George Periolat
actor
- Birth name:
- George E. Periolat
- Born:
- 1874-02-05, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Died:
- 1940-02-20, Los Angeles, California, USA
- Professions:
- actor
Biography
Chicago winter, 1874: a newborn wail rises above the wind whipping Lake Michigan—George Periolat has arrived. By the flicker of nickelodeon lamps he would grow up to haunt the silent screen, slipping from pugilist to poet in the space of a reel. In 1914 he stepped into Biblical sandals for Samson, toppling temples before the camera’s gaze, while 1915 found him dodging daggers and hearts as The New Adventures of Terence O’Rourke galloped across America’s matinees. Nearly a decade later, audiences still spoke of his haunted streetside portrait in The Red Lily (1924), a performance that lingers like cigarette smoke in a Parisian café. On 20 February 1940, the California sun set over Los Angeles for the last time on Periolat; the projectors cooled, the house lights rose, and the man who had once lived a thousand disguises closed his eyes at sixty-six.
