After World War II, he and his wife Berta Drews were imprisoned by the Soviet Army in June 1945, first in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen, then in the former Nazi concentration camp Sachsenhausen, where he died during an appendix operation in September 1946. His remains were found and identified in an unmarked mass grave in a forest near Sachsenhausen in 1994.
Although being active in Germany's Communist Party before the Nazi takeover, he later played in a number of propaganda films before and during World War II, including Our Flags Lead Us Forward (1933) and Jud Süß (1940).
Although it is inaccurate to say he is actually a character in Peter Handke's "anti-play," "The Ride Across Lake Constance," his name is used as a designation of a character, as are the names of other celebrated actors of the German cinema, Elisabeth Bergner, Erich von Stroheim, Emil Jannings, Henny Porten and the twins Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler.
Father of actor Jan George (born 1932).
Father of actor Götz George (born 23 July 1938).
Is buried in the Städtischer Friedhof Berlin-Zehlendorf.
Performed on stage under Germany's most famous left-wing directors Bertolt Brecht and Erwin Piscator in the 1920s.
Some published reports state that George actually died of starvation in the Soviet detention camp of Sachsenhausen. According to these, the authorities pressured the camp physician to report the death as following an appendectomy.