George Coulouris

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George Coulouris

George Coulouris (October 1, 1903 – April 25, 1989) was a prominent English film and stage actor. He was born in Salford, Lancashire, brought up both there and in Urmston, Manchester and educated at Manchester Grammar School. He was the son of a Greek immigrant father and English mother. He attended London's Central School of Speech and Drama, in the company of fellow students Laurence Olivier and Peggy Ashcroft. He died on April 25, 1989, of heart failure following Parkinson's disease in London.

His stage debut was in 1926 with Henry V at the Old Vic, and by 1929 he made his first Broadway appearance, followed by his first Hollywood film role in 1933.

A major impact on his life was Orson Welles, whom he met in 1936. He joined Welles' Mercury Theatre, and played Mark Antony in their opening modem dress production of Julius Caesar. "Even 'Friends, Romans, countrymen' sounds on his tongue as if it were a rabble-rousing harangue he is uttering for the first time," noted John Mason Brown in the New York Post. Perhaps his most famous role was again with Welles, Citizen Kane (1941). Coulouris played Walter Parks Thatcher, the JP Morgan-esque financier. George Coulouris won a National Board of Review 'Best Actor' award in 1941 for his performance in Citizen Kane. Orson Welles was the only other Citizen Kane actor to win the same award.

George Coulouris in The Heart of the Matter (1953)

During the 1930s and 1940s he remained a regular figure on the stage and screen, starring in his own Broadway production of Richard III in 1943. His films in this period included For Whom the Bell Tolls, Mr Skeffington (1944) and Watch on the Rhine (1943), for which he received as Oscar nomination. He also gave a notable performance as Robert de Baudricourt, in the Technicolor spectacular, Joan of Arc (1948 film), starring Ingrid Bergman.

Coulouris returned to Britain after 1950, and appeared in more films, theatre and television productions, though perhaps without the impact and recognition he deserved. His stage work was the most well regarded and included the title role in King Lear at the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre (1952); a role in An Enemy of the People; Peter Flynn in Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars; a part in August Strindberg's The Dance of Death; and Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Later film roles included parts in the Doctor in the House films, Papillon, the biography of Mahler, The Long Good Friday and Murder on the Orient Express. During his life he played in over eighty films.

Radio roles were also numerous, and his television roles included parts in Danger Man and The Prisoner, and an appearance as Arbitan in the early Doctor Who story The Keys of Marinus.

He was married to Louise Franklin (1930 - 1976) and Elizabeth Donaldson (1977-1989).