George Dolenz(1908-1963)
- Actor
George Dolenz was born in Italy in 1908 to a large family. He left
Italy in the 1920s to start a new life and it seemed that he didn't
want to look back on his old one. He arrived in Los Angeles in the
1940s and it was there that he somehow met up with
Howard Hughes. Hughes signed him
up as a leading man at RKO Pictures--which he owned--but, under Hughes'
contract, George only starred in one film,
Vendetta (1950), with
Faith Domergue. He became a master of
several dialects, and could play urbane Continental roles such as
"Baron Sergei" in In Society (1944),
with Bud Abbott and
Lou Costello, Latin-American types
such as the mysterious "Cortega" in
Scared Stiff (1953), with
Dean Martin and
Jerry Lewis, and even Roman-era
royalty such as "Emperor Theodosius" in
Sign of the Pagan (1954). When
his contract with Hughes ran out, George appeared in many films for
other studios throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and starred in the TV
series
The Count of Monte Cristo (1956).
George was the father of actor Micky Dolenz
of The Monkees (1965), husband of
actress Janelle Johnson Dolenz
and the grandfather of actress Ami Dolenz.
