Did Cthulhu Kill Actor George Zucco?

[OldTimeRadio]

There's a brief mention of this on the "Jack Klugman" thread, but surely the story's strange enough that it deserves a thread of its own.

The famous Hollywood character actor and arch-villain George Zucco (Moriarty in the Basil Rathbone-Nigel Bruce SHERLOCK HOLMES films, among many other juicy roles) died in a mental asylum in San Gabriel, California, on May 28, 1960. According to one report Zucco had been confined there for approximately a decade.

Zucco is said to have died from "sheer fright" while screaming that Cthulhu and others of writer H. P. Lovecraft's (fictional) demon-dieties were coming to devour him.

The day after Zucco's death, his widow and his daughter both committed suicide.

Can anybody flesh this out a little bit more?

 

[Heckler]

May 28th, 1960 - ZUCCO DIES IN THE NUTHOUSE - Horror movie star George Zucco died of fright in an insane asylum in San Gabriel. He thought H.P. Lovecraft's Great god Cthulu was after him. His wife and daughter killed themselves the next day.

Source

A quick google and Wiki seems to repeat the above, wonder if it's a Hollywood Babylon style snippet that has became a factoid....?

 

[CuriousIdent]

Hmmmm. That sounds interesting.

Sure, suicide may be totally coincidental, but why both of them, the day after?

 

[Rrose_Selavy]

The day after Zucco's death, his widow and his daughter both committed suicide.

According to imdb.com he died 28th May 1960
His daughter Frances, also an actress, died 14 March 1962.



Here's the final resting place of George Zucco - says May 27th 1960
link

Frances Zucco March 14th 1962
link

edited by TheQuixote: created hyperlinks to stop page breaks

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[Mighty_Emperor]

In 1947 he appeared in Scared to Death - coinkydinks?

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"....wonder if it's a Hollywood Babylon style snippet that has became a factoid....?"

That could well be the case, especially if Zucco's daughter DIDN'T commit suicide the day after his death.

Or might he have had more than merely ONE daughter?

I also wonder how likely it was that Zucco would have ever neard of H. P. Lovecraft. On the other hand, if Zucco was one of those actors who take their horror genre film roles seriously (and there's certainly no evidence that he didn't) he might very well have familiarized himself with the literature in the field, reading WEIRD TALES or even ordering books from Arkham House.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"According to imdb.com he died 28th May 1960 ....Here's the final resting place of George Zucco - says May 27th 1960."

OOOOh, but couldn't we construct all sorts of creepy conspiracy theories on THAT! <g> (I think).

 

[Heckler]

Plus:

Died from pneumonia May 27th 1960 in South San Gabriel, California.

Source

Now Pneumonia is scary but it is a stretch to say he died of fright.

 

[Lanark_And_Rima]

I for one would like to see a Death Certificate where the coroner wrote 'NAMELESS FEAR' as the cause of death...

 

[OldTimeRadio]

Confusion

According to the findagrave.com website which Rrose so kindly linked us to, there remains considerable confusion as to the actual cause of George Zucco's demise, which certainly doesn't work against conspiracy theories:

"Conflicting reports on his actual cause of death cite 'suicide,' while other accounts say that he died as the result of a major stroke."

By the way, the best description I've ever read of Zucco's acting performance is of "a man who has just barely missed out on being elected to all the best London clubs." That certainly gave Zucco an edge in playing Sherlock Holmes villains.

While it never occurred to me before this moment, Zucco had much of that same villainous charm as that possessed by Joss Ackland. There's even a marked physical resemblance. (Although by performing a wonderful turn as C. S. Lewis Ackland surely commanded a wider variety of roles than Zucco.)

 

[OldTimeRadio]

So NOW it's suicide *"OR"* a major stroke *"OR"* pneumonia!

My God, the man died in 1960, NOT 1560.

Could some willing Fortean in Southern Callifornia obtain a copy of the death certificate? It'll be a matter of public record and available for simply the copying fee.

 

[GNC]

I for one would like to see a Death Certificate where the coroner wrote 'NAMELESS FEAR' as the cause of death...

I'm sure Quincy would have been happy to write out that one.

