In Popular Culture
George Boleyn is portrayed by Michael Johnson in the 1969 film "Anne of the Thousand Days" and by Jonathan Newth in the 1970 television series The Six Wives of Henry VIII; by Steven MacKintosh in the 2003 television film The Other Boleyn Girl (based on the novel The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory); by Jim Sturgess in the 2008 film The Other Boleyn Girl (also based on the novel by Gregory). Gregory chose to incorporate into her novel Warnicke's discredited theories, and therefore portrayed George Boleyn as bisexual. She also strongly hinted that Anne and George were actually guilty of the crimes for which they were condemned. Although the film adaptation of the book does not portray George as bisexual or incestuous, it does portray him and Anne contemplating incest, which in the 16th century would have amounted to treason by intent, and it also portrays him as a somewhat weak and ineffectual young man who dies on the scaffold as a coward.
George is portrayed by Padraic Delaney in the television series The Tudors. The writers of The Tudors also chose to portray George as bisexual, but in addition to this they showed him as a cruel rapist who raped his young wife on their wedding night. As with the depictions of homosexuality, there is no extant evidence to support the notion that George Boleyn was a violent man.
Read more about this topic: George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford
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