Innes was born in Stepney, East London and began his career on the stage with the National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier. Before that, he trained at Toynbee Hall and evening classes at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he was awarded the Shakespeare Cup for excellence. He appeared in the Bernard Kops play The Dream of Peter Mann at the Edinburgh Festival and on a tour of Great Britain, directed by Frank Dunlop, under whom he had trained at Toynbee Hall and LAMDA. His final year of study and training was at the Bristol Old Vic School. He worked with Dunlop again in The Pantomime at the Bristol Old Vic, before a season at Nottingham Playhouse with Dunlop and John Neville. Other theatre credits include working for The Royal Court production company in Chips with Everything, which played in the West End and on Broadway. He appeared in Othello with Olivier at the National Theatre at Chichester and The Old Vic. Other performances in this period include roles in Dutch Courtesan, Mother Courage, Hobson's Choice, and The Master Builder. At the National Theatre at South Bank, he appeared in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, Bedroom Farce, and The Vortex at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles,. In 1993–94 he appeared in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Simon Curtis directing in Chicago, a production which appeared on Broadway. Returning to London, he performed at the Southwark Playhouse in Rosmersholm and Riders to the Sea. In 2009 he appeared off-Broadway in The Lodger at the Workshop Theatre. There he developed his one-man show called Tribute, based on the Ages of Man by Sir John Gielgud. It was also performed at The Players, a theatrical club in New York City. The show played during the August 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to excellent reviews. In March 2010, he performed Tribute at the Barron's Court Pub Theatre in London, receiving these reviews: "... the whole show centres around a superb talent: not Gielgud's but that of George Innes. The veteran performer has a marvellously warming presence with a deep velvet voice that could make a line from Avenue Q sound profound... Tribute really is a display of extraordinary talent." He performed the show at the Workshop Theatre in New York, touring westward to California.
Film career
Innes' film career includes Billy Liar, Charlie Bubbles, Before Winter Comes, The Italian Job, The Last Valley, Gumshoe, Pope Joan, Diamonds on Wheels, A Bridge too Far, Sweeney 2, The Medusa Touch, The Odd Job, Quadrophenia, A Tale of Two Cities, Shōgun, Goliath Awaits, Ivanhoe, Ordeal by Innocence and Morons from Outer Space. His recent films include Shiner, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Last Orders, ', Things To Do Before You're 30, Stardust and '.
Television career
Innes has been twice nominated for an Emmy Award for his work in television. Credits include classic British and American programmes: Alfred in Upstairs, Downstairs ; Jumbo in Budgie ; Wilkins in Danger UXB ; I, Claudius; The Good Life ; Open All Hours; Rumpole of the Bailey; QED; Masada; Hill Street Blues; Magnum, P.I.; Cagney & Lacey; M*A*S*H; The Ruth Rendell Mysteries ; Adam Bede; Seekers; Agatha Christie ; Noble House; Midsomer Murders ; Menace; The Brief; Get Some In! and Newhart.
