George J. Lewis was born December 10th, 1903 in Guadalajara, Mexico and attended high school in San Diego before beginning his film career in 1923 as an extra. He had gained prominence as an athletic all-American boy in Universal's popular Collegiates 2-reeler series and in 1925 had the lead in His People. He remained with Collegiates into the talkie era before forsaking leading roles for those character parts. He gradually drifted into character parts and in addition to many featured films appeared in many serials, radio and television. Sporting a mustache in most of his appearances, Lewis played a steady stream of "other men", society villains, weaklings, and cads at both Republic Studios and the Columbia short subjects unit. His best-known serial role was as the erudite gangster who plays Moonlight Sonata on his piano while planning the death of the hero in the 1945 Republic serial Federal Operator 99. In the 1944 serial Zorro's Black Whip, Lewis was cast uncharacteristically as the good guy.

As he grew older, he was ideal for any role that required a sense of Spanish dignity, such as his role as Alejandro de la Vega in Disney's Zorro.. He was a close friend of Alan Ladd and played in many of his films before retiring in 1962 and began to devote full time to his successful real estate business. George J. Lewis died of a stroke at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, CA on December 10th 1995, his 91st birthday.