Christopher George - Playgirl - June 1974

 Playgirl 

June 1974

Coverguy

Unknown photographed by Bill King

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Christopher George

by 

Michael Hardeman

 Christopher John George (February 25, 1931 – November 28, 1983)[ was an American television and film actor who was perhaps best known for his starring role in the 1966–1968 TV series The Rat Patrol. He was nominated for a Golden Globe in 1967 as Best TV Star for his performance in the series. He was also the recipient of a New York Film Festival award as the Best Actor in a Television Commercial. George was married to actress Lynda Day George.

 Christopher George was born in Royal Oak, Michigan, on February 25, 1931, the son of Greek immigrants John and Vaseleke George. John George was born in Thebes, Greece and was a veteran of World War I, and Vaseleke was born in Athens.

 Christopher George could not speak English until he was six years old, because his family only spoke Greek at home. His father was a traveling salesman during his childhood. Christopher George accompanied his father on selling trips to cities such as Akron, New York City, Chicago, St. Louis, Memphis, and Detroit. From Michigan, the family moved to Mountain Lakes, New Jersey. Once George began learning to speak English, his father enrolled him in Greek school in addition to his regular school so that he would not forget the Greek language.That was where George first got interested in acting; at Greek school they performed Greek plays and recited Greek poetry. When George was 14, he and his family moved to Miami, Florida. As a child, George lived in the Coconut Grove section of Miami and attended Shenandoah Elementary School and Miami Senior High School. In school, George played soccer, football and baseball and ran track. While in Florida, he used to hunt for alligators in the Everglades. After obtaining his driver's license, Chris worked for his father, driving trucks between Miami and other cities along the Eastern seaboard.

 When he was young, Christopher George felt bound to enter the Greek Orthodox Church and his family prepared him for it; his brother Nick said that all through his childhood, Christopher was an altar boy and a choir boy and that his parents and the priest were trying to groom him to become a priest. He served as an altar boy at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Miami.

 He surprised fans by posing nude for Playgirl magazine in the June, 1974 issue.

 Two months after Mortuary was released, Christopher George died of a sudden heart attack on the evening of November 28, 1983 in a Westside Hospital in Los Angeles, California, a few hours after he was admitted, while under the care of his cardiologist, Dr. Pearl McBroom. Despite the fact that he was a frequent smoker of cigars as well as a heavy drinker, a contributing factor in his death is believed to have been a 1967 Rat Patrol mishap, which resulted in an internal injury to his chest. The injury was later revealed during an autopsy to be a cardiac contusion, which never properly healed, and scar tissue subsequently developed on his heart.

 A Greek Orthodox trisagion service was conducted at Westwood Memorial Park and a private funeral was held at Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Northridge, California, on December 1, 1983. At his funeral, the Marine Corps provided an honor guard to render military honors. The non-commissioned officer in charge of the military detail for the funeral, Gunnery Sergeant (retired) Ron Paschall, stated that the military honor guard included pallbearers, a color guard and riflemen that came from the nearby Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. He is interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.

He was survived by his wife Lynda, a daughter and a son. His death devastated his wife; she never recovered from the shock. Afterward, she only worked sporadically in television guest roles until her retirement in the early 1990s.

On May 5, 2009, the Marine Corps flew a flag over the Iwo Jima Memorial in honor of his service in the Corps.

Christopher George's niece is Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White.