Melchor Gastón FerrerSome sources spell his first name as MELCHIOR but this is incorrect based on Ferrer's records at Princeton University. Also he was named for his paternal grandfather, Melchor Ferrer. And the name MELCHOR G. FERRER was used on the cover of Tito's Hats, a children's book that Ferrer wrote in 1940.Ancestry Library Edition (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer, active in film, theatre, and television. He achieved prominence on Broadway theatre before scoring notable film hits with Scaramouche (1952), Lili (1953), and Knights of the Round Table (also 1953) . He starred opposite his wife, actress Audrey Hepburn, in War and Peace (1956) and produced her film Wait Until Dark (1967).
Beginning in the 1970s, Ferrer acted extensively in Italian films and appeared in several Cult film, including The Antichrist (1974), The Black Corsair (1976) and Nightmare City (1980). He was also a co-founder of the La Jolla Playhouse.
His mother's family, the O'Donohues, were prominent Roman Catholics. One of his aunts, Marie Louise O'Donohue, was named a Papal nobility, while another aunt, Teresa Riley O'Donohue, a leading figure in American Roman Catholic charities and welfare organizations, was granted permission by Pope Pius XI to install a private chapel in her New York City apartment.
Ferrer had three siblings. His elder sister, Dr. María Irené Ferrer (July 30, 1915 – November 12, 2004), was a cardiologist and educator who helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram. She died in 2004 in Manhattan at 89 of pneumonia and congestive heart failure. Their brother, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer (November 23, 1912 – December 24, 1982), was a surgeon; he died at 70 from complications of abdominal surgery. Their younger sister, Teresa Ferrer (March 30, 1919 – February 12, 2002), was the religion editor of The New York Herald Tribune and an education editor for Newsweek. She died at 82 from a thoracic aneurysm.
Ferrer was privately educated at the Bovée School in New York (where one of his classmates was the future author Louis Auchincloss) and Canterbury Prep School in Connecticut. He attended Princeton University until his sophomore year, when he dropped out to devote more time to acting.
He worked as an editor of a small Vermont newspaper and wrote the children's book Tito's Hats (Garden City Publishing, 1940).
His first acting roles were in a revival of Kind Lady (1940) and Cue for Passion (1940).
Among the films he worked on were Louisiana Hayride (1944), They Live in Fear (1944), Sergeant Mike (1944), Together Again (1944), Meet Miss Bobby Socks (1944), Let's Go Steady (1944), Ten Cents a Dance (1945), and A Thousand and One Nights (1945). Some were "B" movies but others ( Thousand and One Nights) were more prestigious. Ferrer directed The Girl of the Limberlost (1945), starring Ruth Nelson.
He and Hepburn divorced in 1968.
In the U.S., he was in Hi-Riders (1978), The Norseman (1978), (1979), and The Fifth Floor (1979). In 1979, he portrayed Dr. Brogli in an episode of Return of the Saint. In Europe, he was in The Visitor (1979), Island of the Fishmen (1980), Nightmare City (1980), The Great Alligator River (1980) and Eaten Alive! (1980). He went to Germany for Lili Marleen (1981). He worked in two of Spanish actress Marisol's film vehicles: Cabriola and La chica del molino rojo, being the director of the first and acting in the second.
For his contributions to the motion picture industry, Mel Ferrer has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6268 Hollywood Blvd.
Before his marriage to Elizabeth Soukhotine in 1971, Ferrer had a relationship with 29-year-old interior designer Tessa Kennedy.
