George Coulouris(1903-1989)
- Actor
- Additional Crew
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).
Coulouris studied with Elsie Fogerty at London's Central School of
Speech and Drama. His London stage debut came in 1925 with "Henry V" at
the Old Vic. He was soon playing the Yank at the first British staging
of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy
Ape". By 1929 he had reached Broadway, via a modern dress version of
"Measure for Measure". His role as Tallant in "The Late Christopher
Bean" took him to Hollywood in 1933 for MGM's film of the play. The
next milestone in his burgeoning career occurred when he was playing in
"Ten Million Ghosts" and met Orson Welles. They got on well and
Coulouris joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing Mark Antony in the
famous modern dress production of "Julius Caesar" (1937). When Welles
went to Hollywood to make "Citizen Kane", Coulouris climbed into movie
history in the part of Walter Parks Thatcher, the Kane family's
crotchety lawyer and business manager. By that time his future as a
cinema actor was assured and he went on to play character parts in a
long string of Hollywood productions throughout the 1940s. At the end
of the 1940s Coulouris returned to England, joining the Bristol Old Vic
where he was notable as Tartuffe, transferring to London. In the
'50s and '60s he remained a stalwart stage actor in spite of his
movie reputation. He liked nothing better than to grapple with Henrik Ibsen,
George Bernard Shaw,
August Strindberg,
Molière or
William Shakespeare. During
these years he tackled Dr. Stockman in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the
People", Patrick Flynn in Sean O'Casey's
"The Plough and the Stars", the father in
Jean-Paul Sartre's "Altona", Edgar in
Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" and Big Daddy in
Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof". All of these are parts to swell a scene and Coulouris had the
flourish to fill them, sometimes to overflowing, always compellingly.
In Britain his film parts tended towards the mundane, though he rose to
the occasion as the native Babalatchi in
Carol Reed's
Outcast of the Islands (1951)
and seized rare chances to play comedy in
Doctor in the House (1954),
Doctor at Sea (1955) and the
Frankie Howerd vehicle
The Runaway Bus (1954). 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. A vivid excerpt was
published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986 and the memoirs are available in full on the official website maintained by his son.
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).
Coulouris studied with Elsie Fogerty at London's Central School of
Speech and Drama. His London stage debut came in 1925 with "Henry V" at
the Old Vic. He was soon playing the Yank at the first British staging
of Eugene O'Neill's "The Hairy
Ape". By 1929 he had reached Broadway, via a modern dress version of
"Measure for Measure". His role as Tallant in "The Late Christopher
Bean" took him to Hollywood in 1933 for MGM's film of the play. The
next milestone in his burgeoning career occurred when he was playing in
"Ten Million Ghosts" and met Orson Welles. They got on well and
Coulouris joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, playing Mark Antony in the
famous modern dress production of "Julius Caesar" (1937). When Welles
went to Hollywood to make "Citizen Kane", Coulouris climbed into movie
history in the part of Walter Parks Thatcher, the Kane family's
crotchety lawyer and business manager. By that time his future as a
cinema actor was assured and he went on to play character parts in a
long string of Hollywood productions throughout the 1940s. At the end
of the 1940s Coulouris returned to England, joining the Bristol Old Vic
where he was notable as Tartuffe, transferring to London. In the
'50s and '60s he remained a stalwart stage actor in spite of his
movie reputation. He liked nothing better than to grapple with Henrik Ibsen,
George Bernard Shaw,
August Strindberg,
Molière or
William Shakespeare. During
these years he tackled Dr. Stockman in Ibsen's "An Enemy of the
People", Patrick Flynn in Sean O'Casey's
"The Plough and the Stars", the father in
Jean-Paul Sartre's "Altona", Edgar in
Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" and Big Daddy in
Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin
Roof". All of these are parts to swell a scene and Coulouris had the
flourish to fill them, sometimes to overflowing, always compellingly.
In Britain his film parts tended towards the mundane, though he rose to
the occasion as the native Babalatchi in
Carol Reed's
Outcast of the Islands (1951)
and seized rare chances to play comedy in
Doctor in the House (1954),
Doctor at Sea (1955) and the
Frankie Howerd vehicle
The Runaway Bus (1954). 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. A vivid excerpt was
published in the Guardian newspaper in February 1986 and the memoirs are available in full on the official website maintained by his son.