Matinee Classics - George Bancroft Biography & Filmography

George Bancroft ACTOR

PHOTOS

GEORGE BANCROFT BIOGRAPHY & FILMOGRAPHY:

George Bancroft was born on September 30th, 1882 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and graduated from Tomes Institute High School. He then enlisted in the United States Navy and made it to be a commissioned officer, however he only served the minimum required time and upon completing his service, Bancroft decided he wanted to pursue a career in entertainment.

He began by first finding work as a manager of a theater and then found his way to acting as a stage actor. Soon, he was performing on Broadway and even broke into the film industry quite easy appearing on such films as, "The Journey's End" (1921), "Driven" (1923), "The Deadwood Coach" (1924) and "The Pony Express" (1925).

Now with quite a bit of experience in the industry, Paramount Pictures began to show an interest in him and they chose to cast him in such films as, "Underworld" (1927) and "Thunderbolt" (1929) for which he earned an Oscar nomination for his performance.

As his career blossomed, he began to earn the reputation of being difficult to work with. He had let it get to his head that he was an actor in demand and therefore he often made it difficult to get along with him on set. He had also been typecast to mostly heavy roles and was having a hard time breaking away from those types of roles.

While his career continued roles began to become less available to him due not only to his "bad attitude" reputation , but also due to the competition of younger actors also proving themselves in the industry.

Some of the roles he added to his credits in the latter part of his career were on such films as, "Angels With Dirty Faces (1938) starring Pat O'Brien, Humphrey Bogart, Ann Sheridan and James Cagney, "Stagecoach" (1939) starring John Wayne, "Each Dawn I Die" (1939) starring James Cagney, "Ruler of the Seas" (1939), "Green Hell" (1940), "Where the Daltons Rode" (1940), "Little Men" (1940), "The Bugle Sounds" (1942) and his last role prior to retiring completely was in, "Whistling in Dixie" (1942).

Bancroft then decided to completely switch careers and he became a rancher in California and remained living with his second wife, Octavia Broske until he passed away on October 2nd, 1956 in Santa Monica, California. He had only one child from his second marriage, Georgette. His remains are interred in the mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California.