George Montgomery

George Montgomery

George Montgomery was boxing champion at the University of Montana, where he majored in architecture and interior design. Dropping out a year later, he decided to take up boxing more seriously, and moved to California, where he was coached by ex-heavyweight world champion James J. Jeffries. While in Hollywood, he came to the attention of the studios (not least, because he was an expert rider) and was hired as a stuntman in 1935. After doing this for four years, George was offered a contract at 20th Century Fox in 1939, but found himself largely confined to leads in B-westerns. He did not secure a part in anything even remotely like a prestige picture, until his co-starring role in Roxie Hart (1942), opposite Ginger Rogers. Next, in Orchestra Wives (1942), he played the perfunctory love interest for Ann Rutherford -- though both, inevitably, ended up playing second trombone to Glenn Miller and His Orchestra. In 1947, George got his first serious break, being cast as Raymond Chandler's private eye Philip Marlowe, in The Brasher Doubloon (1947). Reviewers, however, compared his performance unfavourably with that of Humphrey Bogart and found the film 'pallid' overall. So it was back to the saddle for George. Unable to shake his image as a cowboy actor, he starred in scores of films with titles like Belle Starr's Daughter (1948), Dakota Lil (1950), Jack McCall Desperado (1953) and Masterson of Kansas (1954) at Columbia, and for producer Edward Small at United Artists. When not cleaning up the Wild West with his six-shooter, he branched out into adventure films set in exotic locales (notably as Harry Quartermain in Watusi (1959)). During the 60's, he also wrote, directed and starred in several long-forgotten, low-budget wartime potboilers made in the Philippines. At the height of his popularity, George attracted as much publicity for his acting, as for his liaisons with glamorous stars, like Ginger Rogers, Hedy Lamarr (to whom he was briefly engaged) and singer Dinah Shore (whom he married in 1943). After his retirement from the film business, he devoted himself to his love of painting, furniture-making and sculpting bronze busts, including one of his close friend Ronald Reagan.

