George Pastell was a Cypriot character actor in British films and
television programs. His real name was Nino Pastellides.
He made his film debut in
Give Us This Day (1949), under his real name
of Nino Pastellides, and went on to carve out a career as villains in
film and television. Although Greek, he was often cast by Hammer Film
Productions as Eastern characters such as Mehemet Bey in
The Mummy (1959), the High Priest of Kali in
The Stranglers of Bombay (1959), and
Hashmi Bey in
The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964).
His exotic looks often saw him cast in spy movies of the sixties such
as
From Russia with Love (1963),
The 2nd Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World (1965),
A Man Could Get Killed (1966),
That Riviera Touch (1966), and
Deadlier Than the Male (1967).
As well as these film roles he could also be seen as the villain in
numerous television series of the sixties including
Danger Man (1960),
The Avengers (1961),
Doctor Who (1963),
The Champions (1968),
The Saint (1962), and
Department S (1969).
Pastellides was most prolific, however, in his voice-over work,
replacing hundreds of other actors' voices (some of them very famous)
in films as disparate as
El Cid (1961) as "FaƱez",
You Only Live Twice (1967) as "Tiger Tanaka, and
Doctor Zhivago (1965) as "The
Girl's (the
character played by Rita Tushingham) boyfriend", earning him the sobriquet "the 'Paul Frees (I)' of Britain."
Department S(1969)as Camilo Garria, Sarrat
The Saint(1962)as Marco Ponti, Georges Olivant, King Fallouda, Vulanin
Vendetta for the Saint(1969)as Marco Ponti
The Champions(1968)as Col. Santos
The Magus(1968)as Andreas-Priest
She(1965)
CineficciĆ³n Radio(2019)
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story(2008)as Eric Klieg
The World of Hammer(1990)as Mehemet Bey
The Magical World of Disney(1954)as Police Lieutenant
