George Lewis

Born in Mexico, George J. Lewis gained prominence in the mid-1920s as a an athletic all-American boy in Universal's popular Collegiates 2-reeler series. He remained with Collegiates into the talkie era before forsaking leading roles for character parts. Sporting a mustache in most of his talkie appearances, Lewis played a steady stream of society villains, weaklings, "other men" and cads, at both Republic Studios and the Columbia short-subjects unit. His best-known serial role was as the erudite gangster who plays "Moonlight Sonata" on his piano while planning the demise of the hero in the 1945 Republic serial Federal Operator 99. Uncharacteristically, Lewis was cast as the good guy in the 1944 chapter play Zorro's Black Whip. Thirteen years later, a much grayer George J. Lewis returned to the same territory by playing the father of the "Mexican Robin Hood" on the Disney TV series Zorro. In the mid 1960s, Lewis swapped his acting career for a long, successful stint in real estate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide