GEORGE CHESEBRO
July 29th, 1888 -- May 28th, 1959

Above: George Chesebro in a publicity still for PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942), one of the many cliffhangers this loud-mouthed, low-down, and wonderful henchman was featured in.

Except for Jack Ingram and a handful of others, no one appeared in more serials over a longer stretch of time than George Chesebro did. His antecedents went back even further than Ingram's; he began his career as a hero in silent serials! But the advent of sound found George's sneering, nasal voice unsuited for heroic roles, and for the next two decades he played henchman after henchman in myriad sound serials. He wasn't always a key member of the villain brigade, but he always stood out in his cliffhangers by virtue of his incredibly big mouth. For George's bad guys always seemed to fear that they would evaporate if they remained silent for more than five minutes. He could always be counted on to deliver a wisecrack or sarcastic gripe at every opportunity, for the edification of good guys and bad guys alike. As a result, George emerged as one of the best-remembered henchmen of the sound era, and one of the most loved as well.

Chesebro was born in Minneapolis, and began his show business career in his teens, touring with traveling theatrical troupes. His touring went as far afield as Asia, where he performed for two years before coming back to the US. After some vaudeville work, he moved to Hollywood in 1915. Amazing as it may seem, he was almost instantly typed as a leading man, and he starred in several Western and romance features before entering the army during WWI. After the end of the war, he resumed his acting career. His silent serial debut was in HANDS UP, a 1918 cliffhanger that co-starred him with the popular Ruth Roland, and he also played leading roles in THE LOST CITY and THE DIAMOND QUEEN, among others. With the arrival of sound and the end of his starring roles, George effortlessly switched gears and started playing character roles in B-westerns and non-westerns; as the thirties progressed, he began to find his niche as obnoxious henchmen, bullying bartenders, or would-be vigilantes. Like many other silent stars, his serial debut was at Mascot Pictures, in the 1934 cliffhanger LAW OF THE WILD. He was cast as Parks, one of the henchmen of crooked racetrack gambler Richard Cramer. Though no one may have realized it at the time, this was a solemn moment: George Chesebro had entered the world of the serial henchman.

George then played one of the Rattler's key henchmen in MYSTERY MOUNTAIN (Mascot, 1934), and showed himself already an adept at cliffhanger villainy. Two more Mascots, THE MIRACLE RIDER and ADVENTURES OF REX AND RINTY, followed. Both were made in 1935, both featured Chesebro as a henchman--and in both, George made the most of whatever screen time he received. Chesebro's next serial, QUEEN OF THE JUNGLE (Screen Attractions, 1935), has gone down in history as one of the worst serials of all time, but it wasn't George's fault. His part in the whole mess was a relatively small one, and the main reason for the serial's ludicrousness was the large amount of silent stock footage and the lead performance delivered by Mary Kornman. George's first Republic, ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND in 1936, also was hampered by a non-actor lead, namely Ray Mala. Chesebro, however, acquitted himself admirably as "Draker", chief of island operations for the mysterious villain H. K. It was George's biggest role to date, and one could have wished him a better hero to oppose; a foeman worthy of his sneaky, cunning steel.

Above: George Chesebro (far right) and his henchmen are interrupted in their secret headquarters by Ray Mala (far left) in this scene from ROBINSON CRUSOE OF CLIPPER ISLAND (Republic, 1936).

Chesebro joined a group of other silent stars, including William Farnum, Ruth Mix, Reed Howes, and Jack Mulhall for CUSTER'S LAST STAND (Stage and Screen, 1936). In addition to this illustrious group, Rex Lease starred as hero Kit Cardigan, but CUSTER proved to be a case of "too many cooks spoiling the broth"--the all-star cast of both actors and historical figures tended to clog things up and slowed them down a bit too often. Chesebro, however, got to play a memorable heavy, a renegade trooper named Frank Roberts who sided with the Indians and Howes' outlaws against the cavalry in hopes of stealing a valuable golden arrow; in fact, serial scholar Buck Rainey feels that our George took "top acting honors" in CUSTER'S LAST STAND.