Zucco was in a sanatarium for his last few years, could it simply be Alzheimer's that got him in the end? I know from experience with my late gran that victims of that condition get some funny ideas and fixations.

 

[MrRING]

The only place the Cthulhu claim has been seen by me is the Hollywood Babylon book.... it may have just been a juicy way to talk of his demise... though the death of wife and daughter on the same day two years leter is weird.

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"Zucco was in a sanatarium for his last few years, could it simply be Alzheimer's that got him in the end?"

Zucco made his final films during 1950-1951. It was in later 1951 or 1952, apparently, that he suffered his "major stroke" and disappeared from acting. Zucco was offered the lead in "Voodoo Island," 1957, but tuned it down due to his declining health. (But it seems to have been Zucco himself who turned down the role rather than someone else doing it for him.)

And:

"I know from experience with my late gran that victims of that condition get some funny ideas and fixations."

Yeah, I know (my own Mother died of the same terrible affliction) but those "funny ideas and fixations" don't USUALLY include turning up on Cthulhu's dinner menu! <g>

 

[OldTimeRadio]

FILMFAX No. 31

Issue No. 31 of FILMFAX magazine features an interview with George Zucco's wife (or rather widow).

Could a listmember with access to this issue please give us a precis of what it says, especially in regards to the actor's last days and death?

In any case, the very existence of the intervieew seems to put the kibosh on Mrs, Zucco's supposed suicide the day after her husband's death snd most likely reveals the entire Cthulhu-Zucco legend to be a hosx.

 

[AsamiYamazaki]

I always preferred Henry Daniell's Rathbone era Moriaty anyway

 

[ogopogo3]

I always preferred Henry Daniell's Rathbone era Moriaty anyway

Well, you're a goddamn heathen.

Can I just say that I'm utterly stupefied that a thread about this obscure character actor has generated 15 responses?

I fell in love with Zucco when I listened to him perform on an old radio broadcast of Arch Oboler's Light Out!, which was the Twilight Zone of the radio generation. He was in an episode called "Bathysphere," where he plays a brutal dictator of an unnamed country who wants to break the world record for the lowest depth ever achieved...in an underwater diving bell. But the scientist who descends with him is not so loyal as the leader was lead to believe..........

 

[OldTimeRadio]

"I fell in love with Zucco when I listened to him perform on an old radio broadcast of Arch Oboler's Light Out!, which was the Twilight Zone of the radio generation. He was in an episode called "Bathysphere," where he plays a brutal dictator of an unnamed country...."

Ogopogo, I know and treasure that episode also, But I never before realized that the starring actor was George Zucco! Thank you so very much for pointing that out to me.

Rod Serling on THE TWILIGHT ZONE even copied, rather slavishly, Arch Oboler's speaking style in his program openings and closings. (That's not criticism - merely shows where Serling learned his art.)

By the way, I became a Serling fan very early on - his first professional script-writing employment, back during the mid-1950s, was at WKRC Television here in Cincinnati.

 

[GNC]

I've now read the definite proof... it was a hoax! I've just finished David Del Valle's (excellent) memoirs Lost Horizons Beneath the Hollywood Sign and he assisted Kenneth Anger in writing Hollywood Babylon 2 where the Zucco rumour emerged.

He says that they were having trouble finding material now that showbiz had become more litigious since the first volume, and began making up jokey ideas about what they could put in instead.

One of those ideas was inspired by watching Zucco's film Voodoo Man while high, and Anger so loved the idea that Cthulu was coming to get the actor that he wrote it up in the published book, much to Del Valle's shock. So there you go, a good story, but not true.

 

[poozler]

Zucco died 28 May, 1960.

Zucco's widow, Stella Francis (also an actor) died in 1999.

His daughter, Frances, died 14 Mrch, 1962.

More info about George, and his family, from IMDB http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0958345/bio:

"He suffered a stroke not long after his final film, David and Bathsheba (1951), once more in Egyptian garb but this time not even credited. He retired and lived on in fragile health. He evidently recovered his health enough to be offered the role of the mad scientist in Voodoo Woman (1957), but he declined. About that time, his health required a move to a nursing home, where he lived out his last years with dignity."