George Murcell

Known for ActingBorn 1925-10-30Died 1998-12-03Naples, Campania, Italy

Arthur George Murcell (30 October 1925 – 3 December 1998) was a British character actor. Born in Italy, he made his film debut in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Battle of the River Plate (1956), Murcell went on to develop a career playing snarling villains in both film and television. These could either be stupid, brutish henchmen, as in Hell Drivers and Campbell's Kingdom (both 1957), or sophisticated rogues, such as Needle in "You Have Just Been Murdered", an episode of The Avengers. He specialised in playing foreign characters, including Germans, Russians and South Americans. A number of these roles were in ITC adventure TV series of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Danger Man, The Baron, The Saint, The Champions (Reply Box No.666 episode, 1967) Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders! and Jason King. His film roles included Sea of Sand (1958), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The Heroes of Telemark (1965), Kaleidoscope (1966), The Fixer (1968), A Dandy in Aspic (1968), The Assassination Bureau (1969), A Walk with Love and Death (1969), Penny Gold (1973), Special Branch (1974), Inside the Third Reich (1982, as Hermann Göring), Year of the Gun (1991), and Cutthroat Island (1995). He enjoyed a long stage career, which involved working with Tyrone Guthrie and Peter Brook, and was active in the Royal Shakespeare Company.In the 1970s, he acquired a Victorian church in North London, which he converted into an Elizabethan-style theatre in collaboration with director Adrian Brown. In 1973, he opened it as "St George's Theatre", intending that it present little-seen classical plays. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he continued to work at St George's Theatre as both an actor and a director, often with his wife, Elvi Hale.Read more

Movies & web series

Rogues' Gallery

The Possessed

Peter the Great

Inside the Third Reich

The Cherry Orchard

Jason King

The Avengers

The Persuaders!

Smuggler

The Professionals

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

Rime of the Ancient Mariner

The Saint

Danger Man

Theatre 625

The Angry Silence

Armchair Cinema

Supercar

Gideon's Way

A Dandy in Aspic

The Adventures of Sir Lancelot

The Heroes of Telemark

Manhunt

The Assassination Bureau

Pascali's Island

1990

Crossroads to Crime

Hell Drivers

You Only Live Twice

There Was a Crooked Man

Sea of Sand

The Champions

The Fall of the Roman Empire

In Search of the Castaways

The Horsemen

The Adventures of Robin Hood

The Battle of the River Plate

A Walk with Love and Death

The Naked Runner

Cutthroat Island

Penny Gold

Sea Fury

The Ice Princess

Campbell's Kingdom

Armchair Theatre

Blood of the Vampire

The Pursuers

Mafia Junction