George Breakston
| George Breakston | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 22, 1920 Paris, France |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Paris, France |
| Other names | George P. Breakston |
| Occupation | Film actor Producer Film director |
| Years active | 1935 - 1966 |
George Paul Breakston (January 22, 1920 – May 21, 1973) was a French-American actor, producer and film director,[1] active in Hollywood from his days as a child actor in Andy Hardy films in the 1930s, to a period as an independent producer/director in the 1950s.
Biography
Breakston first entered the entertainment world by working in radio as a child actor from 1930. Hs came to the notice of Hollywood and appeared in a variety of films.[2] He made his stage debut in A Midsummernight's Dream and made his motion picture debut in It Happened One Night (1934).
During World War II he was commissioned in the US Army Signal Corps through Officers Candidate School[3] then served in the Pacific Theatre of Operations as a photographer. When the war ended Breakston remained in Japan.
He reentered the civilian film world by co-writing, producing, directing and starring in Urubu: The Vulture People filmed in location in the Mato Grosso, Brazil. He followed it up with the documentary African Stampede filmed in the Belgian Congo and Kenya where he would later make his home.
Returning to Japan, Breakston co-produced and wrote Tokyo File 212 a 1951 American film credited as Hollywood's first feature film totally filmed in Japan.[4] He followed it up by filming and directing Oriental Evil (1951) and Geisha Girl (1952) in Japan.
Breakston moved to Kenya filming several safari adventure feature films The Scarlet Spear, Golden Ivory, Escape in the Sun, and The Woman and the Hunter. Many of these featured John Bentley who starred in a television series produced by Breakston and filmed in Kenya, African Patrol. Breakston also filmed another series in Kenya Adventures of a Jungle Boy (1957) and planned a third Trader Horn.[5]
Breakston joined the horror bandwagon by making The Manster back in Japan then made several films in Yugoslavia.
He died in Paris in 1973.
Selected filmography
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- A Successful Failure (1934) actor
- No Greater Glory (1934) actor
- Mrs. Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch (1934) actor
- It Happened One Night (1934) actor
- Great Expectations (1934) actor
- The Dark Angel (1935) actor
- Life Returns (1935) actor
- The Return of Peter Grimm (1935) actor
- Boulder Dam (1936) actor
- Second Wife (1936) actor
- Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938) actor
- Andy Hardy Gets Spring Fever (1939) actor
- Jesse James (1939) actor
- Boy Slaves (1939) actor
- Swanee River (1939) actor
- Andy Hardy Meets Debutante (1940) actor
- I Killed That Man (1941) actor
- Andy Hardy's Private Secretary (1941) actor
- Men of San Quentin (1942) actor
- Urubu: The Vulture People (1948) actor, producer & director
- African Stampede (documentary, 1949) producer & director
- Tokyo File 212 (1951) producer
- Oriental Evil (1951) producer & director
- Geisha Girl (1952) producer & director
- Golden Ivory (aka "The White Huntress"; 1954) producer & director
- The Scarlet Spear (1954) director
- Escape in the Sun (1956) producer & director
- Woman and the Hunter (1957) producer & director
- The Manster (1959) producer & director
- Shadow of Treason (1964) producer & director [6]
- The Boy Cried Murder (1966) director
References
- ↑ http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/8262
- ↑ Obituary Variety 30 May 1973
- ↑ http://www.armysignalocs.com/ww2/42_09.html
- ↑ p. 103 Edwards, Paul M. A Guide to Films on the Korean War Greenwood Publishing Group, 1997
- ↑ Billboard 3 Feb 1958
- ↑ http://www.nyu.edu/projects/wke/press/shadowoftreason/shadowoftreason.pdf
