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George Wallace
Age
88 (passed away Jul. 22nd, 2005)
Birthday
Jun. 8th, 1917
Born in
New York City, New York, USA
Height
George Wallace's Main TV Roles[no roles found] |
Main Movie Roles2002 - Minority Report2000 - Nurse Betty 1999 - Bicentennial Man 1999 - Forces of Nature 1996 - Multiplicity 1994 - My Girl 2 1992 - Diggstown 1991 - Defending Your Life 1990 - Postcards from the Edge 1988 - Prison 1988 - Punchline 1988 - Hot to Trot 1984 - Protocol 1980 - The Stunt Man 1974 - The Towering Inferno 1971 - Skin Game 1956 - Forbidden Planet 1955 - Man Without a Star 1955 - Rage at Dawn 1955 - Soldier of Fortune 1955 - The Night of the Hunter 1954 - The Human Jungle 1952 - Million Dollar Mermaid 1952 - Japanese War Bride 1952 - Kansas City Confidential 1952 - The Big Sky 1952 - Radar Men from the Moon 1952 - We're Not Married! 1951 - Man in the Saddle |
George Wallace was born in New York and, at age 13, moved with his mom and her new husband to McMechen, West Virginia, a coal mining town where the boy began working in the mines. He joined the Navy in 1936, got out in 1940, and then went right back in again when World War II started. A chief boatswain's mate, he ended up in Los Angeles after a total of eight years in the service. Wallace supported himself with an array of odd jobs, from working for a meat packer ("knockin' steers in the head") to lumber-jacking in the High Sierras. A stint as a singing bartender attracted the attention of Hollywood columnist Jimmy Fidler, who helped him get his show-biz start. Wallace enrolled in drama school in the late 1940s, while earning his living tending the greens at MGM. He soon began landing jobs in films and TV, most notably as Commando Cody in the Republic serial Radar Men from the Moon (1952). He later made his Broadway debut in Richard Rodgers (I)' "Pipe Dreams," replaced John Raitt in "The Pajama Game" and was nominated for a Tony for his leading role in "New Girl in Town" with Gwen Verdon. Other stage roles have included "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" opposite Ginger Rogers, "Jennie" with Mary Martin (I), "Most Happy Fella" (during production, he met his present wife, actress Jane A. Johnston), "Camelot" (as King Arthur), "Man of La Mancha," "Company," and more. In 1960, his career was stalled when a horse fell on him and broke his back during the making of an episode of TV's "Disneyland" (1954)'s "Swamp Fox." His painful recovery took seven months. He sometimes billed himself George D. H. Wallace, to avoid confusion with comic George Wallace (II).
TRIVIA:
- Fell whilst on vacation in Pisa, Italy. The injuries he sustained and the complications from it led to his death at the age of 88.
- Interviewed in Tom Weaver's book "They Fought in the Creature Features" (McFarland & Co., 1995).
- Wallace's great-great-grandfather was Admiral 'George Dewey (I)' (qv), the hero of the Spanish-American War of 1898. His parents gave him the middle name of "Dewey" in honor of him.
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