Known For: Acting

Born: Brady, Montana, USA, 1916-08-29

Died: 2000-12-12

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1937	Springtime in the Rockies	Cowhand at Dance (uncredited)	47
2	1938	The Lone Ranger	Jim Clark	60
3	1938	Army Girl	Soldier	60
4	1939	The Mysterious Miss X	Policeman	53
5	1939	Rough Riders' Round-up	Patrolman Joe	40
6	1939	Southward Ho!		40
7	1939	Frontier Pony Express	Lieutenant Harris	40
8	1939	The Night Riders	Mob Member	56
9	1939	S.O.S Tidal Wave		57
10	1939	In Old Caliente	Henchman	50
11	1939	Wall Street Cowboy	Cowhand	47
12	1939	In Old Monterey	Soldier	53
13	1939	The Arizona Kid	Soldier	58
14	1939	Saga of Death Valley	Henchman	62
15	1939	South of the Border	Bandit	50
16	1939	The Cisco Kid and the Lady	Tommy Bates	49
17	1940	Star Dust	Ronnie	47
18	1940	Hi-Yo Silver	Jim Clark	60
19	1940	Young People	Mike Shea	46
20	1940	Charter Pilot	Charlie Crane	60
21	1941	The Cowboy and the Blonde	Lank Garrett	0
22	1941	Accent on Love	John Worth Hyndman	60
23	1941	Screen Snapshots Series 21 No. 1	Self	0
24	1941	Last of the Duanes	Buck Duane	60
25	1941	Riders of the Purple Sage	Lassiter	0
26	1941	Cadet Girl	Tex Mallory	0
27	1942	Roxie Hart	Homer Howard	68
28	1942	Ten Gentlemen from West Point	Joe Dawson	58
29	1942	Orchestra Wives	Bill Abbot	60
30	1942	China Girl	Johnny Williams	54
31	1943	Coney Island	Eddie Johnson	61
32	1943	Bomber's Moon	Capt. Jeffrey Dakin	55
33	1944	Troop Carrier Airplanes: Cockpit Procedure	Lt. Warren	0
34	1944	Take It or Leave It	(archive footage) (uncredited)	40
35	1946	Three Little Girls in Blue	Van Damm Smith	65
36	1947	The Brasher Doubloon	Philip Marlowe	60
37	1948	Lulu Belle	George Davis	48
38	1948	The Girl from Manhattan	Rev. Tom Walker	50
39	1948	Belle Starr's Daughter	Marshal Tom Jackson	41
40	1950	Davy Crockett, Indian Scout	Davy Crockett	49
41	1950	Dakota Lil	Tom Horn / Steve Garrett	50
42	1950	The Iroquois Trail	Nat Cutler / Hawkeye	58
43	1951	The Sword of Monte Cristo	Captain Renault	40
44	1951	The Texas Rangers	Johnny Carver	57
45	1952	Indian Uprising	Capt. Chase McCloud	62
46	1952	Cripple Creek	Bret Ivers / Iverson	57
47	1952	The Pathfinder	Pathfinder	40
48	1953	Jack McCall, Desperado	Jack McCall	53
49	1953	Fort Ti	Capt. Jed Horn	65
50	1953	Gun Belt	Billy Ringo	63
51	1954	The Lone Gun	Cruze	54
52	1954	Battle of Rogue River	Maj. Frank Archer	57
53	1954	Masterson of Kansas	Bat Masterson	58
54	1955	Seminole Uprising	Cam Elliott	49
55	1955	Robbers' Roost	Jim 'Tex' Wall	58
56	1956	Claire	Dr. Stanley Wayne	0
57	1956	Canyon River	Steve Patrick	64
58	1956	Huk!	Greg Dickson	49
59	1957	Last of the Badmen	Dan Barton	57
60	1957	Gun Duel In Durango	Will Sabre	54
61	1957	Street of Sinners	John Dean	70
62	1957	Pawnee	Paul 'Pale Arrow' Fletcher	63
63	1957	Black Patch	Clay Morgan	54
64	1958	Man from God's Country	Dan Beattie	48
65	1958	The Toughest Gun in Tombstone	Capt. Matt Sloane	60
66	1958	Badman's Country	Pat Garrett	54
67	1959	Watusi	Harry Quartermain	57
68	1959	King of the Wild Stallions	Randy Burke	60
69	1961	The Steel Claw	Capt. John Larsen	47
70	1962	Samar	Dr. John David Saunders	0
71	1964	Hell of Borneo	John Dirkson	50
72	1964	Guerillas in Pink Lace	Murphy	55
73	1965	Django the Condemned	Pat O'Brien	20
74	1965	Battle of the Bulge	Sgt. Duquesne	69
75	1966	Hallucination Generation	Eric	32
76	1967	Hostile Guns	Gid McCool	51
77	1967	Bomb at 10:10	Steve Corbett / Stiv Korbet	48
78	1968	Warkill	Col. John Hannegan	70
79	1969	Strangers at Sunrise	Grant Merrick	40
80	1970	Ride the Tiger		0
81	1970	Satan's Harvest	Cutter Murdock	50
82	1972	The Daredevil	Paul Tunney	60
83	1979	When the West Was Fun: A Western Reunion	Self	0
84	1985	Wild Wind	Major Nestorovic	42
85	1988	Ransom	Inspector Marks	0

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1948	Studio One	Bakeland	50
2	1950	What's My Line?	Self - Mystery Guest	69
3	1952	This Is Your Life	Self	64
4	1953	General Electric Theater	Jim Corbett	63
5	1953	General Electric Theater	Buchanan Smith	63
6	1956	The Steve Allen Show	Self - Cimarron City	56
7	1956	The Dinah Shore Chevy Show	Self	60
8	1958	Cimarron City	Mayor Matt Rockford	50
9	1961	The Mike Douglas Show	Self	54
10	1970	The Odd Couple	Griff	78
11	1971	Alias Smith and Jones		69
12	1974	The Six Million Dollar Man	Christopher Bell / Garth	73
13	1974	Dinah!	Self	67
14	1985	Children's Island	The President	0

George Montgomery

Film

Television