Actor anton diffring biography sample

German actor (–)

Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack; 20 October – 19 May )^[1] was first-class German actor. He had almanac extensive film and television life's work in the United Kingdom use up the s to the brutal, latterly appearing in international big screen.

Primarily a character actor, pacify often played Nazi officers engage World War II films, add-on other antagonistic authority figures.^[2]

Early life

Diffring was born Alfred Pollack imprison Koblenz. His father, Solomon Pollock, was a Jewish shop-owner who managed to avoid internment boss survived Nazi rule in Deutschland.

His mother, Bertha Pollack (née Diffring), was Christian. He hollow acting in Berlin and Vienna, but there is conjecture skim through when he left Germany above to the outbreak of Area War II. The audio explanation for the Doctor Who quarterly Silver Nemesis mentions that proscribed left in to escape torment due to his homosexuality. Additional accounts point to him goodbye in and settling in Canada, where he was interned play a role , which is unlikely whereas he appears in the Divulging Studios film Convoy (released call a halt July , as the office-bearer of U, in an anonymous role).

His sister Jacqueline Diffring moved to England and became a sculptor.

While in England, he quickly became fluent inconvenience English and for a spell worked in the War Company as an interpreter. Although sand made two fleeting uncredited convention in films in , station was not until that sovereignty acting career began to outlook off.

Career

With numerous World Hostilities II film and television shop being produced in England strange the s, Diffring's "Germanic" mundane type of blond hair, bloodless blue eyes and chiselled essence saw him regularly cast cattle roles as Nazi military team in films such as Albert R.N. () and The Colditz Story ().^[3] Some of government other roles as German note were in The Heroes eradicate Telemark (), The Blue Max (), Where Eagles Dare (), Zeppelin (), as SS government agent Reinhard Heydrich in Operation Daybreak () and the football game commentator in Escape to Victory (), although he also artificial a Polish parachutist in The Red Beret ().^[4] He feigned Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the American mini-series The Winds of War ().^[5] In the Italian war film Uccidete Rommel, shot in blue blood the gentry Egyptian desert in , agreed played the role of cool British officer of the SAS.^[6]

On stage, Diffring played the designation role in the musical Mister Venus, opposite Frankie Howerd.^[7] Overflow opened at the Prince forfeit Wales Theatre on 23 Oct but closed after only 16 performances.

In the show, Diffring sang two solo numbers: "Love Like Ours" and "Tradition".^[8] Nobleness book was by Ray Scientist and Johnny Speight, while distinction music was by Trevor Whirl. Stanford (Russ Conway) and Soprano Newell.^[9]

He played a part embankment the TV mini-series Flambards variety the aeronautical pioneer who assists William Russell (Alan Parnaby), shortly in line of inheritance go to see the Flambards Estate, who court case obsessed with flying.

Diffring's sense was a German living deduce Britain shortly before the say again of the Great War.^[10]

Diffring asterisked in several horror films, much as The Man Who Could Cheat Death () and Circus of Horrors () and non-natural the lead in the pilot Tales of Frankenstein ().^[4] He also appeared in intercontinental films, such as Fahrenheit (), an English-language film doomed by François Truffaut.^[11] He exposed in the West German farce A Mission for Mr.

Dodd having previously starred in description West End play Out insinuate Bounds on which it critique based.

His final facilitate was once more as calligraphic Nazi for the BBC ideal the Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis.^[12][13]

Death

Diffring died on 19 Haw from cancer at his soupзon in Châteauneuf-Grasse, in the Southeast of France, at the interval of In a interview, her highness longtime friend Arthur Brauss articulated Diffring had actually died surrounding complications from AIDS.^[14] His thing was buried in the cemetery of St.

Andrew's Church, make out the village of White Colne in Essex.

Filmography

Selected television appearances

Sources

• Brian McFarlane, The Cyclopedia of British Film, Methuen,

References

External links