1947 | The Fugitive | Father Serra | Uncredited |
1949 | Lost Boundaries | Scott Mason Carter | |
1950 | Born to Be Bad | Gobby | |
1951 | The Brave Bulls | Luis Bello | |
1952 | Rancho Notorious | Frenchy Fairmont | |
Scaramouche | Noel, Marquis de Maynes | ||
1953 | Lili | Paul Berthalet | |
Knights of the Round Table | King Arthur | ||
Saadia | Henrik | ||
1954 | Proibito | Don Paolo Salinas | |
1955 | Oh... Rosalinda!! | Capt. Alfred Westerman | |
1956 | War and Peace | Prince Andrei Bolkonsky | |
Elena and Her Men | Henri de Chevincourt | ||
1957 | The Vintage | Giancarlo Barandero | |
The Sun Also Rises | Robert Cohn | ||
1958 | Fräulein | Maj. Foster MacLain | |
1959 | The World, the Flesh and the Devil | Benson Thacker | |
1960 | Blood and Roses | Leopoldo De Karnstein | |
L'Homme à femmes | Georges Gauthier | ||
The Hands of Orlac | Stephen Orlac | ||
1961 | Mirko | ||
1962 | Charge of the Black Lancers | Andrea Di Tula | |
The Devil and the Ten Commandments | Philip Allan | Segment: "Luxurieux point ne seras" | |
The Longest Day | Maj. General Robert Haines | ||
Marco Polo | Unfinished | ||
1963 | Charade | Man Smoking Cigarette in Nightclub | Uncredited |
1964 | Paris When It Sizzles | Costume Party Jekyll & Hyde | |
The Fall of the Roman Empire | Cleander | ||
Sex and the Single Girl | Rudy | ||
Juan Bautista de La Salle | |||
1966 | El Greco | El Greco | |
1967 | Wait Until Dark | Radio Announcer (voice) | Uncredited |
1972 | A Time for Loving | Dr. Harrison | |
1973 | Dalton Harvey | ||
1974 | The Antichrist | Massimo Oderisi | |
1975 | Brannigan | Fields | |
Silent Action | District Attorney Mannino | ||
The Suspicious Death of a Minor | Police Superintendent | ||
The Net | Aurelio Morelli | ||
1976 | Eaten Alive | Harvey Wood | |
The Black Corsair | Van Gould | ||
1977 | Gangbuster | Peseti, the Boss | |
1978 | Seagulls Fly Low | Roberto Micheli | |
The Pyjama Girl Case | Professor Henry Douglas | ||
Hi-Riders | Sheriff | ||
The Norseman | King Eurich | ||
Colonel Stone | |||
The Fifth Floor | Dr. Sidney Coleman | ||
Vera's husband | |||
1979 | Screamers | Radcliffe | U.S. cut only |
The Visitor | Dr. Walker | ||
The Great Alligator River | Joshua | ||
1980 | Eaten Alive! | Professor Carter | |
Nightmare City | General Murchison | ||
1981 | Lili Marleen | David Mendelsson | |
Sheriff | |||
1982 | A Thousand Billion Dollars | Cornelius A. Woeagen | |
Stephan Mathiesen | |||
1984 | A Soft Sunset | Franz Bollenstein | |
1991 | Eye of the Widow | Frankenheimer |
1944 | Louisiana Hayride | As dialogue coach | |||
They Live in Fear | |||||
Sergeant Mike | |||||
Together Again | |||||
Meet Miss Bobby Socks | |||||
1945 | Let's Go Steady | ||||
Ten Cents a Dance | |||||
Boston Blackie | |||||
A Thousand and One Nights | |||||
The Girl of the Limberlost | Directorial Debut | ||||
1947 | The Fugitive | As directorial assistant | |||
1950 | The Secret Fury | ||||
Vendetta | Replaced Stuart Heisler | ||||
1951 | The Racket | Uncredited; directed additional scenes | |||
1952 | Macao | Uncredited; directed one day of reshoots | |||
1959 | Green Mansions | ||||
1965 | Cabriola | Also writer | |||
1966 | El Greco | ||||
1967 | Wait Until Dark | ||||
1971 | The Night Visitor | ||||
1972 | Embassy |
1953–1954 | Omnibus | Chairman of the Board / Jeff Talbot | 2 episodes |
1957 | Producers' Showcase | Crown Prince Rudolph | Episode: "Mayerling" |
ITV Play of the Week | Episode: "Lost Boundaries" | ||
1959 | Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre | Marshal Monty Elstrode | Episode: "The Ghost" |
Rendezvous | Episode: "London in the Spring" | ||
1963 | Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre | Peter Carrington | Episode: "The Fifth Passenger" |
