George Macready

Biography: MacReady was a tall, cold, Germanic-looking, blond-haired character actor with a scar on his right cheek (the result of a car accident). After studying journalism he was persuaded by director Richard Boleslawsky to become an actor. He made his Broadway debut in the lead male role of The Scarlet Letter, then appeared in many more stage productions. He began appearing in movies in 1943, but his breakthrough role didn't come until 1946, when he played Rita Hayworth's sinister husband in Gilda. Thereafter he made a career out of playing villains, usually of the aloof, malicious, aristocratic variety. In the '60s he portrayed cold-hearted patriarch Martin Peyton on the TV series Peyton Place. He had an offscreen reputation as a highly cultivated individual, and for a time he co-owned a Los Angeles art gallery with actor Vincent Price.