Ferdy Mayne

Ferdy Mayne (or Ferdie Mayne) (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998) was a German-British stage and screen actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regime. He resided in the UK for the majority of his professional career. Working almost continuously throughout a 60 year-long career, Mayne was known as a versatile character actor, often playing suave villains and aristocratic eccentrics in films like ''The Fearless Vampire Killers, Where Eagles Dare, Barry Lyndon'', and '' Benefit of the Doubt.''

Early life

He was born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel in Mainz, Germany. His German father was the judge of Mainz, while his half-English mother was a singing instructor.

Because his family was Jewish, a teenage Mayne was sent to Britain in 1932 to protect him from the Nazis. He stayed with his aunt, Li Osborne (1883-1968), nee Luisa Friedericka Wolf, a well-known German theatre and film portrait photographer. Just a few years previously, she fled Germany for England, married, became Li Hutchinson-Wolf, and, as a noted sculptress, used the name Lee Hutchinson. Mayne obtained British citizenship. His parents were detained briefly in Buchenwald but, due to his mother's British family connections, were able to leave Germany for Britain, where they settled permanently.

At the start of the Second World War, Mayne operated as an informant for MI5. Significant clues to his secret service work were provided by Joan Miller in her posthumously published memoir ''One Girl's War'' (1986). Mayne had served as a witness at her marriage in 1945.

Career

Mayne appeared in 230 films and television programmes. In 1967, he achieved international recognition in his role as Count von Krolock in Roman Polanski's ''The Fearless Vampire Killers''.

In 1977, he appeared in "It Pays to Advertise", an episode of '' Are You Being Served?'', in the role of "The Ten Pound Perfume".

Later, Mayne moved to the United States and played the semi-regular role of Albert Grand in the TV series ''Cagney and Lacey''.

In 1983, he played the role of Ludwig Rosenthal, a wealthy Jewish merchant persecuted and dispossessed by the Nazis, in Winds of War, a television miniseries based on the eponymous novel by Herman Wouk.

Personal life

In 1955, Mayne married actress Deirdre de Payer. Their daughter Belinda Mayne is also an actress. They also adopted a daughter, Fernanda, in 1965. The couple divorced in 1972.

Illness and death

In the 1990s, Mayne developed Parkinson's disease, from which he died on 30 January 1998 in London, aged 81.

