American film actor and filmmaker (1917?2008)
Mel Ferrer
|
---|
Ferrer in 1960
|
Born
| Melchor Gaston Ferrer
(
1917-08-25
)
August 25, 1917
|
---|
Died
| June 2, 2008
(2008-06-02)
(aged 90)
|
---|
Alma mater
| Princeton University
|
---|
Occupations
| |
---|
Years active
| 1937?1998
|
---|
Spouses
|
Frances Pilchard
(
m.
1937;
div.
1939)
(
m.
1944;
div.
1954)
Barbara C. Tripp
(
m.
1940;
div.
1944)
(
m.
1954;
div.
1968)
Elizabeth Soukhotine
(
m.
1971)
|
---|
Children
| 6, including
Sean
|
---|
Relatives
| Emma Ferrer
(granddaughter)
|
---|
Melchor Gaston Ferrer
[1]
[2]
(August 25, 1917 ? June 2, 2008) was an American actor and filmmaker. He achieved prominence on
Broadway
before scoring notable film hits with
Scaramouche
,
Lili
, and
Knights of the Round Table
.
He starred opposite his wife, actress
Audrey Hepburn
, in
War and Peace
and produced her film
Wait Until Dark
. He also acted extensively in European films and appeared in several
cult hits
, including
The Antichrist
(1974),
The Suspicious Death of a Minor
(1975),
The Black Corsair
(1976) and
Nightmare City
(1980).
Early life
[
edit
]
Ferrer was born in
Elberon, New Jersey
, of Spanish and Irish descent. His father, Dr. Jose Maria Ferrer (December 3, 1857 – February 23, 1920),
[2]
was born in
Havana
,
Cuba
, of Catalan ancestry.
[3]
[4]
Jose was an authority on pneumonia and served as chief of staff of St. Vincent's Hospital in
New York City
. He was 59 years old at the time of Mel's birth and died three years later.
[5]
Mel Ferrer's US-born mother, Mary Matilda Irene (nee O'Donohue; January 28, 1878 – February 19, 1967),
[6]
was a daughter of coffee broker Joseph J. O'Donohue, New York's City Commissioner of Parks, a founder of the Coffee Exchange, and a founder of the Brooklyn-New York Ferry. An ardent opponent of
Prohibition
, Irene Ferrer (as she was known) was named in 1934 as the New York State chairman of the Citizens Committee for Sane Liquor Laws.
[7]
Mel's parents married on October 17, 1910, in New York.
[2]
His mother's family, the O'Donohues, were prominent
Roman Catholics
. Ferrer's aunt, Marie Louise O'Donohue, was named a
papal countess
,
[8]
and his mother's sister, 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.
[9]
Ferrer had three siblings. His elder sister, Dr. Maria Irene Ferrer (July 30, 1915 ? November 12, 2004), was a cardiologist and educator who helped refine the cardiac catheter and
electrocardiogram
.
[10]
She died in 2004 in
Manhattan
at 89 of pneumonia and congestive heart failure.
[10]
Their brother, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer (November 23, 1912 ? December 24, 1982),
[2]
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.
[7]
[11]
Ferrer was privately educated at the Bovee 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.
[
citation needed
]
He worked as an editor of a small
Vermont
newspaper and wrote the children's book
Tito's Hats
(Garden City Publishing, 1940).
[a]
Career
[
edit
]
Early theatre work
[
edit
]
Ferrer began acting in
summer stock
as a teenager and in 1937 won the Theatre Intime award for best new play by a Princeton undergraduate; the play was called
Awhile to Work
and co-starred another college student, Frances Pilchard, who would become Ferrer's first wife later the same year.
[12]
At 21, he was appearing on the Broadway stage as a chorus dancer, making his debut there as an actor two years later. He appeared as a chorus dancer in two unsuccessful musicals,
Cole Porter
's
You Never Know
and
Everywhere I Roam
. After a bout with
polio
, Ferrer worked as a disc jockey in Texas and Arkansas and moved to Mexico to work on the novel
Tito's Hat
(published 1940).
[
citation needed
]
His first acting roles were in a revival of
Kind Lady
(1940) and
Cue for Passion
(1940).
[13]
[14]
Columbia Pictures
[
edit
]
Ferrer was contracted to
Columbia Pictures
as a director, along with several other "potentials" who began as dialogue directors:
Fred Sears
,
William Castle
,
Henry Levin
and
Robert Gordon
.
[15]
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
.
Broadway
[
edit
]
Eventually, he returned to Broadway, where he starred in
Strange Fruit
(1945?46), a play based on the novel by
Lillian Smith
. It was directed by
Jose Ferrer
(no relation). He then directed Jose Ferrer in the 1946 stage production of
Cyrano de Bergerac
.
[16]
He worked as an assistant on
The Fugitive
(1947), directed by John Ford in Mexico. Along with
Gregory Peck
,
Dorothy McGuire
and
Joseph Cotten
, he founded the
La Jolla Playhouse
in
San Diego
.
