After he retired from directing, he took up a second career as a character actor and appeared in quite a few films.
During the days of factory-produced silent pictures, Melford's booming voice often disrupted adjacent productions (annoying casts and crews). He quickly acquired the nickname "Whispering George.".
Father of Judson Melford.
For part of his career, he worked at Universal Pictures under producer Paul Kohner, where he would direct films for the Spanish-language market. He directed the well-regarded Spanish-language version of Dracula (1931), called Drácula (1931))--even though he neither spoke nor understood Spanish.
Prior to becoming a director, he had held down a job as a blacksmith.