George E. Stone (born Gerschon Lichtenstein, May 18, 1903 â€" May 26,
1967) was a Polish-born American character actor in movies, radio, and
television.He was born Gerschon Lichtenstein in Šódź, Congress
Poland into a Jewish family. He sailed from the Port of Hamburg,
Germany, as a steerage passenger on board the S/S President Grant,
which arrived at the Port of New York on May 29, 1913; at Ellis
Island, he passed federal immigrant inspection with his two sisters
and a brother.As an actor, Stone's slight build and very expressive
face first attracted attention in the 1927 silent-film 7th Heaven,
where he played the local street thug The Sewer Rat. Originally billed
as Georgie Stone, he made a successful transition to talking pictures
in Warner Bros.' Tenderloin, speaking in a pleasant, slightly nasal
tenor. Stone was then typecast in streetwise roles, often playing a
Runyonesque mobster or a gangland boss's assistant. He was best known
as Rico Bandello's right-hand man Otero in the gangster classic Little
Caesar (1931). He adopted a dapper pencil moustache for these screen
roles. One of his most famous appearances was in the classic musical
42nd Street (1933), in which wiseguy Stone assesses a promiscuous
chorus girl: "She only said 'no' once, and then she didn't hear the
question!" His one starring film (as George E. Stone) was the
Universal Pictures gangster comedy The Big Brain (1933).In 1939,
comedy producer Hal Roach hired Stone for his film The Housekeeper's
Daughter. It was a difficult role: Stone had to play a mentally
retarded murderer in a sweet, sympathetic manner. Stone went
clean-shaven, emphasizing a boyish, innocent look, and played the part
so sensitively that Roach often cast him in other films. In 1942,
Stone burlesqued Hirohito in Roach's wartime comedy The Devil with
Hitler.
1967) was a Polish-born American character actor in movies, radio, and
television.He was born Gerschon Lichtenstein in Šódź, Congress
Poland into a Jewish family. He sailed from the Port of Hamburg,
Germany, as a steerage passenger on board the S/S President Grant,
which arrived at the Port of New York on May 29, 1913; at Ellis
Island, he passed federal immigrant inspection with his two sisters
and a brother.As an actor, Stone's slight build and very expressive
face first attracted attention in the 1927 silent-film 7th Heaven,
where he played the local street thug The Sewer Rat. Originally billed
as Georgie Stone, he made a successful transition to talking pictures
in Warner Bros.' Tenderloin, speaking in a pleasant, slightly nasal
tenor. Stone was then typecast in streetwise roles, often playing a
Runyonesque mobster or a gangland boss's assistant. He was best known
as Rico Bandello's right-hand man Otero in the gangster classic Little
Caesar (1931). He adopted a dapper pencil moustache for these screen
roles. One of his most famous appearances was in the classic musical
42nd Street (1933), in which wiseguy Stone assesses a promiscuous
chorus girl: "She only said 'no' once, and then she didn't hear the
question!" His one starring film (as George E. Stone) was the
Universal Pictures gangster comedy The Big Brain (1933).In 1939,
comedy producer Hal Roach hired Stone for his film The Housekeeper's
Daughter. It was a difficult role: Stone had to play a mentally
retarded murderer in a sweet, sympathetic manner. Stone went
clean-shaven, emphasizing a boyish, innocent look, and played the part
so sensitively that Roach often cast him in other films. In 1942,
Stone burlesqued Hirohito in Roach's wartime comedy The Devil with
Hitler.
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