Partial filmography

* '' The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943) as Prussian Student (uncredited)
* '' Warn That Man'' (1943) as German Radio Operator (uncredited)
* '' Old Mother Riley Overseas'' (1943)
* '' English Without Tears'' (1944) (uncredited)
* '' Meet Sexton Blake'' (1945) as Slant-Eyes
* ''Waltz Time'' (1945) as Max
* '' The Echo Murders'' (1945) as Dacier
* '' One Night with You'' (1948) as First Detective
* '' Broken Journey'' (1948) as Pelotti
* '' Vote for Huggett'' (1949) as Waiter
* ''The Temptress'' (1949) as Julian
* '' The Huggetts Abroad'' (1949) as Gendarme (uncredited)
* '' Celia'' (1949) as Antonio
* '' Prelude to Fame'' (1950) as Carlo Ferugia
* ''Cairo Road'' (1950) as Doctor in Port Said
* '' Hotel Sahara'' (1951) as Yusef
* ''Encore'' (1951) as Headwaiter (segment "Gigolo and Gigolette")
* '' Venetian Bird'' (1951) as Tio
* '' Made in Heaven'' (1952) as István
* ''The Man Who Watched Trains Go By'' (1952) as Louis
* '' The Broken Horseshoe'' (1953) as Charles Constance
* '' Three Steps to the Gallows'' (1953) as Mario Satargo
* ''Desperate Moment'' (1953) as Detective Laurence
* ''The Captain's Paradise'' (1953) as The Sheikh
* ''The Blue Parrot'' (1953) as Stevens
* '' Marilyn'' (1953) as Nicky Everton
* '' You Know What Sailors Are'' (1954) as Stanislaus Voritz of Smorznigov
* '' Malaga'' (1954) as Mustapha
* '' Twist of Fate'' (1954) as Police Chief
* '' Betrayed'' (1954) as Luftwaffe Officer (uncredited)
* ''Third Party Risk'' (1954) as Maxwell Carey
* '' The Divided Heart'' (1954) as Dr. Muller
* '' The Glass Cage'' (1955) as Bertie
* ''Value for Money'' (1955) as Waiter
* '' Gentlemen Marry Brunettes'' (1955) as M. Dufond
* '' Storm Over the Nile'' (1955) as Dr. Harraz
* ''The Narrowing Circle'' (1956) as Bill Strayte
* ''The Baby and the Battleship'' (1956) as Interpreter
* '' Find the Lady'' (1956) as Tony Del Roma
* '' You Pay Your Money'' (1957) as Delal
* ''Seven Waves Away'' (1957) as Solly Daniels
* '' The Big Chance'' (1957) as Dimitri Aperghis
* '' Three Sundays to Live'' (1957) as Davis
* '' The End of the Line'' (1957) as Charles Edwards
* '' Blue Murder at St. Trinian's'' (1957) as Italian Police Inspector
* '' The Safecracker'' (1958) as Greek Ship Owner
* '' A Woman of Mystery'' (1958) as Andre
* ''The Big Money'' (1958) as Furrier
* ''Next to No Time'' (1958) as Mario
* ''Deadly Record'' (1959) as Ramon Casadas
* ''Third Man on the Mountain'' (1959) as Andreas Krickel
* '' Ben-Hur'' (1959) as Captain of Rescue Ship (uncredited)
* ''Tommy the Toreador'' (1959) as Lopez
* ''Our Man in Havana'' (1959) as Professor Sanchez
* '' The Spider's Web'' (1960) as Oliver
* '' Crossroads to Crime'' (1960) as Miles
* ''The Green Helmet'' (1961) as Rossano
* '' Highway to Battle'' (1961) as Ziegler
* '' Three Spare Wives'' (1962) as Fazim Bey
* ''Masters of Venus'' (1962) as Votan
* '' Freud: The Secret Passion'' (1962) (uncredited)
* '' The Password Is Courage'' (1962) as 1st German Officer at French Farm
* '' Come Fly with Me'' (1963) as Vienna Hotel Clerk (uncredited)
* '' Der Schwur des Soldaten Pooley'' (1963) as Intelligence officer
* ''Shadow of Treason'' (1963) as Mario
* ''The Counterfeit Constable'' (1964) as José, l'agent de Diana Dors
* '' Operation Crossbow'' (1965) as German Officer
* '' Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines'' (1965) as French Official (uncredited)
* ''Promise Her Anything'' (1965) as Vittorio Fettucini
* ''The Bobo'' (1967) as Silvestre Flores
* ''The Fearless Vampire Killers'' (1967) as Count von Krolock / Narrator
* '' Les grandes vacances'' (1967) as MacFarrell
* ''Gates to Paradise'' (1968) as Count Ludovic de Vendôme
* ''Where Eagles Dare'' (1968) as General Julius Rosemeyer
* '' The Limbo Line'' (1968) as Sutcliffe
* '' The Best House in London'' (1969) (uncredited)
* '' The Magic Christian'' (1969) as Edouard
* '' The Adventurers'' (1970) as Sergei's Father
* ''The Walking Stick'' (1970) as Douglas Dainton
* ''Vertige pour un tueur'' (1970) (uncredited)
* ''The Vampire Lovers'' (1970) as Doctor
* ''When Eight Bells Toll'' (1971) as Lavorski
* ''Gebissen wird nur nachts'' or '' The Vampire Happening'' (1971) as Count Dracula
* '' Von Richthofen and Brown'' (1971) as Richthofen's father
* ''The Blonde in the Blue Movie'' (1971) as Professor Grutekoor
* '' Jo'' (1971) as Mister Grunder
* ''Eagle in a Cage'' (1972) as Count Bertrand
* ''Au Pair Girls'' (1972) as Sheik El Abab
* '' Innocent Bystanders'' (1972) as Marcus Kaplan
* ''Il tema di Marco'' (1972)
* '' Trip to Vienna'' (1973) as Mariu Moltenau
* ''Die Ameisen kommen'' (1974) as Michel
* ''To the Bitter End'' (1975) as Wallace
* ''Barry Lyndon'' (1975) as Colonel Bulow
* '' Silence in the Forest'' (1976) as Baron Sternfeld
* '' The Eagle Has Landed'' (1976) as Radl's Doctor (uncredited)
* ''Fedora'' (1978) as First Director
* ''Revenge of the Pink Panther'' (1978) as Dr. Paul Laprone
* '' The Pirate'' (TV film, 1978) as Jabir
* ''A Man Called Intrepid'' (TV film, 1979) as Alexander Korda
* '' Mihail, câine de circ'' (1979) as Dr. Emory
* '' The Music Machine'' (1979) as Basil Silverman
* '' Hawk the Slayer'' (1980) as Old Man, Father of Hawk and Voltan
* '' The Formula'' (1980) as Professor Siebold
* ''Longshot'' (1981) as Ralph Zipper
* '' The Greatest American Hero'' (1982) as Marco
* '' Hart to Hart'' (1982) as Kasim
* '' The Optimist'' (1983) as The Father
* '' Frightmare'' (1983) as Conrad Radzoff
* '' The Black Stallion Returns'' (1983) as Abu Ben Ishak
* '' Yellowbeard'' (1983) as Mr. Beamish
* ''Conan the Destroyer'' (1984) as The Leader
* '' The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud'' (1984) as Herr Herrmann
* '' Night Train to Terror'' (1985) as God (segment "The Night Train")
* '' Hot Chili'' (1985) as Mr. Houston
* '' Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf'' (1985) as Erle
* ''Pirates'' (1986) as Captain Linares
* ''Pehavý Max a strasidlá'' (1987) as Dracula
* '' Cousin Thomas in the Fearless Vampire Killers 1988 as Count Dracula Yogi
* ''The Choice'' (1988)
* ''Magdalene'' (1988) as Archbishop
* ''In the Shadow of the Sandcastle'' (1990)
* ''My Lovely Monster'' (1991) as Cowboy / Vampire
* '' Knight Moves'' (1992) as Jeremy Edmonds
* '' The Tigress'' (1992) as The Austrian Count
* '' Benefit of the Doubt'' (1993) as Mueller
* '' Warlock: The Armageddon'' (1993) as One-Eyed Man
* ''The Killers Within'' (1995) as General Karl von Weber (final film role)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayne, Ferdy
1916 births
1998 deaths
20th-century German male actors
Neurological disease deaths in England
Deaths from Parkinson's disease
German emigrants to England
German expatriates in the United States
German male film actors
German male television actors
Jewish German male actors
Jews who immigrated to the United Kingdom to escape Nazism
MI5 personnel
Actors from Mainz
World War II spies for the United Kingdom
German people of Jewish descent
German people of English descent