to give her lines and my own, too. Then came the finale when a rope, manipulated by pulleys and concealed from the audience, was to assist me into "heaven." It darned near did--it broke. I wasn't hurt, fortunately, but a very famous stock company manager was in the audience--Jessie Bonstelle. She came backstage and said, in substance, that any young actor who could play both leading man and leading lady in the same play at the same time, and make such an abrupt descent from heaven with such good grace, ought to be good enough for her company. |
6 | [Referring to a part he played on Four Star Playhouse (1952)] I play a mad--a maniacal--killer. Fun. |
7 | [Discussing how he enjoyed playing villains] Purely in an academic way. At heart, I am a kind man. |
8 | At heart, I'm really a harmless and calm person. |
# | Fact |
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1 | Upon his death from emphysema in July 1973, George Macready's body was donated to the School of Medicine of the University of California at Los Angeles. |
2 | Odd coincidence: In Macready's movie debut in Commandos Strike at Dawn (1942), he plays a schoolteacher. His first lines include the words "I'm writing a novel myself." In his final movie, The Return of Count Yorga (1971), - he portrays a professor. His final line is, "You haven't read my book!". |
3 | When Orson Welles married in 1934, he was wearing a cutaway coat and pants that he had borrowed from Macready. Orson's mother-in-law wanted him to dress formally for the occasion, but he owned nothing appropriate to wear and couldn't afford to purchase formal attire. So, he asked Macready (with whom he had acted on the stage) to help. In Welles' wedding photo, the pants look a little short -- probably because Welles was heavier than Macready and the pants fit him more tightly as a result. |
4 | George had a housekeeper who embroidered the titles of all of George's movies on to an afghan. |
5 | The 1934 edition of the Brown University alumni newsletter said: "George Macready '21 is still touring the provinces with Katharine Cornell in 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'The Barretts of Wimpole Street.' Mrs. Macready [Elizabeth Dana] is in the company, and the Macready heir is in New York, where Miss Mary Macready, one of George's aunts, is looking out for it until the parents come home". |
6 | In a 1960 article, Macready indicated that two of his favorite TV roles were in Kraft Theatre: The Diamond as Big as the Ritz (1955) and Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse: Thunder in the Night (1960)). |
7 | Macready was an avid reader, and he especially enjoyed reading mysteries. In fact, he was known to read a mystery novel while simultaneously listening to a mystery show on the radio. |
8 | Among his hobbies were mind-challenging games such as deciphering cryptograms and writing his own crossword puzzles. He also enjoyed collecting paintings. His favorite artists were Henri Matisse, Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh. |
9 | Donated his body to the UCLA medical school. |
10 | Was initiated into the Beta chapter of Delta Phi fraternity at Brown University in 1918. |
11 | Macready was a graduate of Classical High School in his hometown of Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated from Brown University (also in Providence) in 1921. |
12 | George had three children: Michael Macready (born 1932), Marcia (born 1934) and Elizabeth (born 1938). |
13 | Macready won a varsity letter in football at Brown University in 1920 -- but as the manager, not as a player. |
14 | George became good friends with Vincent Price when they were both appearing on stage with Helen Hayes in "Victoria Regina." Vincent wrote about George in a letter home: "The boy who plays my brother and is my understudy is a swell egg and I thank God for him.". |
15 | George and Vincent Price opened the Little Gallery in Beverly Hills in the spring of 1943. According to Victoria Price (Vincent's daughter), their customers included Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Hutton, Fanny Brice, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Of Garbo, Vincent said she "dropped in to look and, if anyone else was looking, dropped out--quickly." Jane Wyatt said, "It was a great, fun gallery. It was the place to go to meet and mingle. There was nothing else like it around. It was a wonderful place." George and Vincent eventually closed the Little Gallery when they could no longer do it justice while maintaining full-time movie careers. |