Chesebro continued to cement his loud-mouthed henchman image in scores of B-westerns as well as the serial SOS COAST GUARD (Republic, 1937). He was cast as L. H. Degado, chief lackey of mad inventor Boroff (Bela Lugosi), and an important foe of Lt. Terry Kent (Ralph Byrd). Though Chesebro was technically the "sergeant" or field commander of the thugs, the serial's real action heavy was Richard Alexander as Thorg--a mindless, mute giant who obeyed Lugosi's every order. George was mainly relegated to background villainy, but he managed to get off several good comments in the course of the cliffhanger, and performed at least one memorable dirty deed when he ruthlessly picked off one of Byrd's fellow Coast Guardsmen in the last chapter with a high-powered rifle. To everyone's satisfaction, Chesebro was shortly afterwards dropped by a Coast Guard bullet, while Lugosi tried to make his escape only to be destroyed by the double-crossed and revenge-seeking Thorg.

George began working for Columbia Pictures in 1938 with THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOCK; he would go on to play some of his best serial roles at the studio. BILL HICKOCK featured Gordon Elliott in the title role, which so influenced his screen image that he forever after was billed as Wild Bill Elliott. Renowned as one of Columbia's best, the serial had Elliott trying to make the Chisholm Trail a safe cattle-driving route by eliminating the menace of the evil Black Raiders, a gang led by Robert Fiske. Chesebro was a henchman named Metaxa, who took over as “sheriff” when marshal Elliott was obliged to leave the town of Abilene. When Elliott returned and gunned down hired killer Richard Cramer, Chesebro quickly resigned his job before sharing the same fate. He kept bothering Bill with other dirty deeds throughout the serial, though. George was also a stinker in his next two Columbias: FLYING G-MEN and MANDRAKE THE MAGICIAN (both 1939). A henchman named Red in the former and a henchman named Baker in the latter, Chesebro went through the villainous paces that he had completely and utterly perfected by this time.

Above: Gordon Elliott (far left) talks with George Chesebro in THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF WILD BILL HICKOCK (Columbia, 1938), while Roscoe Ates (behind bar) watches.

DAREDEVILS OF THE RED CIRCLE (Republic, 1939), featured Chesebro as an ostensible good guy, but he was still a big pain in the neck to the heroes. 39013, an escaped convict played by Charles Middleton, was the villain of the piece, and he was out to destroy all the business enterprises of the man who sent him to prison--Horace Granville (Miles Mander). Three swashbuckling acrobats known as the Daredevils of the Red Circle (Charles Quigley, Herman Brix, and Dave Sharpe) joined the hunt for 39013 when Quigley's kid brother was killed during an amusement-park fire started by the madman's thugs. Chesebro, one of a group of professional detectives hired to guard the Granville enterprises, showed nothing but contempt for the three "amateurs", and at the first opportunity attempted to have them arrested for trying to "wreck" Granville's new tunnel project. The Daredevils were forced to punch out Chesebro in order to save the tunnel in time, and George didn't reappear again in the serial--it later turned out that he had been in the pay of 39013. No surprise to those of us who knew George's past record.

George's schedule was so crammed with B-westerns for the next two years that he didn't manage another serial appearance till 1941, and even then he only lasted for five chapters of the fifteen-chapter WHITE EAGLE (Columbia, 1941). Despite the fact that WHITE EAGLE was directed by the overly-comedic James W. Horne, it was a lot of fun to see Chesebro (as a henchman named Blackie) working in tandem with fellow great Jack Ingram, and a bit of a shame when the twosome was broken up so early. He had an uncredited henchman part in Horne's THE SPIDER RETURNS (Columbia, 1941), before taking a much bigger share in the goings-on in HOLT OF THE SECRET SERVICE (Columbia, 1941). As a counterfeiting thug named Rankin, the loud-mouthed George was a perfect foil for the tough-talking, no-nonsense Jack Holt, who played a G-man infiltrating the counterfeiting gang. Holt's "undercover" position did not prevent him from hammering the stuffing out of Chesebro (or any other henchman) when he mouthed off, and George and his bad guy pals definitely knew they had been in a fight by the cliffhanger's end.

