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Height: 6'1" or 1m85 cm Eyes: Blue Weight: 180-lb or 81 kg Partner: Mark Miller |
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Above right: He joined the Navy and served as a communications officer in the Pacific Theater. Here he is, at 22, in Navy uniform. | |
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Above left to right George Nader at different ages: 3 months; 16 months, at age 3; as 5 year old spending summer at his parents' beach home in Playa del Rey; as St. Johns Military Academy Student, aged 8. |
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Born in Pasadena, Ca., as George Garfield Nader Jr., the son of Alice (née
Scott), who was from Kansas, and George G. Nader, who was from Illinois.
Born into a life of wealth and privilege, though George’s relationship with
his father—who was a broker for Signal Oil—tended to the theoretical. A mistress
in Santa Barbara occupied most of Nader, Sr.’s leisure time. And as for George’s
overly attentive mother, the elder Nader once told his son: “Ignore her . .
. I do.” He became interested in acting while in school. He pursued this interest at Occidental College, from which he earned a degree in English in 1943. He was on the swimming team and was also president of the Dramatic Club. A native of Los Angeles, he went to Glendale High School. |
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![]() ![]() Above left: Candid picture George Nader (left) during High School years with friends at the beach. Above right: George Nader (standing behind piano player) was 20 when this candid photo was snapped at the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity house in Occidental College. |
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He joined the Navy and served stationed on Johnson Island as a communications officer in the Pacific Theater. After the war he appeared in several productions at the Pasadena Playhouse where he spent three years. There, in May 1947, he met Mark Miller, who had one of the lead roles in a production of Oh, Susanna. Nader was in the chorus. The two fell in love and established a household together. Miller had intended to go to New York to study opera but abandoned his plans in order to stay in California and help Nader launch his career. Miller took various jobs, including working as a carhop and a shoe salesman, in order to provide income while Nader established himself as an actor. In January of 1951, Hudson was introduced to actor George Nader and his partner, Mark Miller. For the next thirty-four years, the three would be virtually inseparable. A seemingly endless parade of lovers, short-term boyfriends, and one-nighters would pass through Rock’s life, but Nader and Miller managed to provide him with something more enduring—a sense of continuity and a kind of surrogate family. By 1952 Nader was successful enough that Miller began working as his business manager. Nader played bit roles in Hollywood films, played in a TV show pilot opposite Celeste Holm in 1950, his first film was Rustlers on Horseback and was then costarred in his first major film, Monsoon (1952). |
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![]() ![]() Above left: Han glömde henne aldrig (aka The Long Search) photo of Anita Björk and George Nader in a scene of the 1952 movie. Above right: Ursula Thiess & George Nader in Monsoon (1952) |
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![]() ![]() Above left: George Nader and Paulette Goddard in Sins of Jezebel (1953) Above right: Claudia Barrett, George Nader, John Mylong star in Phil Tucker's Robot Monster (1953) (Picture used by permission Deeky Wentworth - El Topo Entertainment) |
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This led to several unbilled roles in a handful of movies that attracted the attention of director Phil Tucker who signed Nader for the lead in the infamous 3D thriller Robot Monster (aka Monsters from the Moon and Monster From Mars) (1953). Shot in only four days for a mere sixteen thousand dollars, it took in over a million dollars in its first run but also earned the dubious distinction of being named one of the fifty worst movies in history. It has become a cult classic. |
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Golden Globe award winner (1954)
for "Most Promising Newcomer," he was often found no match in
contention with more famous leading men, such Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis
or Jeff Chandler. Nader landed roles in films such as Carnival Story, Six Bridges to Cross, The Second Greatest Sex, Congo Crossing, The Female Animal, Away All Boats, Man Afraid, Joe Butterfly, Flood Tide and Nowhere to Go. |
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![]() ![]() Above left: George Nader in Lady Godiva (1955) with Maureen O'Sullivan. Above right: Unguarded Moment (1956) George opposite Esther Williams in a movie about a schoolteacher who is terrorized by one of her students. |
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According to Mark Miller, even after Nader signed with
Universal, there were reasons why his screen career never flourished in the same
way that Hudson’s did. "Rock went much further at Universal Studios than
George because George refused to play the sexual game. Rock played it to the
hilt. Therefore, Rock got all the good parts, the best costars, and the best
directors. George got just the opposite—mediocre scripts, and not a single top
director. None of the directors gave any direction to him at all. He was known
as the one-take actor." Miller also added: "Nader had a loathing of
publicity and tended to keep a low profile. He was willing to work hard but not
that hard." Nader’s screen career was virtually over by the end of the 1950s. Eager to project a heterosexual image the studio used arranged dates for Nader with several actresses. Although Nader and Miller were living together, neither publicly acknowledged his homosexuality. One publicist even went so far as to suggest that to avoid being outed by a scandal-sheet such as Confidential, Nader should marry and then get a divorce a few years later. A female secretary was willing to participate in the scheme. Nader and Miller discussed the possibility, but Nader could not bring himself to take part in such a sham. |
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![]() ![]() Above left: George Nader with pal Rock Hudson on Lake Arrowhead (50s) Above right: George Nader in a Universal promotional picture with Julie Adams. They starred together in Four Girls in Town (1957) |
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![]() ![]() Above left: Joanna Moore and Nader in Appointment with a Shadow (1958). Nader plays a reporter whose career is ruined by liquor and redeems himself by breaking with his habit and helping in the arrest of a criminal. Above right: George Nader with his father George Nader Sr. (1957). |
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Above right: TV's Shannon: an investigator of fraud, murder and espionage in the world of corporate America. |
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He lived in a ranch-style house in the San Fernando Valley.
