Scratch a banker, businessman, or state senator, and in 1940s Hollywood you would more than likely find George Carleton. Bespectacled, balding, and self-important despite his small stature, Carleton was all over the place during World War II and beyond, from portraying Dr. Paul Meredith, the inventor of a new oxygen respirator, in the Republic serial The Purple Monster Strikes (1945) to playing General Finney in Billy Wilder's witty A Foreign Affair (1948). Coming to films rather late in life, Carleton was a well-known Broadway and stock company actor who had originated the role of the Coroner in George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1934). He had come to Hollywood in the early '30s as a dialogue director and coach. The veteran actor died in from a heart attack in 1950.