Ferdy Mayne

Ferdy Mayne (11 March 1916—30 January 1998) was a German actor.

Early life

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

Because his family was Jewish, Mayne was sent to Britain in 1932 to protect him from the Nazis. He stayed with his aunt, the photographer and sculptress Lee Hutchinson. His parents were detained in Buchenwald but, thanks to his mother's connections, were able to leave Germany for Britain.

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". In the episode, his character purchases a bottle of perfume for £10 and shocks Mrs Slocombe upon telling her, in a somewhat effeminate voice, that he is buying it not for his wife but for himself. He then struts off in a stereotypically camp manner.

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

Selected filmography

• Hotel Sahara (1951)
• The Broken Horseshoe (1953)
• The Blue Parrot (1953)
• Marilyn (1953)
• You Know What Sailors Are (1954)
• Third Party Risk (1954)
• Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955)
• The Narrowing Circle (1956)
• The Baby and the Battleship (1956)
• You Pay Your Money (1957)
• The End of the Line (1957)
• Our Man in Havana (1959)
• Ben-Hur (1959)
• Tommy the Toreador (1959)
• The Spider's Web (1960)
• The Green Helmet (1961)
• Three Spare Wives (1962)
• The Password Is Courage (1962)
• Operation Crossbow (1965)
• Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965)
• Promise Her Anything (1965)
• The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
• The Bobo (1967)
• Les grandes vacances (1967)
• Gates to Paradise (1968)
• The Limbo Line (1968)
• Where Eagles Dare (1968)
• The Best House in London (1969)
• The Magic Christian (1969)
• The Adventurers (1970)
• The Walking Stick (1970)
• The Vampire Lovers (1970)
• When Eight Bells Toll (1971)
• Von Richthofen and Brown (1971)
• Jo (1971)
• Eagle in a Cage (1972)
• Au Pair Girls (1972)
• Innocent Bystanders (1972)
• Trip to Vienna (1973)
• Die Ameisen kommen (1974)
• Bis zur bitteren Neige (1975)
• Barry Lyndon (1975)
• Das Schweigen im Walde (de) (1976)
• Fedora (1978)
• Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
• The Music Machine (1979)
• Hawk the Slayer (1980)
• The Formula (1980)
• Frightmare (1983)
• The Black Stallion Returns (1983)
• Yellowbeard (1983)
• The Secret Diary of Sigmund Freud (1984)
• Conan the Destroyer (1984)
• Night Train to Terror (1985)
• Howling II: Your Sister Is a Werewolf (1985)
• Pirates (1986)
• Knight Moves (1992)
• The Tigress (1992)
• Warlock: The Armageddon (1993)

Personal life

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

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