As for leaving the Ellery Queen show George Nader wanted no
part of moving to New York. During the 20 episode grind George worked six days a
week with only 36 hours off between episodes. Few stars would have put up with
the back-breaking schedule, but George accepted the conditions cheerfully. "I
didn't want to give up the show," he said, "And I'm not walking out on
it. The program is walking out on me. Nor do I hate New York City, as has been
reported. My reason for staying here are simple. I was raised in southern
California, my home and friends are here. I'm sort of a beach bum at heart, and
I don't like the idea of getting that far away from the Pacific." Nader had no complaints about Ellery, even if he wistfully wishes that the series hadn't gone into production so fast last fall. "I've been an Ellery Queen fan as long as I can remember," he said, "and it was a great mistake on somebody's part to make Ellery a kind of combination of Mike Hammer and whoever else is the rage right now. It's been very irritating to me." 24 hours before NBC announced that Lee Philips would become the new TV Ellery, Nader only knew that Lee was one of a half dozen being considered. "I know they're thinking about Alfred Drake." he said "but I think he comes too high." He also named Steve Forrest and Ron Randall among the aspirants. But in the mid 1960s, Confidential Magazine, threatened to publish the details of Nader's homosexuality. Supposedly the studio try to cut a deal. His career in Hollywood all but dead, In 1964 he and Miller moved to Hamburg, Germany, where Nader made a dozen films, as he appeared in several German-Italian co-productions as FBI agent Jerry Cotton. The series (8 movies) proved immensely popular and still has a large cult following. |
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![]() ![]() ![]() Above left: George Nader as Jerry Cotton. Above middle: G-Man Jerry Cotton (George Nader) in Die Rechnung - eiskalt serviert. Above right: The seventh Cotton movie Der Tod im Roten Jaguar from 1968. |
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In 1972 the couple returned
to the States to divide their time between Palm
Springs, CA and Hawaii. He retired in 1974 after sustaining an eye injury
in a
car accident. He suffered a detached retina and became blind in one eye. He had
surgery to repair the retina, but he developed glaucoma. He could not work in
films because the strong lights made him lose vision. Miller planned to get a job in real estate to support the couple, but
Rock Hudson hired him as his secretary. Nader took up writing and his first (homoerotic) sci-fi novel Chrome (1978) had six printings. In addition Nader was the subject of an extensive biography Jerry Cotton - George Nader and his films published in 1998. |
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![]() ![]() Above left: George Nader barechested in Beyond Atlantis (1973) Above right: George Nader in 1978, upon the publication of Chrome. |
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Nader and Miller would provide important support to Hudson,
particularly in his final battle against AIDS, from which he died in 1985.
Miller said they were called 'The Trio' but they never had sex and it was pure
friendship, fueled by stories about each other's conquests. Hudson left most of his estate to Nader and Miller. Only in 1986 after
the dead of Rock Hudson, Nader and
Miller outed
themselves.
Miller said being outed wasn't the trio's greatest worry.
When Rock died, with all the publicity, George and Miller said, "Well,
they've outed us as gay, but not as Republicans." They believed that could
hurt their career worse than being gay in Hollywood. |
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Nader's last public appearance was at the 1st Annual Palm Springs Film Noir Festival in May 2001 where he received a standing ovation following the screening of the British film Nowhere to Go, co-starring Maggie Smith. |
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George Nader was admitted to Desert Regional Medical Center in September 2001 with a mysterious bacterial infection, two weeks after returning to his Palm Springs home from vacation in Hawaii. When the actor's condition worsened he was transferred to intensive care for observation. However, doctors could not find the source of his infection. He was moved to the Motion Picture & Television Fund Country Home in Woodland Hills one month later where he remained until his death on February 4, 2002 at the age of 80. Nader is survived by Miller, his cousin Sally Kubley and his nephew, actor Michael Nader. The actor's body was cremated and his ashes scattered at sea. A cenotaph in his honor (with Mark Miller and Rock Hudson) exists in Cathedral City's Forest Lawn Cemetery. | |
References
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on this actor |
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This actor profile is a part of
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The actor above played
Ellery Queen in
an Ellery Queen
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Page first published before May 20. 2016 Last updated April 17. 2022 |
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