Mel Ferrer's Main TV Roles Show Character(s) Falcon Crest Phillip Eri… Christine Cromwell Doctor

Main Movie Roles 1981 - Lili Marleen 1980 - Mangiati vivi! 1980 - Incubo sulla città contaminata 1978 - The Norseman 1977 - Eaten Alive 1975 - Brannigan 1967 - Wait Until Dark 1964 - The Fall of the Roman Empire 1964 - Paris - When It Sizzles 1962 - The Longest Day 1959 - The World, the Flesh and the Devil 1956 - War and Peace 1953 - Lili 1953 - Knights of the Round Table 1952 - Scaramouche 1952 - Rancho Notorious 1950 - Born to Be Bad 1947 - The Fugitive

BIOGRAPHY:

Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became an editor on a small Vermont newspaper and wrote a children's book, "Tito's Hats." He became a chorus dancer on Broadway in 1938 in two musicals and made his New York debut as an actor two years later. After a bout with polio he started in radio as a disc jockey in Texas and Arkansas and rose to producer-director of top-rated shows for NBC in New York. He made a modest debut as a director at Columbia with the low-budget The Girl of the Limberlost (1945), then returned to acting on Broadway to star in Lillian Smith (II)'s "Strange Fruit." He was John Ford (I)'s assistant on The Fugitive (1947).

Ferrer made his screen acting debut in Lost Boundaries (1949). He is best remembered for the role of the lame puppeteer in Lili (1953) and as Prince Andrei in War and Peace (1956). He directed Claudette Colbert in The Secret Fury (1950) and Audrey Hepburn - his wife at the time - in Green Mansions (1959). Ferrer produced the hit Wait Until Dark (1967), also with Hepburn. In the following year, the couple separated and ultimately divorced. Since 1960 he has been producing and acting mainly in Europe. Ferrer is married and lives in Lausanne, Switzerland.


TRIVIA:

• After attending Princeton University until his sophomore year, he abandoned his studies and worked as an editor of a Vermont newspaper. He also wrote a children's book named "Tito's Hat".
• Wife 'Audrey Hepburn' (qv) did not want to be separated from her husband while filming _Funny Face (1957)_ (qv), so filming of the Paris scenes was timed to coincide with Ferrer's filming of _Elena et les hommes (1956)_ (qv).
• Brother of famous cardiologist and educator Dr. M. Irené Ferrer. She helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram, which have become diagnostic essentials in heart treatment.
• After divorcing his first wife, Frances Pilchard, he married Barbara Tripp. He then divorced Tripp so he could remarry Pilchard.
• Spoke French fluently.
• His oldest child, with Pilchard, died as an infant.
• Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962
• Born to a Cuban-born father, a surgeon, and his wife, a New York socialite, he grew up in New Jersey.