The Last Picture Show

• Photographer
  Marianne (Smith) Dalton

This portrait is from the series of the same name, The Last Picture Show, which documents George during his last year of life. George loved old movies; especially Film Noir and he could literally quote almost every classic film ever made. He played jazz piano, loved avant-garde music, sang, often spoke in rhymes, danced the “soft-shoe” (at any given moment) and was a gifted hypnotist. In fact, the day I took this photo of him he stated very matter-of-factly: "I am waiting to die. I have lived long enough. I am comfortable and I really don’t have any health issues,” then he laughingly quipped in his best Bogart accent, “that’s the good and the bad news.” This summed up George perfectly. Weighing in at just over 100 pounds and standing 5 feet 10 inches tall, his quirky humor was rooted in his self-perception: self-assured, yet self-deprecating with a quick, cutting satirical edge. In this photo you get a sense of his strong character as he truly embodies the film genre that he loved so much.