'George' the movie and the career of Marshall Thompson

http://www.marshall-thompson.com/movies/70/george.htm

Plot description of the movie on this link

This movie was merely a backdrop for the actor who became passionate for all the world's animals and became an active conservationist. This film 'George' was an animal odyssey concerning the St Bernard dog and his adventures and escapades.

Born, James Marshall Thompson, November 27, 1925, Peoria, Illinois.
• Died,
May 18, 1992, Congestive Heart Failure.
• Survived by his wife Barbara,
daughter Janet, and grandson Jackson.
• Direct descendent of the first Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court, John Marshall.
• Educated at Fairburn
Elementary, Emerson Junior High, University High School, and
Occidental College (his major was Pre-Med), all in the Los Angeles
area.
• At Occidental he was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity, The
Occidental Players, and the Cross Country Team.
• Height: 6 feet
1 inches.
• Weight: A consistent 175 pounds.
• Features: Brownish/Blond
hair and blue eyes.
• He married Barbara Long, January 21, 1949.
•
Recreations: He loved sailing, horse back riding, tennis, archaeology, and
playing the guitar.
• He was an avid Photographer.
• Favorite Food:
His mom's beef and noodles, his wife's fried chicken, tuna casserole,
sardines, any pasta dish, escargot, Japanese cuisine.
• Favorite
Los Angeles Restaurants: Casa Escobar, Yamato's, Bob Burns, Chasen's.
•
Ambitions: To Write, To direct, and lastly, to act.
• His Passion: Africa -
and virtually all the animals in the world; to be an active
conservationist which he began in earnest after his television
series, Daktari ended.
• He studied World Affairs and Military History.
•
Most admired: General Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald
Reagan.
• Favorite Sports Teams: The Los Angeles Dodgers, The Dallas
Cowboys.
• Inaccuracies from other biographies: He was a man who carried his
church in his heart and never aspired to become a minister. His wife
is very much alive. He enjoyed cocktail parties and
social gatherings. He was never a "cow puncher" in high schoo. He did,
however, visit a cattle ranch once and learned to ride horses while
the cattle watched. Hedda Hopper would disagree that he was an
"unassuming player both on and off the screen and that he failed to
stand out in a crowd".
• What he was: A voracious writer, a
natural mimic and comedian, a focused man whose love of nature,
travel, exploration and wildlife outweighed his interest in pursuing
"stardom", though he was proud of his acting talents. He
spoke fluent French, German, and Swahili. He taught himself to
play the guitar. His favorite song for guitar was "Blood on the
Saddle".
• What you might not know: He was fearless would go
anywhere and try anything, from mountain-climbing, safaris,
deep sea diving, beriberi to chocolate covered ants. He always
did all of his own stunts, and he gave Elizabeth Taylor her
first off-screen kiss though the real relationship was much more an
MGM concoction than a real romance. They were, however, great
friends.
• Favorites: His MG with its leopard skin dashboard; his jaguar;
Sherman Cigarettes; Land Rovers; fireplaces, horse back riding in
Palm Springs; foreign films; his zebra skin rug; African
sculpture; his guitar; his dog Cappy; Bushveldt Shirts; the lions of the Matopi
Rocks; and Sailing.
• Memorable moments: Riding in the Pace
Car for the Indianapolis 500 with Mario Andretti; meeting Richard
Burton who told him "Ah, so you are Marshall - the one who keeps my wife
up late at night watching your films"; being chased by a white rhino
and living to tell about it; witnessing the Serengeti
migration.
• Regrets (very few): He was a member of his school militia,
before there was an ROTC, and regretted that his flat feet kept him
from enlisting during World war II.

.