Why George Russell From The Gilded Age Looks So Familiar
by Ryan Scott · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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HBO has made many great shows over the years — so many, in fact, that it's easy for some to slip through the cracks. Not that these shows receive no love, but they perhaps don't get brought up as often as something like "The Sopranos" or "Game of Thrones." One ongoing historical drama that started in 2022 fits the bill. "The Gilded Age" is HBO's glitzy period drama where class conflict reigns supreme. It features an impressive cast, including one Mr. Morgan Spector as George Russell. He has a certain air of familiarity to him, and for good reason.
The show chronicles the conflict between old and new money in New York City's glittering Gilded Age. Season 1 kicks off in 1882 and centers on Marian Brook (Louisa Jacobson), an orphaned daughter of a Union general who moves in with her old money aunts and gets caught up in the lives of her stupendously rich neighbors. Season 2 picks up in 1883 by focusing on Bertha (Carrie Coon), who sets out to challenge the old guard by backing the new Metropolitan Opera House, while George (Spector) faces his own battles at his largest steel plant.
/Film called "The Gilded Age" earnest escapism that ticks all of the period boxes. It very much scratches an itch for viewers who enjoy historical dramas, and much of the cast is instantly recognizable. Carrie Coon is known for everything from "Avengers: Infinity War" to "The White Lotus." Christine Baranski is a legend with roles in movies like "The Birdcage" and "Mamma Mia!" among many others.
But what about Spector? Why does he look so familiar? There's his career as an actor, but there's also some historical familiarity that's worth mentioning.
Morgan Spector has quietly amassed an impressive body of work as an actor
Morgan Spector has quietly built up a significant resumé as an actor in Hollywood over the last 20 years. Even if his name isn't instantly recognizable, much of his work is.
Spector's career began in the 2000s with small roles in shows like "Law & Order: Criminal Intent" and movies like M. Night Shyamalan's "The Last Airbender." (The less said about that one, the better.) In the 2010s, he began doing short but memorable stints on acclaimed shows such as "Orange is the New Black," "Boardwalk Empire," and "Person of Interest." It was later in this decade when his career truly started to blossom.
In 2017, Stephen King's "The Mist" TV series failed to get out of its first season, but Spector was one of the main actors on that show, playing Kevin Copeland. He followed that up in 2018 with a nine-episode run on "Homeland" as Dante Allen. Though it wasn't a huge deal at the time, he also appeared on an episode of "Suits," which famously had newfound success on Netflix in 2023. That dovetailed into a run on "Pearson," the "Suits" spin-off that lasted just one season.
More recently, he appeared in the alternate history TV show "The Plot Against America." Spector also had a sizable role in the "Zodiac"-influenced true crime drama "Boston Strangler," alongside his "Gilded Age" co-star Carrie Coon. Some of his other notable roles include Netflix's series "Black Rabbit" and the crime thriller "The Drop."
Morgan Spector's George Russell is based on a real robber baron
While Morgan Spector's character George Russell in "The Gilded Age" isn't named after anyone specific from history, he is at least loosely inspired by a real historical figure. The show itself isn't trying to accurately capture the lives of real people. It's more interested in painting a picture with the occasional appearance of a real-life figure.
In the case of George Russell, he was based on Jay Gould, a famed capitalist and so-called "robber baron." As explained by A Historian Goes to the Movies, the Russell family is fictitious, but George is based on Gould, "a railroad magnate and financial speculator who was one of the earliest of the robber barons." Gould started as a bookkeeper and land surveyor, eventually investing in a tannery and ice harvesting before parlaying that into investing in railways.
The term robber barons began to be used at the turn of the 19th century. In the book "The Robber Barons: The Great American Capitalists 1861-1901," author Matthew Josephson said of these capitalist revolutionaries:
"All this revolutionizing effort is branded with the motive of private gain on the part of the new captains of industry. To organize and exploit the resources of a nation upon a gigantic scale, to regiment its farmers and workers into harmonious corps of producers, and to do this only in the name of an uncontrolled appetite for private profit."
Not unlike how murderer Ed Gein was the real-life inspiration behind countless horror movies, famed robber baron Jay Gould was the real-life inspiration for George Russell. Based on the descriptions of robber barons in general, it's not hard to connect the dots.
"The Gilded Age" is streaming now on HBO Max.