Screen actor
[
edit
]
Ferrer made his screen acting debut with a starring role in
Lost Boundaries
(1949), playing a black person who
passes for white
. The film was controversial but much acclaimed.
[17]
Howard Hughes's RKO Studios
[
edit
]
Ferrer had a supporting role in
Born to Be Bad
(1950) at
RKO
, directed by
Nicholas Ray
. At that studio, he directed
Claudette Colbert
in
The Secret Fury
(1950) and directed or co-directed
Vendetta
(1950),
The Racket
(1951), and
Macao
(1952). He starred as a bullfighter in
The Brave Bulls
(1951) for
Robert Rossen
at Columbia. Ferrer fought with
Arthur Kennedy
over
Marlene Dietrich
in
Rancho Notorious
(1952), directed by
Fritz Lang
at RKO.
Ferrer went to MGM, replacing
Fernando Lamas
as the villain in
Scaramouche
(1952). The film, particularly notable for a long, climactic sword fight between Ferrer and
Stewart Granger
, was a huge hit. The studio kept him on for
Lili
(1953) as the title character (played by
Leslie Caron
)'s love interest. It was another big success; Ferrer and Caron also got a hit single out of it, "Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo".
Saadia
(1953), which Ferrer made with
Cornel Wilde
, was a flop, but
Knights of the Round Table
(1954), in which Ferrer played King Arthur, was another hit. Ferrer met actress
Audrey Hepburn
at a party; she wanted to do a play together. They appeared in
Ondine
(1954) on Broadway and wed in 1954.
[
citation needed
]
Europe
[
edit
]
Ferrer went to Italy to make
Proibito
(1954) and to England for
Oh... Rosalinda!!
(1955), directed by
Powell and Pressburger
. Neither film was widely seen, but
War and Peace
(1956) was a big success; Ferrer played Prince Andrei, co-starring with then-wife Audrey Hepburn. In France, he co-starred with
Ingrid Bergman
in
Elena and Her Men
(1956), directed by
Jean Renoir
.
United States
[
edit
]
Ferrer and Hepburn made
Mayerling
(1957) for American television; it was released theatrically in some countries. Ferrer returned to MGM to make
The Vintage
(1957) with
Pier Angeli
, which was a big flop. He made two films for
20th Century Fox
: an all-star adaptation of
The Sun Also Rises
(1957) and
Fraulein
(1958), a war story with
Dana Wynter
. At MGM, he played one of the last three people on Earth in
The World, the Flesh and the Devil
(1959), another flop.
[
citation needed
]
Ferrer went to Italy to star in
Roger Vadim
's vampire movie
Blood and Roses
(1960). After an English horror film,
The Hands of Orlac
(1960), he starred in the Italian adventure film
Charge of the Black Lancers
(1962). He was one of several stars in
The Devil and the Ten Commandments
(1962) and
The Longest Day
(1962). He had a cameo in his wife's
Paris When It Sizzles
(1964) and was
Marcus Aurelius Cleander
in
The Fall of the Roman Empire
(1964).
[
citation needed
]
Television
[
edit
]
Ferrer then turned to television, doing some directing for the series
The Farmer's Daughter
(1963?66) starring
Inger Stevens
,
William Windom
, and
Cathleen Nesbitt
. Ferrer had a supporting role in
Sex and the Single Girl
(1964). From 1981 to 1984, he appeared opposite
Jane Wyman
as Angela Channing's attorney (and briefly her husband),
Phillip Erikson
, on
Falcon Crest
(as well as directing several episodes). He played a blackmailing reporter in the
Columbo
episode "Requiem for a Fallen Star", starring
Anne Baxter
. He appeared opposite
Cyd Charisse
in an episode of the long-running
Angela Lansbury
series,
Murder She Wrote
, and appeared in two television miniseries,
Peter the Great
(1986) and
Dream West
(1986). Later credits include
Eye of the Widow
(1991) and
Catherine the Great
(1995).
[
citation needed
]
Producer
[
edit
]
Ferrer produced and starred in the biopic
El Greco
(1966), playing the
famous painter
. He also produced
Wait Until Dark
(1967), starring his wife, another big hit.
He and Hepburn divorced in 1968.
[18]
Later acting career
[
edit
]
Ferrer was mostly a jobbing actor in the 1970s, working much in Italy. Among his credits were
A Time for Loving
(1972);
The Antichrist
(1974) in Italy;
Brannigan
(1974), a crime drama set in
London
that starred
John Wayne
;
Silent Action
(1975) and
The Suspicious Death of a Minor
(1975), both for
Sergio Martino
;
The Net
(1975), shot in Germany;
The Black Corsair
(1976), an Italian swashbuckler;
Gangbuster
(1977) in Italy;
The Pyjama Girl Case
(1977);
Seagulls Fly Low
(1977).
In the U.S., he was in
Hi-Riders
(1978),
The Norseman
(1978),
Guyana: Crime of the Century
(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.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Ferrer married five times, to four women, with whom he had six children. His wives were:
- Frances Gunby Pilchard, his first and third wife, an actress who became a sculptor.
[19]
They married in 1937, and divorced in 1939 after having one child together, who died before their divorce.
