In 1936 Coulouris met American theatrical wunderkind Orson Welles while both were appearing in Sidney Kingsley’s Ten Million Ghosts. The meeting led to him joining Welles’s Mercury Theatre. Among his high profile roles at Mercury was Mark Antony in Caesar, a Setting Update of William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. The association with Welles continued when Coulouris played Walter Parks Thatcher, the guardian of Charles Foster Kane in Citizen Kane.
Coulouris would work both in Hollywood and back in the UK for the next 4-5 decades, including guest appearances on the television shows Danger Man, Doctor Who, and The Prisoner (1967).
Coulouris died of complications from Parkinson’s disease in 1989. He had been married twice, to Louise Franklin and Elizabeth Donaldson. He had two children: George F. Coulouris, a computer scientist; and Mary Louise Coulouris, an artist.
Ben Chaplin played Coulouris in Richard Linklater's 2008 film Me and Orson Welles.
Partial filmography:
Film
- 1940 All This, and Heaven Too: Charpentier
- 1941 Citizen Kane: Walter Parks Thatcher
- 1943 For Whom the Bell Tolls: André Massart (Uncredited Role)
- 1943 Watch on the Rhine: Teck de Brancovis
- 1944 None but the Lonely Heart: Jim Mordinoy
- 1954 Doctor in the House: Mr. William Briggs
- 1955 Doctor at Sea: Chippie
- 1957 Doctor at Large: Pascoe
- 1961 King of Kings: Camel Driver
- 1966 Arabesque: Ragheeb
- 1969 The Assassination Bureau: Swiss Peasant
- 1971 A Clockwork Orange: Professor (uncredited)
- 1973 Papillon: Dr. Chatal
- 1974 Murder on the Orient Express (1974): Dr. Constantine
- 1976 Shout at the Devil: El Keb
- 1980 The Long Good Friday: Gus (uncredited)
Television
- 1961 Danger Man: Police Commissioner (1 episode)
- 1963 Z Cars: Watchman (1 episode)
- 1964 Doctor Who: Arbitan (2 episodes; 1 serial)
- 1967 The Prisoner (1967): Man with the Stick (1 episode)
- 1984 Hart to Hart: Nicholas Kalvos (1 episode)
