George-Radu Metaxa (11 September 1899 – 8 December 1950) was a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...
n-born American singer, film & stage actor. He was known for his
crooning
Crooner is a term used to describe primarily male singers who performed using a smooth style made possible by better microphones which picked up quieter sounds and a wider range of frequencies, allowing the singer to access a more dynamic range ...
high
baritone
A baritone is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the bass and the tenor voice-types. The term originates from the Greek (), meaning "heavy sounding". Composers typically write music for this voice in the r ...
voice and often portrayed genteel antagonists.
Life and career
Metaxa was born in
Bucharest
Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...
, Romania, to Nicholas Metaxa and Emilie Theophilatos.
He worked as a civil servant, becoming principle private secretary to the Romanian Ministry of Agriculture before emigrating to
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
in 1926 to pursue a career in
musical comedy
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movemen ...
.
He first began his showbusiness career recording songs, the first being the Romanian folk song "Mandrulita" in 1927. After engaging with
Charles B. Cochran
Sir Charles Blake Cochran (25 September 1872 31 January 1951), generally known as C. B. Cochran, was an English theatrical manager and impresario. He produced some of the most successful musical revues, musicals and plays of the 1920s and 193 ...
, his first stage billing was in
John Hastings Turner's 1929 musical revue ''
Wake Up and Dream''. Metaxa was then cast in
Noël Coward's operetta
Operetta is a form of theatre and a genre of light opera. It includes spoken dialogue, songs, and dances. It is lighter than opera in terms of its music, orchestral size, length of the work, and at face value, subject matter. Apart from its s ...
''
Bitter Sweet''. He continued to record songs in London until 1931, finishing with
Ray Noble's "
Goodnight Sweetheart" before moving to
New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
with the ''Bitter Sweet'' touring company.
His career in New York was slow to start, perhaps in part due to the saturation of similar male leads at the time. He nevertheless managed to find roles, his first film role being in ''
Secrets of a Secretary
''Secrets of a Secretary'' is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by George Abbott, and starring Claudette Colbert and Herbert Marshall. The film was stage actress Mary Boland's first role in a talkie.
Premise
Society girl becomes a so ...
'' in 1931. Metaxa was cast in the
musical
Musical is the adjective of music.
Musical may also refer to:
* Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance
* Musical film and television, a genre of film and television that incorporates into the narr ...
''
The Cat and the Fiddle'' and later the musical comedy ''
Revenge with Music
''Revenge with Music'' is a musical comedy with book and lyrics by Howard Dietz and music by Arthur Schwartz, that opened on Broadway in 1934. This was the first "book" musical by Dietz and Schwartz.
Background and productions
Dietz, inspired by a ...
''. He notably starred opposite
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
and
Fred Astaire
Fred Astaire (born Frederick Austerlitz; May 10, 1899 – June 22, 1987) was an American dancer, choreographer, actor, and singer. He is often called the greatest dancer in Hollywood film history.
Astaire's career in stage, film, and tele ...
in 1936's ''
Swing Time
In music, the term ''swing'' has two main uses. Colloquially, it is used to describe the propulsive quality or "feel" of a rhythm, especially when the music prompts a visceral response such as foot-tapping or head-nodding (see pulse). This sens ...
'', playing Astaire's love rival, the bandleader Ricky Romero.
He was married to Helene Valoary until their amicable divorce in July 1933, and they had one daughter. He then married 18-year-old actress Margaret Stafford in September 1933. In April 1934, Metaxa and Stafford were involved in an automobile accident in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
, which killed Stafford and gravely injured Metaxa. He later married Byrnece Macfadden Muckerman (the daughter of American publisher and bodybuilder
Bernarr Macfadden
Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pub ...
) in 1946.
Towards the end of his life, Metaxa's health declined to such a point he had to turn down roles, notably, the leading role in ''
South Pacific'' that was being shown in London. Metaxa died suddenly of a heart attack 8 December 1950 at a hotel in
Monroe, Louisiana
Monroe (historically french: Poste-du-Ouachita) is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of Louisiana, and parish seat of Ouachita Parish. With a 2020 census-tabulated population of 47,702, it is the principal city of the Monroe metropolita ...
, as he and his wife were on their way to their home in
Beverly Hills
Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Bev ...
after returning from a seven-month-long trip around Europe.
Selected performances
Film
Stage
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Metaxa, Georges
Male actors from Bucharest
Romanian emigrants to the United States
American film actors
American stage actors
American male musical theatre actors
1899 births
1950 deaths
20th-century American actors
20th-century American singers