[20]
[21]
- Barbara C. Tripp, whom Ferrer married in 1940 and later divorced. They had two children: daughter Mela Ferrer (born 1943) and son Christopher Ferrer (born 1944).
- Frances Gunby Pilchard, for the 2nd time; they remarried in 1944, and divorced in 1953, after having two more children together: Pepa Philippa Ferrer (born 1941, conceived during his marriage with Tripp) and Mark Young Ferrer (born 1944).
- Audrey Hepburn
, to whom he was married from 1954 until 1968. They had one son,
Sean Hepburn Ferrer
(born 1960).
- Elizabeth
Soukhotine
[
ru
]
, from Belgium, to whom he was married from 1971 to his death in 2008.
[20]
Before his marriage to Elizabeth Soukhotine in 1971, Ferrer had a relationship with 29-year-old interior designer
Tessa Kennedy
.
[22]
[23]
Besides English, Ferrer was also fluent in Spanish and French.
Death
[
edit
]
A resident of
Carpinteria, California
,
[11]
Ferrer died of heart failure at a convalescent home in
Santa Barbara, California
on June 2, 2008, at age 90.
[16]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Actor
[
edit
]
Film
[
edit
]
Television
[
edit
]
Director
[
edit
]
Dialogue coach
[
edit
]
Radio
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Some 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.
- ^
a
b
c
d
Ancestry Library Edition
[
verification needed
]
- ^
"MEL FERRER, TV actor, Producer and Film director"
.
thecubanhistory.com
. January 12, 2017.
- ^
"Biography of Mel Ferrer (1917-2008)"
.
TheBiography.us
. 2018. Archived from
the original
on July 21, 2020
. Retrieved
July 20,
2020
.
- ^
"Dr. Jose M. Ferrer".
The New York Times
. Obituaries. February 24, 1920.
- ^
"Weddings: Ferrer-O'Donohue",
The New York Times
, October 19, 1910.
- ^
a
b
"Mrs. J.M. Ferrer, Civic Leader, 89".
The New York Times
. February 21, 1967.
- ^
"Joseph O'Donohue, Real Estate Man, Dead".
The New York Times
. October 31, 1937.
- ^
"Teresa O'Donohue, Charities Worker".
The New York Times
. August 18, 1937.
- ^
a
b
"Changing the Face of Medicine | M. Irene Ferrer"
.
cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov
. US:
National Institutes of Health
.
- ^
a
b
"Terry Ferrer, 82, Education Editor"
.
The New York Times
. April 1, 2002
. Retrieved
September 16,
2020
.
- ^
"M.G. Ferrer Wins Prize Play Award",
The New York Times
, March 3, 1937, p. 27
- ^
"Kind Lady"
. Internet Broadway Database. Archived from
the original
on April 16, 2018
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
"Cue for Passion"
. Internet Broadway Database. Archived from
the original
on July 8, 2019
. Retrieved
November 16,
2017
.
- ^
Tom Weaver (April 29, 2008).
"Katz-mania"
.
Films of the Golden Age
.
- ^
a
b
Thomas, Bob (June 3, 2008).
"Mel Ferrer, actor-director, husband of Audrey Hepburn, dies"
.
Yahoo! News
. Associated Press. Archived from
the original
on June 6, 2008
. Retrieved
September 16,
2020
.
- ^
Margaret Lilliard (July 25, 1989).
"Landmark '49 Film About Family Passing for White Recalled"
.
Los Angeles Times
.
- ^
Miller, Julie (June 14, 2016).
"Audrey Hepburn Reveals Heartbreak and Discusses Secret Wedding in Never-Before-Seen Letters"
.
Vanity Fair
. Retrieved
May 15,
2020
.
- ^
"Catharsis", Time, February 10, 1941
- ^
a
b
Bergan, Ronald (June 5, 2008).
"Obituary: Mel Ferrer"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved
February 3,
2018
.
- ^
Paris, Barry (September 2001).
Audrey Hepburn - Barry Paris (Book)
. Penguin.
ISBN
9781101127780
.
- ^
Paris, Barry (2001).
Audrey Hepburn
. Penguin Publishing. pp. 247?248.
ISBN
0-425-18212-6
.
- ^
Cawthorne, Nigel (2004).
Sex Lives of the Hollywood Goddesses Part 2
. Prion. p. 271.
ISBN
1-85375-514-1
.
- ^
"Notre jour le plus long" [Our longest day] (in French). La Presse de la Manche. 2012.
- ^
Kirby, Walter (April 20, 1952).
"Better Radio Programs for the Week"
.
The Decatur Daily Review
. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 46
. Retrieved
May 9,
2015
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Kirby, Walter (November 29, 1953).
"Better Radio Programs for the Week"
.
The Decatur Daily Review
. The Decatur Daily Review. p. 50
. Retrieved
July 14,
2015
– via
Newspapers.com
.
External links
[
edit
]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to
Mel Ferrer
.
|
---|
International
| |
---|
National
| |
---|
Artists
| |
---|
People
| |
---|
Other
| |
---|