Biographie

The scar on Macready's right cheek was the result of a car accident during his college days. According to his son Michael Macready, George and some fraternity brothers were riding in a Model T Ford when they hit an icy patch on the road. They struck a telephone pole, and George went through the windshield. His friends could find only one doctor in the vicinity, who happened to be a veterinarian. George did get his cheek stitched, but he also ended up with scarlet fever, apparently because the veterinarian didn't wash up properly.

Though specializing in playing truly evil villains, he was actually a cultured and expert art collector, as was his good friend Vincent Price, with whom Macready was partners in a Los Angeles art gallery.

George and Vincent Price opened the Little Gallery in Beverly Hills in the spring of 1943. According to Victoria Price (Vincent's daughter), their customers included Charles Laughton, Tallulah Bankhead, Barbara Hutton, Fanny Brice, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo. Of Garbo, Vincent said she "dropped in to look and, if anyone else was looking, dropped out--quickly." Jane Wyatt said, "It was a great, fun gallery. It was the place to go to meet and mingle. There was nothing else like it around. It was a wonderful place." George and Vincent eventually closed the Little Gallery when they could no longer do it justice while maintaining full-time movie careers.

Macready was an avid reader, and he especially enjoyed reading mysteries. In fact, he was known to read a mystery novel while simultaneously listening to a mystery show on the radio.

Among his hobbies were mind-challenging games such as deciphering cryptograms and writing his own crossword puzzles. He also enjoyed collecting paintings. His favorite artists were Henri Matisse, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh.

At heart, I'm really a harmless and calm person.

[Discussing how he enjoyed playing villains] Purely in an academic way. At heart, I am a kind man.

[Referring to a part he played on Four Star Playhouse (1952)] I play a mad--a maniacal--killer. Fun.

[Explaining how he got a lucky break onstage when his leading lady forgot her lines] I managed, somehow, to give her lines and my own, too. Then came the finale when a rope, manipulated by pulleys and concealed from the audience, was to assist me into "heaven." It darned near did--it broke. I wasn't hurt, fortunately, but a very famous stock company manager was in the audience--Jessie Bonstelle. She came backstage and said, in substance, that any young actor who could play both leading man and leading lady in the same play at the same time, and make such an abrupt descent from heaven with such good grace, ought to be good enough for her company.

My freshman year [at Brown University] I tried out for the dramatic club. I have been interested in the theater ever since I could remember. I worked diligently over "Friends, Romans, Countrymen . . . " and when it was my turn to try out for the club, I got to my feet and began Antony's lines. After I finished, the president of the organization turned to another member, and I heard him ask, "What in the world was he saying?" My name did not appear on the list of dramatic club fledglings the next morning when I hopefully went to look for it.