George Zucco

George Zucco
Zucco in Fog Island (1945)
Born	George De Sylla Zucco 11 January 1886(1886-01-11) Manchester, Lancashire, England, UK
Died	27 May 1960(1960-05-27) (aged 74) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1931–1951
Spouse	Stella Francis (1930-1960; his death); 1 child

George Desylla Zucco^[1] (11 January 1886 – 27 May 1960) was an English character actor who appeared, almost always in supporting roles, in 96 films during a career spanning two decades, from 1931 to 1951. He is fondly remembered for his roles in classic horror films.

Early life

Zucco was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England. His mother, Marian (née Rintoul), was English and ran a dressmaking business; she was a former lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria. His father, George De Sylla Zucco, was a Greek merchant.^[1][2][3] He debuted on the Canadian stage in 1908. He and his wife Frances toured the American vaudeville circuit during the 1910s, their satirical sketch about suffragettes earning them renown.^{[citation needed]}

He returned to Great Britain and served as a lieutenant in the British Army's West Yorkshire Regiment during World War I.^[4] He became a leading stage actor of the 1920s, and made his film debut in 1931, playing Eugène Godefroy Cavaignac in The Dreyfus Case, an early British re-telling of the Dreyfus Affair.

Career

Zucco returned to the United States in 1935 to play Benjamin Disraeli alongside Helen Hayes in Victoria Regina, and appeared with Gary Cooper and George Raft in Souls at Sea (1937). His best known film role was that of Professor Moriarty in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1939), opposite Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes and Nigel Bruce as Dr. Watson.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1940s, he took every role he was offered, landing himself in B-films and Universal horror films, including The Mummy's Hand (1940), The Mummy's Tomb (1942), The Mad Monster (1942), The Mad Ghoul (1943), Dead Men Walk (1943), The Mummy's Ghost (1944), House of Frankenstein (1944), and Tarzan and the Mermaids (1948). He was reunited with Basil Rathbone in another Sherlock Holmes adventure, Sherlock Holmes in Washington, this time playing not Moriarty, but a Nazi spy.

Last years and death

He retired due to illness, after playing a bit part in David and Bathsheba in 1951. Kenneth Anger, in his 1988 book Hollywood Babylon II, claimed that Zucco died in a madhouse, convinced that he was being haunted by H.P. Lovecraft's creation Cthulhu, and that Zucco's wife and adult daughter committed suicide in response to the loss. However, in reality, Zucco died from pneumonia in an assisted-living facility in 1960, aged 74.

His daughter died of cancer in 1962, and his widow died from natural causes in 1999 (aged 99).

Partial filmography

References

External links

Biography portal

• George Zucco at the Internet Movie Database
• George Zucco at the Internet Broadway Database
• George Zucco bio on (re)Search my Trash
• George Zucco at Find a Grave