George Peabody Macready Jr. (August 29, 1899 – July 2, 1973) was an American stage, film, and television actor often cast in roles as polished villains,Obituary Variety, July 11, 1973, page 63. perhaps most notably in the 1946 film noir classic Gilda.
Early life Macready was born in Providence, Rhode Island on August 29, 1899. He 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."Macready Got Scar in Wreck". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. August 20, 1961. p. TV24. Retrieved August 26, 2023. He graduated from the local Classical High School and, in 1917, from Brown University where he studied Greek and mathematics.Gordon, Dr. Roger L. (2018). Supporting Actors in Motion Pictures: Volume II. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishing. p. 146. .
Shortly thereafter, Macready suffered a disfiguring injury in a car accident, 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."George Macready Type-Cast Again". The Roanoke Times. October 18, 1958. p. 16. Retrieved August 26, 2023. 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."Valuable Scar". The Modesto Bee. October 19, 1958. p. G-3. Retrieved August 26, 2023.
Acting career Theatre Macready made his Broadway debut in 1926, performing in the role of Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale in an adaptation of The Scarlet Letter."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. 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 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).
Macready played the villain Younger Miles in the 1948 Randolph Scott film Coroner Creek. The following year, he played Marshal Sam Hughes in another Randolph Scott film, The Doolins of Oklahoma; he narrated the film as well.
In Stanley Kubrick's antiwar film Paths of Glory (1957), Macready portrayed the cold-hearted and self-serving French World War I General Paul Mireau, who is brought down by Kirk Douglas' 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' 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 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 In 1931, Macready married actress Elizabeth Dana Patterson; they divorced in 1943.
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."Williams, Lucy Chase, The Complete Films of Vincent Price (Citadel Press, 1995), page. 24
Death Macready died of emphysema on July 2, 1973. His body was donated to the UCLA School of Medicine.
Filmography Year Film Role Director Notes 1942 Commandos Strike at Dawn Schoolteacher John Farrow 1944 Follow the Boys Walter Bruce A. Edward Sutherland The Story of Dr. Wassell Dutch Army Captain Cecil B. DeMille uncredited Wilson William McCombs Henry King uncredited The Seventh Cross Bruno Sauer Fred Zinnemann The Soul of a Monster Dr. George Winson Will Jason The Conspirators Schimitt's Special Agent Jean Negulesco uncredited The Missing Juror Harry Wharton / Jerome K. Bentley Budd Boetticher (as Oscar Boetticher Jr.) 1945 The Bandit of Sherwood Forest Fitz-Herbert George Sherman A Song to Remember Alfred de Musset Charles Vidor uncredited I Love a Mystery Jefferson Monk Henry Levin The Monster and the Ape Professor Ernst Howard Bretherton Counter-Attack Colonel Semenov Zoltan Korda Don Juan Quilligan District Attorney Frank Tuttle uncredited My Name is Julia Ross Ralph Hughes Joseph H. Lewis 1946 The Fighting Guardsman Gaston de Montrevel Henry Levin Gilda Ballin Mundson Charles Vidor The Man Who Dared Donald Wayne John Sturges The Walls Came Tumbling Down Matthew Stoker Lothar Mendes The Return of Monte Cristo Henri de la Roche Henry Levin 1947 Down to Earth Joe Manion Alexander Hall 1948 The Swordsman Robert Glowan Joseph H. Lewis The Black Arrow Sir Daniel Brackley Gordon Douglas The Big Clock Steve Hagen John Farrow Coroner Creek Younger Miles Ray Enright Beyond Glory Major General Bond John Farrow 1949 The Gallant Blade General Cadeau Henry Levin Knock on Any Door District Attorney Kerman Nicholas Ray Alias Nick Beal Reverend Thomas Garfield John Farrow Johnny Allegro Morgan Vallin Ted Tetzlaff The Doolins of Oklahoma Marshal Sam Hughes Gordon Douglas 1950 The Nevadan Edward Galt Gordon Douglas Fortunes of Captain Blood Marquis de Riconete Gordon Douglas Rogues of Sherwood Forest King John Gordon Douglas A Lady Without Passport Palinov Joseph H. Lewis The Desert Hawk Prince Murad Frederick De Cordova 1951 Tarzan's Peril Radijeck Byron Haskin The Golden Horde Raven the Shaman George Sherman The Desert Fox General Fritz Bayerlein Henry Hathaway Detective Story Dr. Karl Schneider William Wyler 1952 The Green Glove Count Paul Rona Rudolph Maté 1953 Treasure of the Golden Condor Marquis de St. Malo Delmer Daves I Beheld His Glory Cornelius TV movie Julius Caesar Marullus Joseph L. Mankiewicz The Stranger Wore a Gun Jules Mourret Andre de Toth The Golden Blade Jafar Nathan Juran 1954 Duffy of San Quentin John C. Winant Walter Doniger Vera Cruz Emperor Maximilian Robert Aldrich 1956 A Kiss Before Dying Leo Kingship Gerd Oswald Thunder Over Arizona Mayor Ervin Plummer Joseph Kane 1957 The Abductors Jack Langley Andrew V. McLaglen (as Andrew McLaglen) Paths of Glory Brigadier General Paul Mireau Stanley Kubrick Gunfire at Indian Gap Mr. Jefferson Joseph Kane 1959 Plunderers of Painted Flats Ed Sammpson Albert C. Gannaway The Alligator People Dr. Mark Sinclair Roy Del Ruth Jet Over the Atlantic Lord Robert Leverett Byron Haskin 1960 Family Classics: The Three Musketeers TV movie 1962 Two Weeks in Another Town Lew Jordan Vincente Minnelli Taras Bulba Governor J. Lee Thompson 1964 Seven Days in May Christopher Todd John Frankenheimer Dead Ringer Paul Harrison Paul Henreid Where Love Has Gone Gordon Harris Edward Dmytryk 1965 The Human Duplicators Professor Vaughn Dornheimer Arthur C. Pierce Memorandum for a Spy Graham Jutland TV movie The Great Race General Kuhster Blake Edwards 1966 Fame Is the Name of the Game Glenn Howard Stuart Rosenberg TV movie 1969 Night Gallery William Hendricks TV movie, segment "The Cemetery" Daughter of the Mind Dr. Frank Ferguson Walter Grauman TV movie 1970 Count Yorga, Vampire Narrator Bob Kelljan Tora! Tora! Tora! Cordell Hull Richard Fleischer 1971 The Return of Count Yorga Professor Rightstat Bob Kelljan
Partial television credits
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
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