George Zucco
George Zucco ( born January 11, 1886 in Manchester, United Kingdom, † May 27, 1960 in Los Angeles ) was an American film and theater actor.
Life
George Zucco began his career as a character actor in the theater. In 1935 he appeared in the drama Victoria Regina in the role of Benjamin Disraeli. Due to this success is the talent scout MGM Studios were aware of him and took him under contract. In the following years he played supporting roles in major motion pictures, including opposite Gary Cooper in the adventure film Souls at Sea ( shipwreck of souls ), alongside Tyrone Power in Suez ( Suez ), an adventure film about the Suez Canal and its builder, Ferdinand de Lesseps, or on the side of Greta Garbo and Charles Boyer in Conquest ( Maria Walewska ). With Tyrone Power, he also played in the costume strips Marie- Antoinette, there, however, only a tiny supporting role.
A mad scientist played George Zucco, 1938 in Charlie Chan in Honolulu ( Charlie Chan in Honolulu), a thriller with the one-time popular, but today less well-known Chinese master detective Charlie Chan. With another detective, Sherlock Holmes, namely George Zucco had to do something later. In The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes ( The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes), he played in 1939 the professor Moriarty, Sherlock Holmes most famous adversaries. In 1943 he returned to the set of the film series back, but not in the role of Moriarty. He played in Fateful Trip (Sherlock Holmes in Washington) the role of Richard Stanley.
In the 1940s, George Zucco played repeatedly mad scientist, obsessed priest and similar roles in horror films such as The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb or The Monster and the Girl. In Dr. Renault 's Secret he played a scientist who creates a monkey man who will avenge him injustice suffered, but turns against its creator. In Frankenstein's house, he played on the side of Boris Karloff Professor Lampini, the owner of a cabinet of curiosities in which the lifeless body be issued by Count Dracula and the werewolf.
Parallel to this, George Zucco was always small roles outside the horror genre. In addition to Spencer Tracy he TRAR on ( The Seventh Cross ) in the drama The Seventh Cross. On the side of Gene Kelly and Judy Garland in 1948 he played the viceroy in the musical The Pirate ( The Pirate ). In the same year he made an evil priest in Johnny White Müller's last Tarzan Adventure Tarzan and the Mermaids ( Tarzan in danger ) dar. With Fred Astaire, he turned the musical The Barkleys of Broadway ( The dancers from Broadway ) and Let's Dance ( Dancing is our life ) in which George Zucco, however, neither danced nor sang.
George Zuccos career came to an end, as the public's interest waned on new horror films. One of his last roles he played in the 1951 film David and Bathsheba Bible (David and Bathsheba ) with Gregory Peck and Susan Hayward in the lead roles. George Zucco played a priest but an Egyptian envoy.
His last years were spent George Zucco in a sanatorium. There he died of pneumonia.