Anthony George (January 29, 1921-March 16, 2005) was an American actor mostly seen on television.
He was born Ottavio Gabriel George in Endicott, New York, the second son of Italian immigrant parents. From the age of 6, George dreamt of being in films. After serving in World War II, George moved to Hollywood to achieve his goal of stardom. The first few years were lean, but by 1950 he had received his first credit and the work began to accumulate.
His career high point was probably the 1960 television detective show Checkmate (TV series), in which he was top-billed over Sebastian Cabot and Doug McClure for two memorable seasons. Created by Eric Ambler, the series featured top-flight writing and casting, and George's character was definitely the lead.
His longest-running success came from his decades-long career in daytime television soap-operas. In 1967 he replaced Mitchell Ryan as the brooding Burke Devlin on Dark Shadows. Some months later, the character was "killed" in a plane crash, and George created the role of Jeremiah Collins in a flashback to the year 1795. The story ran for most of 1967, until Jeremiah was killed off. George obtained further roles on Search for Tomorrow (as Dr. Tony Vincente, 1970 — 1975) and One Life to Live, the latter in which he replaced former film star Farley Granger as Dr. Will Vernon. In the late 70's and early 80's, OLTL was written and produced by many Dark Shadows alumni, which led to an amusing scene where former DS stars George, Nancy Barrett and Grayson Hall, as their Llanview counterparts, wondered where they had previously met.
After being written out of OLTL in 1984, George continued to make sporadic film and television appearances. In 1991 he was awarded a Bronze Star on the Binghamton, New York Sidewalk of Stars. In March 2005 he died in a California hospital of pulmonary disease at the age of 84.
Virile-looking actor Anthony George is best remembered for a couple of popular TV crime series back in the early 1960s. Born Octavio George in Endicott, New York, he began in small roles in motion pictures and TV in the 1950s. Picked up by 20th Century-Fox he was sometimes billed as Tony George or Ott George in such "B" movies as You Never Can Tell (1951), Three Bad Sisters (1956), Chicago Confidential (1957) and Gunfire at Indian Gap (1957). More often than not, however, he appeared uncredited and his dark, swarthy features usually had him typed as minor heavies (convicts, thugs, mobsters, etc.). The fast pace and expectations of making movies proved too much for the actor, however, and he suffered a nervous breakdown during one such filming. Traveling back East to recover, TV ended up being a more adaptable medium. He finally hit pay dirt in 1960 when he was cast as a tough-talking good guy, agent Cam Allison, alongside Robert Stack's Eliot Ness in "Untouchables, The" (1959). He abruptly left that series to head up his own cast as investigator Don Corey in the detective drama "Checkmate" (1960). The show lasted two seasons and made him a familiar face, if not a household name. Following this peak, he became a steadfast presence in daytime soaps with regular roles on "Dark Shadows" (1966), "Search for Tomorrow" (1951) and "One Life to Live" (1968). On occasion he would appear on stage and in 1966 had a chance to play Nicky Arnstein in "Funny Girl" at Los Angeles' Ahmanson Theatre opposite singing comedienne and impressionist Marilyn Michaels (I), who was known for her dead-on impersonation of Barbra Streisand. Other productions would include "The Front Page," "Winterset," "Come Blow Your Horn" and "Cactus Flower." A voice-over actor in commercials as well, Anthony George died of complications from lung disease in Los Angeles, California on March 16, 2005.
