Everything about Mel Ferrer totally explained
Mel Ferrer (born
August 25,
1917 in
Elberon, New Jersey) was a
Cuban-
American actor,
film director and
film producer.
Early life
Born
Melchor Gaston Ferrer into a prosperous family, his
Cuban-born father a surgeon and his mother a prominent
New York City socialite. He is the brother of noted cardiologist and educator, Dr. M. Irené Ferrer and noted surgeon, Dr. Jose M. Ferrer. Mel Ferrer was educated at private schools before attending
Princeton University until his sophomore year, when he dropped out to devote more time to acting. At that time he also worked as an editor of a small Vermont newspaper and wrote a children's book, "Tito's Hats."
Career
Ferrer began acting in summer stock as a teenager and at age twenty-one was appearing on the
Broadway stage as a chorus dancer, making his debut there as an actor two years later. After a bout with polio, he entered the radio world as a DJ in Texas and Arkansas, developing into a producer-director of top-rated shows for NBC in New York. He returned to Broadway and then became involved in
motion pictures, directing more than ten feature films and acting in more than eighty. As a producer, he'd notable success with the well regarded film
Wait Until Dark (1967) starring Audrey Hepburn.
In 1945 he made a modest directing debut with
The Girl of the Limberlost, a low-budget black-and-white film for Columbia. He returned to Broadway to star in
Strange Fruit, based on the novel by Lillian Smith. He made his screen acting debut in
Lost Boundaries (1949), and as an actor is best remembered for his roles as the injured puppeteer in the musical
Lili (1953) (starring
Leslie Caron), as the villainous Marquis de Maynes in
Scaramouche (1952) and as Prince Andrei in
War and Peace (1956) (co-starring with his then-wife,
Audrey Hepburn).
Ferrer never achieved major stardom, and later turned towards television, doing some directing for the series
The Farmer's Daughter (1963-1966) starring
Inger Stevens, but it best remembered for his role opposite
Jane Wyman as Angela Channing's attorney and briefly, her husband, Phillip Erikson, in
Falcon Crest from
1981 to
1984.
While his profession was acting, not medicine as was the case for several of his relatives, he played the role of Dr. Brogli, in the TV serial
Return of the Saint (1978-1979).
Personal life
He has been married five times, most notably to actress
Audrey Hepburn from 1954 to 1968, with whom he'd a son,
Sean Hepburn Ferrer, born in 1960. He and Hepburn had acquired a home in
Switzerland and after their divorce he maintained a residence in
Lausanne and often worked on films in
Europe. He has been married five times to four women (remarrying his first wife, Frances Pilchard, after his divorce from Barbara C. Tripp), and has five children in total by three of the marriages. He dated
Tessa Kennedy, an interior designer but a married woman, before his marriage to Lisa Soukhotine in 1971.
He had two children with Frances Pilchard, although the older child, Pilchard, died as an infant.
His sister was the famous cardiologist and educator Dr. M.
Irené Ferrer, who helped refine the cardiac catheter and electrocardiogram (which have become diagnostic essentials in heart treatment).
He is unrelated to actors
Jose Ferrer and
Miguel Ferrer.
For his contribution to the motion picture industry, Mel Ferrer has a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6268 Hollywood Blvd.
Partial filmography
Further Information
Get more info on 'Mel Ferrer'.
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