16 | The scar on Macready's right cheek was the result of a car accident during his college days. According to his son Michael Macready, George and some fraternity brothers were riding in a Model T Ford when they hit an icy patch on the road. They struck a telephone pole, and George went through the windshield. His friends could find only one doctor in the vicinity, who happened to be a veterinarian. George did get his cheek stitched, but he also ended up with scarlet fever, apparently because the veterinarian didn't wash up properly. |
17 | Grandfather of US gymnast John Macready and actor Oliver Macready, whose full name is Oliver George Macready. |
18 | He claimed (probably correctly and truthfully) to be a descendant of the great 19th-century Shakespearean actor William Macready. |
19 | Though specializing in playing truly evil villains, he was actually a cultured and expert art collector, as was his good friend Vincent Price, with whom Macready was partners in a Los Angeles art gallery. |
Title | Year | Status | Character |
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The Walls Came Tumbling Down | 1946 | | Matthew Stoker |
The Man Who Dared | 1946 | | Donald Wayne |
The Bandit of Sherwood Forest | 1946 | | Fitz-Herbert |
Gilda | 1946 | | Ballin Mundson |
The Fighting Guardsman | 1946 | | Gaston de Montrevel |
My Name Is Julia Ross | 1945 | | Ralph Hughes |
Don Juan Quilligan | 1945 | | District Attorney (uncredited) |
Counter-Attack | 1945 | | Col. Semenov |
The Monster and the Ape | 1945 | | Prof. Ernst |
I Love a Mystery | 1945 | | Jefferson Monk |
A Song to Remember | 1945 | | Alfred DeMusset (uncredited) |
The Missing Juror | 1944 | | Harry Wharton / Jerome K. Bentley |
The Conspirators | 1944 | | Schmitt's Special Agent (uncredited) |
The Soul of a Monster | 1944 | | Dr. George Winson |
The Seventh Cross | 1944 | | Bruno Sauer |
Wilson | 1944 | | William McCombs (uncredited) |
The Story of Dr. Wassell | 1944 | | Dutch Army Captain (uncredited) |
Follow the Boys | 1944 | | Walter Bruce |
Commandos Strike at Dawn | 1942 | | Schoolteacher |
The Return of Count Yorga | 1971 | | Prof. Rightstat |
Tora! Tora! Tora! | 1970 | | Cordell Hull |
Count Yorga, Vampire | 1970 | | Narration (voice) |
Daughter of the Mind | 1969 | TV Movie | Dr. Frank Ferguson |
Lancer | 1969 | TV Series | Harlan Garrett |
Night Gallery | 1969 | TV Series | William Hendricks |
The Young Lawyers | 1969 | TV Series | Jay Spofford |
Get Smart | 1968 | TV Series | Mr. Fitzmaurice |
Peyton Place | 1965-1968 | TV Series | Martin Peyton |
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. | 1965-1967 | TV Series | Zorgon Gurnius / Demos |
Fame Is the Name of the Game | 1966 | TV Movie | Glenn Howard |
Run for Your Life | 1965 | TV Series | David Courtney |
The Great Race | 1965 | | General Kuhster |
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | 1965 | TV Series | Graham Justland |
Profiles in Courage | 1965 | TV Series | |
Kentucky Jones | 1965 | TV Series | Dorian Hawes |
Memorandum for a Spy | 1965 | TV Movie | Graham Jutland |
The Human Duplicators | 1965 | | Prof. Vaughn Dornheimer |
Where Love Has Gone | 1964 | | Gordon Harris |
The Outer Limits | 1964 | TV Series | Dr. Marshall / Gov. Lawrence K. Hillerman |
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour | 1964 | TV Series | Hillary Prine |
The Great Adventure | 1964 | TV Series | Dr. Keen |
Dead Ringer | 1964 | | Paul Harrison |
Seven Days in May | 1964 | | Christopher Todd |
Twilight Zone | 1964 | TV Series | Dr. Bixler |
Perry Mason | 1958-1963 | TV Series | Roscoe Pearce / Dr. Vincent Kenyon / Charles Slade / ... |
The Dakotas | 1963 | TV Series | Capt. Butler Ridgeway |
Dr. Kildare | 1963 | TV Series | Harper Faring |
Taras Bulba | 1962 | | Governor |
Two Weeks in Another Town | 1962 | | Lew Jordan |
The Tall Man | 1960-1962 | TV Series | Cyrus Canfield / Judge Roy A. Barlow |
Frontier Circus | 1962 | TV Series | John Duncan |
Cain's Hundred | 1962 | TV Series | James Harrison |
Ripcord | 1962 | TV Series | Hal Glinders |
The Dick Powell Theatre | 1961 | TV Series | Dr. Huntziger |
Laramie | 1959-1961 | TV Series | Colonel John Barrington / Dodge City Judge |
Adventures in Paradise | 1961 | TV Series | Shepherd / Christopher Weldon |
Thriller | 1961 | TV Series | Mr. Smith |
Route 66 | 1961 | TV Series | Mr. Fontaine |
The Loretta Young Show | 1959-1961 | TV Series | Oliver Prentiss / Bernard Vanderhoff |
