George Curzon

Who was George Curzon?

Commander Chambré George William Penn Curzon, known as George Curzon, was a Royal Navy Commander, actor, and father of the present Earl Howe.

Curzon, born in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, UK was the only son of diplomat Hon. Frederick Curzon-Howe and his wife, the actress Ellis Jeffreys. Curzon trained for the Navy at Osborne House in the Isle of Wight, and first saw action in World War I. He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant-Commander then served as a King's Messenger before turning to the West End stage in 1930.

He then went to America and appeared on the New York stage in Parnell before entering films. He was given a minor role as a police constable in Basil Dean's Escape. His first major role came in 1935 when he appeared as the title role in Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor. He reprised this role in Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle and Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror. He appeared in several films directed by Alfred Hitchcock before he moved to the United States and Hollywood, most notably Young and Innocent, where he played a musician and murderer who was caught by his nervous eye-twitch, in a famous long crane shot devised by Hitchcock.