MEL FERRER
Name: Mel Ferrer
Birth name: Melchor Gaston Ferrer
Born: 25 August 1917 Elberon, New Jersey, U.S.
Mel Ferrer (born August 25, 1917 in Elberon, New Jersey) is an Cuban-American
actor, film director and film producer.
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."
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 had 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).
Name: Mel Ferrer
Birth name: Melchor Gaston Ferrer
Born: 25 August 1917 Elberon, New Jersey, U.S.
Mel Ferrer (born August 25, 1917 in Elberon, New Jersey) is an Cuban-American
actor, film director and film producer.
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."
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 had 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).