1973 | Columbo | Jerry Parks | Episode: "Requiem for a Falling Star" |
Carola | Gen. Franz von Clodius | Television film | |
Tenafly | Charlie Rush | Episode: "Pilot" | |
Search | John Rickman | Episode: "Suffer My Child" | |
1974 | Police Story | Dr. Ross | Episode: "Wyatt Earp Syndrome" |
Marcus Welby, M.D. | Carlo | Episode: "Designs" | |
1976 | Ellery Queen | Brandon Childs | Episode: "The Adventure of the Disappearing Dagger" |
Origins of the Mafia | Armando Della Morra | Episode: "La legge" | |
1977 | Hawaii Five-O | Emil Radick / Father Neill | 2 episodes |
Baretta | Alex Kramer | Episode: "Everybody Pays the Fare" | |
The Fantastic Journey | Appolonius | Episode: "Funhouse" | |
Lanigan's Rabbi | Mike Rushmore | Episode: "In Hot Weather, the Crime Rate Soars" | |
The New Adventures of Wonder Woman | Fritz Gerlich | Episode: "Anschluss '77" | |
Logan's Run | Analog | Episode: "Man Out of Time" | |
Sharon: Portrait of a Mistress | David | Television film | |
1978 | Black Beauty | Nicholas Skinner | Television miniseries |
How the West Was Won | Hale Burton | 3 episodes | |
The Return of Captain Nemo | Dr. Robert Cook | Television film | |
1979 | Return of the Saint | Dr. Paolo Brogli | Episode: "Vicious Circle" |
Eischied | Episode: "Who Is the Missing Woman?" | ||
1979–1980 | Dallas | Harrison Page | 2 episodes |
1980 | Top of the Hill | Andreas Heggener | Television film |
Hagen | Poole | Episode: "The Straw Man" | |
The Memory of Eva Ryker | Dr. Sanford | Television film | |
Fugitive Family | Anthony Durano | Television film | |
1981 | Behind the Screen | Evan Hammer | Episode: "Pilot" |
1981–1984 | Falcon Crest | Phillip Erikson | 54 episodes |
1982 | Fantasy Island | Moriarity / Lord Collingwood | Episode: "The Case Against Mr. Roarke/Save Sherlock Holmes" |
One Shoe Makes It Murder | Carl Charnock | Television film | |
1984 | Finder of Lost Loves | George Matthews | Episode: "Forgotten Melodies" |
1985 | Seduced | Arthur Orloff | Television film |
Hotel | Garrett Hardy / Anthony Palandrini | 2 episodes | |
The Love Boat | Jack Powers | 2 episodes | |
Glitter | Episode: "Nightfall" | ||
1985–1989 | Murder, She Wrote | Miles Austin / Eric Brahm | 2 episodes |
1986 | Peter the Great | Frederick | Television miniseries |
Outrage! | Judge Michael Lengel | Television film | |
Dream West | Judge Elkins | Television miniseries | |
1989 | Wild Jack | Television miniseries | |
1989–1990 | Christine Cromwell | Doctor | 4 episodes |
1995 | Catherine the Great | Patriarch | Television film |
1998 | Stories from My Childhood | Geppetto (voice) | Episode: "Pinocchio and the Golden Key" |
1939 | American Landscape | Abraham Cohen | Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, Ann Arbor | ||||
Captain Brassbound's Conversion | American Bluejacket | ||||||
1940 | Kind Lady | Peter Stanard | Playhouse Theatre, Broadway | ||||
Cue for Passion | Reporter | Royale Theatre, Broadway | |||||
1945–46 | Strange Fruit | Tracy Deen | |||||
1946–47 | Cyrano de Bergerac | Alvin Theatre, Broadway | |||||
Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway | |||||||
1947 | Dear Ruth | La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego | |||||
1949 | Command Decision | ||||||
The Importance of Being Earnest | |||||||
Ring Round the Moon | |||||||
1950 | Our Town | ||||||
1951 | The Voice of the Turtle | Bill Page | |||||
1952 | Strike a Match | ||||||
1952–53 | U.S. tour | ||||||
1954 | Ondine | Hans von Wittenstein zu Wittenstein | 46th St. Theatre, Broadway |
1952 | Family Theater | Hound of Heaven |
1953 | Radio Theater | Undercurrent |
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