Although he died in 1950, George Orwell seemingly escaped the reach of modern media. Orwell’s voice was never captured on audio. And his image never appeared on film. Historians and literature scholars lamented this for decades.
But then, in 2003, on the hundredth anniversary of Orwell’s birth, two researchers stumbled upon a tantalizing piece of footage in the The Pathay Film Library in London. The very brief footage — watch in full here, or at the 50 second mark in the video above — shows an 18-year-old Orwell, then named Eric Blair, marching across a sports field at Eton College, where he spent his formative years and studied French with Aldous Huxley. In the line of marching students, Orwell is the fourth student from the left.
Note: the video above comes from a British Pathe clip that features celebrities before they became famous. If you’re curious who appears in the film, see the list below the jump.
1) Arnold Schwarzenegger winning Mr. Universe in 1969.
2) British broadcasting legend David Dimbleby doing a spot of modern art as a student.
3) Audrey Hepburn modelling before she was an actress.
4) Germaine Greer at a Rolling Stones show in 1969.
5) Melanie Griffiths as a little girl, attending Charlie Chaplin’s 77th birthday party.
6) George Orwell at Eton playing “The Wall Game”
7) Grace Kelly modelling “honeymoon fashions” in 1949.
8) Julie Andrews singing at the 1948 Royal Command Performance when only 14 years old.
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