TODAY WE REMEMBER and mark the BIRTHDAY of the, really quite amazing actor, George Pastell! George was a Cypriot character actor in many many British films and television programs. But his real name was in fact, Nino Pastellides. Although Greek, he was often cast by Hammer Film
Productions as Eastern characters such as Mehemet Bey in The Mummy
(1959) with Peter Cushing AND Christopher Lee; also the High Priest of Kali in The Stranglers of Bombay (1960); and
Hashmi Bey in The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964). He also appeared with Michael Gough in Konga in 1961. George
made his film debut in Give Us This Day (1949), under his real name of
Nino Pastellides, and went onto carve out a career as villains in film
and television.
GEORGE'S exotic looks often saw him cast in spy movies of the 1960's such as
From Russia with Love (1963); Licensed to Kill (1965); A Man Could Get
Killed (1966); That Riviera Touch (1966); and Deadlier Than the Male
(1967). He did very much LOOK the roles! As well as these film roles, he could also be seen as 'the villain' in
numerous LEW GRADE television series of the sixties including Danger Man; The
Avengers; the BBC Doctor Who; The Champions; The Saint; and Department S.
PASTELLLIDES was also most prolific, however, in his voice-over work.
He worked replacing hundreds of other actors' voices, some very of them, very famous actors. Many films such as El Cid (1961) as "Fañez"; 'You Only Live Twice'
(1967) he voiced over, Tiger Tanaka; and in 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965) he voiced the character of Rita Tushingham's boyfriend, which earned him the
sobriquet the 'Paul Frees' of Britain.
GEORGE sadly passed on April 4th 1976, in Dade County, Florida, USA. It's pretty amazing how many roles, Pastell played through the years. But for many, his Hammer film roles, and the role of Mehemet Bey in The Mummy, is one of the most favorite. Happy Birthday, GEORGE. You are remembered and respected, very well!
YOUR TUESDAY TOUGHIE FOR THIS WEEK! HAVE FUN!
CINEFICION is a magazine I have mentioned here before. The above GIF is permanently, featured in the side column of this website too. I came across this magazine and the extra publications, that have been edited by superb DARIO LAVIA, about a year and half ago. I have been impressed by them all. Since I started managing PCAS here and on FACEBOOK, we have been approached by many fanzines, magazines and comics for either rare photographs or contributions to those asking. I have sadly, turned them all down. The reason? Most fanzines today, are purely REPEATING what other zines have done, MANY TIMES before them. The prices of zines are not cheap today, and many have closed and slipped away. CINEFICCION gets my interest because LAVIA comes at it, with a passion! PLUS he likes VISUALS. He makes the room for many. Many of them are in colour too!
THAT THE PUBLICATIONS are printed and written in SPANISH doesn't put me off at all, even though I don't speak Spanish. For me, visually the publications, click ALL my boxes! I get fed up, with fanzines and books, REPRINTING old photos and images they have also posted before. Many of these editors DO OWN rare images, but choose that only a few or or NONE are printed and shared with their buyers. NOT DARIO! That clicks my box. So much so, that last year I announced that our ENTIRE rare audio and video PCAS archive will be GIVEN to DARIO and his publications . . . for free! Masses of interviews from STAR actors, sadly no longer with us, actresses and directors will be given to Dario and the CINEFICCION publications, for their exclusive use. There will be many images and photographs too. I hope that this will help the content . .THIS WEEK I will be GIVING AWAY several FREE issues, so you can win em and see em, yourself! Keep a LOOK OUT!
IF YOU HAVE NEVER purchased any of the publications, here is a link to the CINEFICCION website. If you TOO don't speak Spanish... if visuals are your thing too, THIS will make you happy! Support these publications and purchase YOUR copies too! HERE is the CINEFICCION website: HERE!
REMEMBER! IF YOU LIKE what you see here at our website, you'll love our daily themed posts at our PCAS FACEBOOK FAN PAGE.
Just click that blue LINK and click LIKE when you get there, and help
us . . Keep The Memory Alive!. The
Peter Cushing Appreciation Society website, facebook fan page and
youtube channel are managed, edited and written by Marcus Brooks, PCAS
coordinator since 1979. PCAS is based in the UK and USA