The Islanders | 1961 | TV Series | Harja |
Bat Masterson | 1961 | TV Series | Clyde Richards |
Family Classics: The Three Musketeers | 1960 | TV Movie | King Louis XIII |
Assignment: Underwater | 1960 | TV Series | Stephen Torquay |
The Rebel | 1959-1960 | TV Series | Gen. Robert E. Lee / Ex-CSA Captain Pollack |
Playhouse 90 | 1960 | TV Series | Captain Richter |
Have Gun - Will Travel | 1960 | TV Series | Gunder - Blind Man |
Alcoa Theatre | 1960 | TV Series | General Thirion |
The Rifleman | 1958-1960 | TV Series | Matt Wymerman / Judge Zephaniah Burton |
Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse | 1960 | TV Series | Paul Reuter |
Riverboat | 1959 | TV Series | Anthony Lorrimer |
Tightrope | 1959 | TV Series | Latham Grant |
Jet Over the Atlantic | 1959 | | Lord Robert Leverett |
Sunday Showcase | 1959 | TV Series | |
Bonanza | 1959 | TV Series | Alpheus Troy |
The Rough Riders | 1959 | TV Series | Colonel Miller |
The Alligator People | 1959 | | Dr. Mark Sinclair |
The D.A.'s Man | 1959 | TV Series | Snead |
Steve Canyon | 1959 | TV Series | Gottfried Muller |
Plunderers of Painted Flats | 1959 | | Ed Sampson |
The Texan | 1958 | TV Series | Big Jim Sammett |
Wanted: Dead or Alive | 1958 | TV Series | Jefferson Klingsmith |
Gunsmoke | 1958 | TV Series | Charlie Drain |
Schlitz Playhouse | 1954-1958 | TV Series | Joseph Libo |
Matinee Theatre | 1958 | TV Series | |
Gunfire at Indian Gap | 1957 | | Mr. Jefferson |
Paths of Glory | 1957 | | Gen. Paul Mireau |
The Abductors | 1957 | | Jack Langley |
Alfred Hitchcock Presents | 1955-1957 | TV Series | Vincent Williams / Herbert Koether / Douglas Irwin |
General Electric Theater | 1955-1957 | TV Series | Clive / Henry / Colonel |
Strange Stories | 1956 | TV Series | |
Thunder Over Arizona | 1956 | | Mayor Ervin Plummer |
Goodyear Playhouse | 1956 | TV Series | |
The Ford Television Theatre | 1952-1956 | TV Series | Carter Kerrick / Mark Derhenning |
A Kiss Before Dying | 1956 | | Leo Kingship |
TV Reader's Digest | 1956 | TV Series | General Henri Giraud |
Star Stage | 1956 | TV Series | |
Celebrity Playhouse | 1955 | TV Series | |
Appointment with Adventure | 1955 | TV Series | Paul |
Kraft Theatre | 1955 | TV Series | |
The United States Steel Hour | 1954-1955 | TV Series | Davidson |
Ponds Theater | 1955 | TV Series | |
Armstrong Circle Theatre | 1955 | TV Series | |
The Star and the Story | 1955 | TV Series | Roger Saffrey |
The Elgin Hour | 1955 | TV Series | Ralph Chambers |
Studio One in Hollywood | 1955 | TV Series | Horne |
Vera Cruz | 1954 | | Emperor Maximillian |
Danger | 1954 | TV Series | |
Justice | 1954 | TV Series | |
Crown Theatre with Gloria Swanson | 1954 | TV Series | |
Duffy of San Quentin | 1954 | | John C. Winant |
Four Star Playhouse | 1952-1954 | TV Series | Count Borselli / Man / George |
Lux Video Theatre | 1953 | TV Series | Mr. Cloud |
The Golden Blade | 1953 | | Jafar |
The Stranger Wore a Gun | 1953 | | Jules Mourret |
Julius Caesar | 1953 | | Marullus |
Treasure of the Golden Condor | 1953 | | Marquis de St. Malo |
Biff Baker, U.S.A. | 1953 | TV Series | |
City Detective | 1953 | TV Series | Wayne / Arnold Jaffee |
Family Theatre | 1953 | TV Series | Cornelius |
Rebound | 1952 | TV Series | Professor Wilbur Creetch / Hicks |
The White Road | 1952 | | Count Paul Rona |
Detective Story | 1951 | | Karl Schneider |
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel | 1951 | | Gen. Fritz Bayerlein |
The Golden Horde | 1951 | | Raven the Shaman |
Tarzan's Peril | 1951 | | Radijeck |
The Living Christ Series | 1951 | TV Mini-Series | Cornelius |
The Desert Hawk | 1950 | | Prince Murad |
A Lady Without Passport | 1950 | | Palinov, Gulf Stream Cafe Havana |
Rogues of Sherwood Forest | 1950 | | King John |
Fortunes of Captain Blood | 1950 | | Marquis de Riconete |
The Nevadan | 1950 | | Edward Galt |
The Doolins of Oklahoma | 1949 | | Marshal Sam Hughes |
Johnny Allegro | 1949 | | Morgan Vallin |
Alias Nick Beal | 1949 | | Rev. Thomas Garfield |
Knock on Any Door | 1949 | | Dist. Atty. Kerman |
The Gallant Blade | 1948 | | Gen. Cadeau |
Beyond Glory | 1948 | | Maj. Gen. Bond |
Coroner Creek | 1948 | | Younger Miles |
The Big Clock | 1948 | | Steve Hagen |
The Black Arrow | 1948 | | Sir Daniel Brackley |
The Swordsman | 1948 | | Robert Glowan |
Down to Earth | 1947 | | Joe Manion |
The Return of Monte Cristo | 1946 | | Henri de la Roche |
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