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‘Cult Spy Icons’ takes a look at some of the more peripheral characters on certain shows that have gained a legendary status all of their own.
Cult Spy Icon #1: George Mason
From bent bureau bastard to nuke exploding hero, George Mason’s all too brief time on 24 is the stuff of legend. Never short of a wisecrack at times of extreme duress, this CTU agent certainly went out in a blaze of glory.
Starting off life as Jack Bauer’s superior in the first season was never an easy proposition for our unsung hero. Most places have a grievance policy if an employee is disillusioned with their boss, but disagree with Bauer and he’ll simply slap a tranquiliser dart in your bony behind, as our Georgie found out.
Don’t for a moment whack Mason down as a victim though. For it emerged that he had been a rather naughty boy and stashed away some serious dirty money from a heroin dealer he’d brought to justice. This very human weakness helped endear George to so many viewers, with his dodgy dealings making him far more appealing than the other squeaky clean bureaucrats from Division. We knew he was a good guy too, for he put aside his issues with Jack to work alongside him and save the day.
It wasn’t just his actions that made him so legendary. It was his whole look. Take one look at George Mason’s face and you have a portrait of lifetime sadness in those puppy-dog eyes and droopy jowls. You sense that even if he stumbled across several billion pounds, discovered a cure for his baldness and won an ‘anything goes’ weekend orgy with Girls Aloud that he’d still bear a facial expression that would make your eyes well up.
Ah yes, the Mason hair. As the second day of 24 arrived so did a curious global obsession with his hairline. Between seasons it seemed to bizarrely inch back towards his forehead on a weekly basis. If the poor guy made it to Day Three we’d probably mistake him for Chewbacca. Perhaps that’s where the furry growth under Tony Almeida’s chin ended up - glued to George Mason’s balding bonce?
Anyway, as Jack Bauer was off messing around with random cougars and trying to prevent his daughter being kidnapped for the eighth consecutive time within an hour, Mason was being seriously shat upon by the fickle finger of fate. As Los Angeles faced imminent destruction by a nuclear weapon, cheeky George tried to creep out of town and save his own skin. Oh, the irony!
Before he could peg it he was dispatched to inspect a site believed to be the source of some terrorist activity… and stumbled straight into a plutonium pickle. Oh dear. When the experts turned up in protective clothing they ordered him to strip off for an old fashioned scrub down. “Aren’t you even gonna buy me dinner?” joked George, despite the gravity of the situation. What a guy.
Such dry wit gave us a much needed escape from listening to a foaming-at-the-mouth Jack Bauer screaming out “WHERE’S THE BOMB?!” at regular intervals, like one of those battery operated toys who repeats a certain phrase every time you push the button.
The doctors soon told George that he faced impending death by radiation sickness within the day. But instead of throwing a sickie and getting down the pub, George kept quiet about the whole imminent death thing and bravely returned to run things at CTU. The problem was that whilst his upper lip might have remained stiff, the rest of his skin seemed quite keen to drop off as his physical condition deteriorated.
George’s shady dealings were well documented, but in his dying hours he pulled off one hell of a redemption. Firstly, he made up with his estranged son and gave him all the dodgy money he’d pocketed in the past. Then, with a primed nuclear explosive device now in the possession of CTU and the countdown begun, a cunning plan was hatched to minimise civilian casualties by whacking the bomb onto a plane and crashing it into the remote desert.
Jack Bauer volunteered to fly the plane and kiss goodbye to his own life, but George crept aboard the vessel and remained wheeze-free until he was airborne. Before you knew it, George had convinced Jack to parachute out of the plane to safety and he was going to finish the kamikaze mission alone. Millions of viewers held candlelit vigils across the globe in the hope that somehow the hero would survive being at the centre of a nuclear explosion. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Still, whilst the scabs of skin might have been flying off George Mason, the actor behind the character - Xandler Berkley - picked up a mole for himself. Yup, we’re referring to his real-life relationship with naughty Nina Myers actress Sarah Clarke. Lucky sod.