To those who had been disappointed by the shortness of George's teaming with Jack Ingram in WHITE EAGLE, Chesebro's next two Columbias came as good news. Both featured him henching in tandem with Ingram, and serving master villain Kenneth MacDonald. PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942), had MacDonald as an evil fur trader determined to grab control of the entire fur industry by inciting an Indian war. Chesebro, as a no-good named Gaspard, teamed with Ingram, Jolley, Bud Osborne, and Charles King to spearhead MacDonald's plans and to do battle with RCMP sergeant Robert Kellard. Next, in VALLEY OF VANISHING MEN (Columbia, 1942), MacDonald was out to overthrow the Mexican government, backed by a renegade general (Arno Frey) and financed by a huge gold mine that the ruthless villain forced kidnapped men to slave in. Ingram and Chesebro again led MacDonald's offensive against another strong hero, William "Wild Bill" Elliott. Elliott had entered the picture in quest of his missing father (who was one of MacDonald's unwilling slaves) and wound up by smashing the entire diabolical set-up.

Above: George Chesebro (left) gets the drop on Robert Kellard in PERILS OF THE ROYAL MOUNTED (Columbia, 1942).

George next opposed two already-famous superheroes in THE BATMAN (Columbia, 1943), and THE PHANTOM (Columbia, 1943). The Batman (Lewis Wilson) managed to do away with Chesebro in Chapter Four, zapping him with a ray gun and sending the thug careening off a cliff in a stolen armored car, but it took the Phantom (Tom Tyler) fifteen chapters to settle George, and even at the end he was only taken prisoner by the hero and his pal Rusty (Ernie Adams). The latter serial had Chesebro following the orders of Kenneth MacDonald again; sadly, this was the last pairing of this excellent team of no-nonsense boss and volatile henchman. THE GREAT ALASKAN MYSTERY (Universal, 1944) featured George as one of a gang of spies trying to steal a machine called the Peratron from scientist Ralph Morgan. George turned tail and ran when the Peratron accidentally evaporated three fellow henchmen; though action heavy Anthony Warde threatened to plug George for his cowardice, the loud-mouthed henchman suceeded in panicking the other thugs, too, and the whole group retreated to fight another day.

THE MASTER KEY (Universal, 1945), and FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (Republic, 1945), only gave Chesebro small parts, as, respectively, a fireman and a thug/mechanic. His part in SECRET AGENT X-9 (Universal, 1945), was no bigger; he played a thug who was tested as a possible double for professor Maurtiz Hugo. THE PURPLE MONSTER STRIKES (Republic, 1945), finally gave George a full-fledged good guy role; he played Shaw, a chemical-plant worker who steadfastly refused to give away a vital secret to gangster Bud Geary despite a brutal beating. Fortunately, hero Dennis Moore showed up just as Geary was about to weaken George's resolve by pouring acid on him. Chesebro was knocked out in the fight that followed, and Moore was cornered in an acid vat by the bullets of Geary and the Purple Monster (Roy Barcroft). Just as it looked like Moore was doomed to an acid bath, George revived, drove off the bad guys with well-aimed shots, and turned off the acid in time to save Moore.

Above: Hal Taliaferro (right) talks with George Chesebro in FEDERAL OPERATOR 99 (Republic, 1945).

