George Montgomery (actor)

George Montgomery (born George Montgomery Letz; August 27, 1916 – December 12, 2000) was an American actor, best known for his work in Western films and television.

He was also a painter, director, producer, writer, sculptor, furniture craftsman, and stuntman.

He was married to Dinah Shore and was engaged to Hedy Lamarr.

Montgomery was born George Montgomery Letz in 1916, the youngest of 15 children of German immigrant parents, from Mykolaiv in southern Ukraine.

He was born in Brady, in Pondera County, northern Montana near Great Falls.

He was reared on a large ranch, where he learned to ride horses and work cattle as a part of daily life.

Letz boxed as a heavyweight for a short while before enrolling in the University of Montana in Missoula.

He was active in school athletics and majored in interior design, but he left after one year.

Montgomery was more interested in a career in film than in a college education.

Therefore, he left Montana for Hollywood.

At Republic Pictures, his cowboy skills gained him stunt work and a small acting part at the age of 18 in a 1935 Gene Autry film, The Singing Vagabond.

He followed this with bit parts and additional stunt work as "George Letz" in mostly low-budget films.

Two days after his arrival there, he was working as a stunt man on a Greta Garbo film at MGM, Conquest (1937).

These included Springtime in the Rockies (1937) with Autry; The Purple Vigilantes (1938) with Robert Livingston; the serial The Lone Ranger (1938); Outlaws of Sonora (1938) with Livingston; The Old Barn Dance (1938) and Gold Mine in the Sky (1938) with Autry; Under Western Stars (1938), with Roy Rogers; Shine On, Harvest Moon (1938) with Rogers.

Those had all been Westerns.

He was in an African adventure tale Hawk of the Wilderness (1938) with Bruce Bennett (billed as Herman Brix, his real name) and the bigger-budgeted Army Girl (1938).

In 1938, he appeared as one of the six men suspected of being the titular hero in The Lone Ranger.

That year, Life included him in a photo montage of "Hollywood's Movie-struck Kids" and described Montgomery, still using his full name, as "6 ft. 3 in. tall, weighs 210 lb., rides well, is superlatively handsome."

He went back to Westerns in Southward Ho (1939) and The Arizona Kid (1939) with Rogers.

He was in some non-Westerns such as The Mysterious Miss X (1939), S.O.S. Tidal Wave (1939), and I Was a Convict (1939), but mostly it was films such as South of the Border (1939) and In Old Monterey (1939) with Autry, Saga of Death Valley (1939); Wall Street Cowboy (1939), Frontier Pony Express (1939), Rough Riders' Round-up (1939) and In Old Caliente (1939) with Rogers; The Night Riders (1939) with John Wayne.

He worked on Republic's (relatively) big-budget Man of Conquest (1939).

In 1939, he signed with 20th Century Fox, which billed him as George Montgomery.

His first film at the studio was The Cisco Kid and the Lady (1939), the first of the Cisco Kid series.

Montgomery was billed fourth.

He had a small role in Star Dust (1940), and a bigger one in Young People (1940), Shirley Temple's last film for Fox.

Montgomery was fourth-billed in a "B" about pilots, Charter Pilot (1940) with Lloyd Nolan and Lynn Bari, and third-billed in Jennie (1940).

Montgomery was promoted to leading roles in a melodrama written by Dalton Trumbo, Accent on Love (1941).

Fox then starred him in some B Westerns: Last of the Duanes (1941), Riders of the Purple Sage (1941), and The Cowboy and the Blonde (1941).

One writer called him "a handsome leading man in the Clark Gable mode."

Montgomery was teamed with Carole Landis in Cadet Girl (1941).

He was given the lead in an "A" when he top-lined Orchestra Wives (1942) with Ann Rutherford, a film best remembered today for giving a co-star role to Glenn Miller.

He starred in Ten Gentlemen from West Point (1942) with Maureen O'Hara, playing a role originally intended for Tyrone Power.

He was Ginger Rogers' love interest in Roxie Hart (1942) and played opposite Gene Tierney in China Girl (1942) for Henry Hathaway.

All these films were popular at the box office.

The following year, Montgomery starred with Betty Grable in the Walter Lang-directed film Coney Island, which was his biggest hit to date.

According to one obituary, "The actor's vocal mannerisms were often uncannily reminiscent of Clark Gable, and when he grew a moustache his similarities to the greater star were even more apparent. This was never more so than in Coney Island.

He also starred in Bomber's Moon (1943).

Montgomery was announced for several films originally intended for Fox leading men Tyrone Power, who had joined the Marine Corps, and Henry Fonda, who had joined the Navy, including Down to the Sea in Ships and Bird of Paradise with Tierney.

However, Montgomery wound up joining the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit in 1943 where he appeared in such training films as Survival of the Fittest (1944).

He returned to Fox in 1946, and played the lead in a musical Three Little Girls in Blue (1946).