“Klute” (1971), a film starring Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, opens with a scene where actor Nathan George, playing a detective, is explaining an incident, and this is the extent of his appearance. While he has more expansive roles in several other films, George is still missing in various accounts of Blacks in film, including Nelson George’s “Blackface” and Donald Bogle’s “Hollywood Black.”. In “One flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three,” George’s thespian chops are more manifest.
George was born July 27,1936 but his place of birth, like his early years, remains unknown. We do know that after a brief military stint he began studying acting and impressed a number of producers and directors. From an assortment of stage performances, beginning in the late sixties and early seventies, he earned a Drama Desk Award and an Obie that he shared with Ron O’Neal, in 1970 for his role in Charles Gordone’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play, “No Place to be Somebody.”
A review of the play by Clive Barnes in the New York Times provides some insight into George’s role. He portrays Johnny, “a small-time crook — a little pimping for the most part — and his activities are seriously curtailed by the Mafia,” Barnes wrote.. “He dreams of the day when an old gangster, Sweets Crane, a father figure to him, will be released from the pen, so that they can make bad together in the big time. Sweets is released, but the old spirit has gone, and he is reduced to a little token pickpocketing. But Johnny perseveres and decides to take on the Mafia alone. Eventually he is put down by bad luck, a crooked judge, police corruption and Mafia hoodlums.
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“The play holds the interest, but what is really rewarding is the vigor of the writing and language,” Barnes continued.. “Witty, salty and convincing, the dialogue brings Johnny’s West Village bar to vivid life, and Mr. Gordone can create characters. Johnny — played superbly well by Nathan George as an object study in uptight relaxation and unflinchingly tragic destiny — emerges as someone completely credible, and so does Gabe Gabriel, the narrator and link-man of the story.”
George reverted back to his policeman roles in “Serpico” (1973) as Lt. Nate Smith and as a cop in “The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” (1974). He portrayed a different character in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (1975), playing an orderly. In 1977, he had one of the leading roles in “Short Eyes.” Meanwhile, with the film roles limited, he continued to perform on stage. He concluded his film career with “Brubaker” (1980); “Night Falls on Manhattan” (1996); and “Harsh Light” (1997).
“Madigan” (1972); “To Kill a Cop” (1978); “The Equalizer” (1985); “A Man Called Hawk” (1989), only one episode, and “On Seventh Avenue” (1996) comprised his appearances on television.
As a director, George helmed Ron Milner’s “Who’s Got His Own,” at Center Stage in Baltimore in 1970. For the U.R.G.E.N.T. Theater in New York in 1973, he directed “Cummings and Bowings,” a play based on the poems of e.e. cummings.
He was 80 when he died on March 3, 2017 in New York City.