Name
George Murcell
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1925-10-30
Deathday
1998-12-03 (73 years old)
Place of Birth
Naples, Campania, Italy
Biography
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.
Known For
6.589
A mysterious spacecraft captures Russian and American space capsules and brings the two su...
6.9
Set in German-occupied Norway, resistance fighter Knut Straud enlists the reluctant physic...
6.452
In the year 180 A.D. Germanic tribes are about to invade the Roman empire from the north. ...
6.4
In the early years of the World War II, the Royal Navy is fighting a desperate battle to k...
5.3
Barney Lincoln is a rambling gambling man who scores sensational wins at poker and chemin ...
6.4
1908: Pascali, a spy for the Sultan, sends reports to Istanbul that nobody reads. His susp...
6.5
Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Pagan...
6.9
Double-agent Alexander Eberlin is assigned by the British to hunt out a Russian spy, known...
4.9
American novelist David Raybourne accidentally becomes entangled in the Red Brigade's terr...
- 1958 Sea of Sand as Cpl. Simms
- 1962 In Search of the Castaways as Ayerton's Assistant
- 1962 The Cherry Orchard as Yermolai Alexeyevich Lopahin
- 1968 The Year of the Sex Olympics as Grels
- 1964 The Fall of the Roman Empire as Victorinus
- 1969 The Assassination Bureau as Zeppelin pilot
- 1960 The Angry Silence as Jones
- 1960 There Was a Crooked Man as Receptionist at 'The McKillup Arms'
- 1969 A Walk with Love and Death as The Captain
- 1973 Mafia Junction
- 1988 Pascali's Island as Herr Gesing
- 1960 Crossroads to Crime as Diamond
- 1959 Don't Panic Chaps as Meister
- 1975 Penelope Pulls It Off as Owen
- 1975 Rime of the Ancient Mariner
- 1970 A Sound from the Sea as George
- 1973 Penny Gold as Doctor Merrick
- 1958 Blood of the Vampire as First Guard
- 1971 The Horsemen as Mizrar
- 1956 The Battle of the River Plate as Chief Officer, Newton Beach
- 1969 The Possessed as Liputin
- 1965 The Heroes of Telemark as Sturmfuhrer
- 1995 Cutthroat Island as Mordachai Fingers
- 1967 The Naked Runner
- 1958 Sea Fury as Loudon
- 1955 The Merry Christmas as Mr. Fezziwig
- 1957 Campbell's Kingdom as Max, a worker
- 1961 The Pursuers as Freddy
- 1967 You Only Live Twice as Russian Diplomat (uncredited)
- 1957 Hell Drivers as Tub
- 1991 Year of the Gun as Pierre Bernier
- 1966 Kaleidoscope as Johnny
- 1968 A Dandy in Aspic
- 1974 The Prison as Maître Rabut
- 1996 The Ice Princess
- 1961 Supercar ( 39 episodes )
- 1965 Gideon's Way ( 1 episode ) as Kautsky
- 1961 The Avengers ( 2 episodes ) as Needle
- 1971 The Persuaders! ( 1 episode ) as Zorakin
- 1971 Jason King ( 1 episode )
- 1962 The Saint ( 2 episodes ) as Vogler
- 1968 The Champions ( 1 episode ) as Nikko
- 1968 The Champions ( 1 episode ) as El Gaudillo
- 1955 The Adventures of Robin Hood ( 1 episode ) as Sheriff's Guard
- 1971 The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes ( 1 episode ) as Inspector Vandeleur
- 1959 No Hiding Place ( 1 episode )
- 1981 Smuggler ( 13 episodes ) as Silas Kemble
- 1986 Peter the Great ( 4 episodes )
- 1962 The Saint ( 1 episode ) as Abdul Graner
- 1968 Rogues' Gallery ( 1 episode ) as Sir Esmond Bellasize
- 1970 Manhunt ( 1 episode ) as Franco
- 1977 1990 ( 8 episodes ) as Tiny
- 1956 The Adventures of Sir Lancelot ( 1 episode ) as Jaggyd
- 1977 The Professionals ( 1 episode ) as Yashinkov
- 2022 Presented in Supercolorisation ( 1 episode ) as Professor Rudolph Popkiss / Black Morgan (voice)
- 2022 Presented in Supercolorisation ( 1 episode ) as Professor Rudolph Popkiss (voice) (credit only)
- 1974 Armchair Cinema ( 1 episode ) as Maître Rabut
- 1966 The Informer ( 1 episode ) as Willie Cluff
- 1964 Theatre 625 ( 1 episode ) as Delamarche
- 1964 Theatre 625 ( 1 episode ) as Wensley Grafton
- 1964 Theatre 625 ( 1 episode ) as Grels
- 1982 Inside the Third Reich ( 2 episodes ) as Herman Goering
- 1950 Sunday Night Theatre ( 1 episode ) as M. Lafarge
- 1956 Armchair Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Beno
- 1950 Sunday Night Theatre ( 1 episode )
- 1960 Sunday-Night Play ( 1 episode ) as Gannerac
- 1960 Danger Man ( 1 episode ) as Bruno
- 1965 Thirty-Minute Theatre ( 1 episode ) as Second Man
