George Coulouris
Active - 1933 - 1985 | Born - Oct 1, 1903 in Manchester, England | Died - Apr 25, 1989 in London, England, UK | Genres - Drama, Comedy, Crime, Adventure, Mystery
The son of a Greek immigrant father (merchant) and an English mother, George Coulouris was educated at England’s Manchester Grammar School. As an actor he was quite adept at playing villains, particularly wealthy businessmen, but he was just as suitable at playing nobler roles. A member of Orson Welles’ famed Mercury Theater players, he appeared in such films as Citizen Kane (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Papillon (1973) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film that established him as an interesting and reliable heavy, with his massive shoulders and hooded eyes, was Watch on the Rhine (1943).
The tall, aristocratic-sounding Coulouris joined Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre, appearing in Welles’s 1937 modern-dress version of Julius Caesar. He also appeared as the Rockefeller-like Walter Parks Thatcher in Welles’s landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) (for publicity purposes, Kane was advertised as Coulouris’ cinematic debut). Most of Coulouris’ subsequent film roles were villainous in nature; in 1944, he was Oscar-nominated for his performance as a hateful fascist in Watch on the Rhine, and in 1945 he was top-billed for his role as an incognito Nazi in The Master Race.
A victim of Parkinson’s disease, George Coulouris still managed to remain active until 1980, when he made his farewell screen appearance in The Long Good Friday. Towards the end of his life he tried his hand at writing and produced some charming memoirs describing his early life in Manchester and his early stage experiences, as yet unpublished except for a vivid excerpt published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986.
Available Films:
Active - 1933 - 1985 | Born - Oct 1, 1903 in Manchester, England | Died - Apr 25, 1989 in London, England, UK | Genres - Drama, Comedy, Crime, Adventure, Mystery
The son of a Greek immigrant father (merchant) and an English mother, George Coulouris was educated at England’s Manchester Grammar School. As an actor he was quite adept at playing villains, particularly wealthy businessmen, but he was just as suitable at playing nobler roles. A member of Orson Welles’ famed Mercury Theater players, he appeared in such films as Citizen Kane (1941), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Papillon (1973) and Murder on the Orient Express (1974). The film that established him as an interesting and reliable heavy, with his massive shoulders and hooded eyes, was Watch on the Rhine (1943).
The tall, aristocratic-sounding Coulouris joined Orson Welles’s Mercury Theatre, appearing in Welles’s 1937 modern-dress version of Julius Caesar. He also appeared as the Rockefeller-like Walter Parks Thatcher in Welles’s landmark film Citizen Kane (1941) (for publicity purposes, Kane was advertised as Coulouris’ cinematic debut). Most of Coulouris’ subsequent film roles were villainous in nature; in 1944, he was Oscar-nominated for his performance as a hateful fascist in Watch on the Rhine, and in 1945 he was top-billed for his role as an incognito Nazi in The Master Race.
A victim of Parkinson’s disease, George Coulouris still managed to remain active until 1980, when he made his farewell screen appearance in The Long Good Friday. Towards the end of his life he tried his hand at writing and produced some charming memoirs describing his early life in Manchester and his early stage experiences, as yet unpublished except for a vivid excerpt published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986.
Available Films:
ASSIGNMENT IN BRITTANY BETWEEN TWO WORLDS CITIZEN KANE KILL ME TOMORROW LADY IN QUESTION, THE |
MASTER RACE, THE NOBODY LIVES FOREVER THIS LAND IS MINE VERDICT, THE WATCH ON THE RHINE |
