George Mitchell (actor)
George Mitchell was an American actor who performed from 1935 through 1971 in film, television, and on Broadway.
Early life
Mitchell was born February 21, 1905, in Larchmont in Westchester County in New York. He married his first wife, Mary Alice Shroyer He fathered four children with Mary A. Shroyer. Mary Oliver, Judith Glasel, George Mitchell III, and Eve Joice.He decided to become an actor after marrying actress Katherine Squire.Roles of note
Mitchell became a bit typecast in Hollywood, usually playing loathsome characters who operated outside of the law. On television, Mitchell's credits include acting in two episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "Wally the Beard" with co-stars Larry Blyden and Kathie Brown, in which he played a knowledgeable and cranky seller of boats, and "Forty Detectives Later", in which he portrayed the client of a private detective whom he hires to track the supposed murderer of his wife. On Broadway, 1969–70, he portrayed Chief Joseph in the play Indians, the source of Robert Altman's film Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson.George Mitchell acted in several films and television episodes with his wife, Katherine Squire, the two of them often playing a husband-and-wife couple intrinsic to the story. One example was the two of them as an elderly couple in the Jack Nicholson film "Ride in the Whirlwind" — they first appear as a refuge for the two men on the run, but who then become instrumental to the fugitives' destruction. Other examples occurred in their roles in episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.
George Mitchell's major acting credits include the film The Andromeda Strain, directed by Robert Wise, co-starring Arthur Hill, and based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. He played the comic relief as cranky old town drunk who, along with an infant, were among the only survivors of exposure to the deadly Andromeda Strain.
Broadway career
The Merry Widow, playing Cascada, July 15, 1942 – August 16, 1942The New Moon, playing Jacques, August 18, 1942 – September 6, 1942The Patriots, playing Ned, January 29, 1943 – June 26, 1943Blossom Time, playing Von Schwind, September 4, 1943 – October 9, 1943The New Moon, playing Captain Paul Duval, May 17, 1944 – ?Goodbye, My Fancy, playing Dr. Pitt, November 17, 1948 – December 24, 1949The Day After Tomorrow, playing Dr. Shaw, October 26, 1950 – November 11, 1950Desire Under the Elms, playing Peter Cabot, January 16, 1952 – February 23, 1952The Crucible, playing John Willard, January 22, 1953 – July 11, 1953Indians, playing Chief Joseph, October 13, 1969 – January 3, 1970Film career
Once in a Blue Moon .... KollaVirginia .... Guest Captain Eddie .... Lieutenant Johnny De AngelisThe Phenix City Story .... Hugh Britton3:10 to Yuma .... BartenderThe Wild and the Innocent .... Uncle Lije HawksThird of a Man Birdman of Alcatraz .... Father Matthieu Kid Galahad .... Harry SperlingTwilight of Honor .... District Attorney Paul FarishThe Unsinkable Molly Brown .... Monsignor RyanNevada Smith .... PaymasterRide in the Whirlwind .... EvanThe Flim-Flam Man .... TetterThe Learning Tree .... Jake KinerThe Andromeda Strain .... JacksonTwo-Lane Blacktop .... Truck Driver at AccidentTelevision career
Mitchell had roles on television in shows ranging from the 1950s dramas of the Golden Age of Television to the westerns of the 1960s.He was in the 1956 NBC adventure/musical The Adventures of Marco Polo, and several episodes of both The Twilight Zone and One Step Beyond. Another speciality was police/crime shows: Perry Mason, Peter Gunn, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, The Untouchables, Stoney Burke, Sam Benedict, and Naked City.
He even tried comedy, medical, and science-fiction-adventure shows. He was also on Daktari, Lassie, Run for Your Life, and the 1961 NBC series, The Americans, a dramatization of family divisions in the American Civil War.
On the 1960s gothic soap opera Dark Shadows, he originated the role of Matthew Morgan.