Career
Born in Italy as Arthur George Murcell, he made his film debut in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger"s The Battle of the River Plate (1956), Murcell went on to develop a career playing snarling villains in both film and television These could either be dumb henchmen, as in Hell Drivers and Campbell"s Kingdom (both 1957), or sophisticated rogues, such as Needle in "You Have Just Been Murdered", an episode of The Avengers. He specialised in playing foreign characters, including Germans, Russians and South Americans.
A number of these roles were in International Trade Commission adventure television series of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Danger Manitoba, The Baron, The Saint, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders! and Jason King.
His film roles included Sea of Sand (1958), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The Heroes of Telemark (1965), Kaleidoscope (1966), The Fixer (1968), A Dandy in Aspic (1968), The Assassination Bureau (1968), A Walk with Love and Death (1969), Penny Gold (1973), Penelope Pulls lieutenant Office (1975), Inside the Third Reich (1982, as Hermann Göring), Year of the Gun (1991) and Cutthroat Island (1995). He enjoyed a long stage career, which involved working with Tyrone Guthrie and Peter Brook, and was active in the Royal Shakespeare Company.
In the 1970s, he acquired a Victorian church in North London, which he converted into an Elizabethan-style theatre in collaboration with director Adrian Brown. In 1973, he opened it as "Street George"s Theatre", intending that it present little-seen classical plays.
Personal life
He died on 3 December 1998, aged 73.