George's last 1945 serial, Republic's THE PHANTOM RIDER, is a perfect example of how his henchmen could stand out despite the smallness of their roles. A thug posing as a stagecoach driver, Chesebro was assigned to divert Indian chief Yellow Wolf (Chief Thundercloud) from his intended destination--or, in other words, kill him rather than taking him to Washington to negotiate for an Indian Police Bill that would mess up the schemes of phony Indian Agent LeRoy Mason. Chesebro stops the stage en route, and orders Thundercloud to get out of the coach. The Chief asks "What are you going to do?" and George chortles "I'm gonna send you to the Happy Hunting Ground." Before Chesebro can do anything of the sort, though, hero Robert Kent arrives and puts a bullet into our favorite wiseacre mug.

DAUGHTER OF DON Q (Republic, 1946), featured George in another small role as a thug named Clay, who only appeared in the last chapter. He had two more small parts as a thug named Walt in THE VIGILANTE (Columbia, 1947; this was his last Columbia outing) and a thug named Tom in SON OF ZORRO (Republic, 1947), but he got a wonderful little cameo in JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947). At the end of JESSE's fourth chapter, Jesse James (Clayton Moore) was apparently drowned when a group of thugs led by Roy Barcroft knocked him off a riverboat. The opening of Chapter Five, with chief villain Tristram Coffin reading a newspaper account of a body washing ashore downriver, seemed to confirm the hero's death. Jesse had been carrying a valuable paper when he "drowned", so Coffin sent Gus Simmons (George) to claim the body and get the paper. When Chesebro attempted to filch the document from Moore's body, he got the shock of his life as Moore rose from the stretcher and accused Chesebro of killing him. Moore managed to pump some vital information out of the terrified George before revealing that he had escaped drowning and faked his death in order to draw out the bad guys.

Above: George Chesebro (right) and Roy Barcroft menace Lorna Gray in DAUGHTER OF DON Q (Republic, 1946).

Above: A terrified George Chesebro is questioned by the "ghost" of Clayton Moore in JESSE JAMES RIDES AGAIN (Republic, 1947).

George finished out his serial career in a series of similar cameos in Republic's late forties/early fifties cliffhanger. He was a film developer in THE BLACK WIDOW in 1947, a station agent named Jim in ADVENTURES OF FRANK AND JESSE JAMES (Republic, 1948), a henchman named Jason in GHOST OF ZORRO (Republic, 1949), and, finally, a henchman named Becker in DESPERADOES OF THE WEST (Republic, 1950). In 1950 he also capped his B-western career with two of his best appearances in that genre. The first was as Old Bill Donner in STREETS OF GHOST TOWN, a Charles Starrett B-western: George was positively frightening as a cackling, insane, blind robber who was supposedly dead but was really still after the gold he had murdered two men to get. The second was a heart-warming appearance as himself in Roy Rogers' classic TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD. Jack Holt, also playing himself, was running a Christmas tree ranch, and his business was endangered by an unscrupulous rival syndicate who didn't stop short of sabotage or murder. Towards the end of the movie, George, along with heroes like Allan Lane and Ray Corrigan, arrived to supply Jack with drivers to get his wagons through. When youngster Carol Nugent accused Chesebro of always being a "meanie", George responded, eyes twinkling, "I know, but after making twenty pictures with Jack Holt, he's reformed me." Though George continued making movie appearances into the mid-fifties, that scene in TRAIL OF ROBIN HOOD was really the crowning moment of a wonderful, fantastic career.

George retired in 1954; true to form, his last role was as an obnoxious barfly in THE BOY FROM OKLAHOMA. Five years later, he passed away at his home in Los Angeles. He was 71.

Throughout the serials and B-westerns--and even, on occasion, the A-westerns--of the thirties, forties, and fifties, George Chesebro always stood out. As soon as he spoke, audiences were aware they were once again watching that flamboyant, unmistakable henchman, that one-of-a-kind bad guy. They may not have known his name, but they knew that he was one of the best, even though he did have the Biggest Mouth in the West.