Mel Ferrer

Jun 6 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

HIS dark good looks and commanding presence on and off camera netted him the most luminous actress of her generation.

But for Mel Ferrer, actor, director, producer and one-time voice coach and children’s writer, who has died, aged 90, marriage to Audrey Hepburn cast a long shadow over his own achievements during a colourful career in Hollywood.

He received critical acclaim for his role as the bitter, crippled puppeteer in Lili (1953) and found stardom as the charismatic matador in The Brave Bulls (1951). He helped create a hit when he directed his wife as a terrorised blind woman in Wait Until Dark (1967).

Born Melchior Gaston Ferrer, in 1917, he was the son of a Cuba-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite. He won the Playwright’s Award at Princeton, before dropping out to become an actor, debuting as a chorus dancer on Broadway.

His first foray into movies was the turgid Strange Fruit, set in the Deep South, but he had better success directing in a successful revival of Cyrano de Bergerac in 1946 on Broadway.

Swift-moving thriller The Secret Fury (1950) gave him his most substantial success as a director.

He first met Hepburn in 1954 at a party hosted by Gregory Peck. He wooed her relentlessly and at his urging she starred with him as the water sprite in a Broadway production of Ondine.

Later that same year, in Switzerland, she became his third wife. He was often perceived as the Svengali who promoted, yet was jealous of her talent.

He won her more lucrative contracts – from getting just $12,000 for Roman Holiday, he secured some $350,000 to appear in War and Peace.

The couple had a son, after Audrey suffered two miscarriages, but divorced in 1968 amid rumours the actress had an affair with Albert Finney during film Two For The Road.

By then, he was spending much time in Europe and appeared in several films there including Douglas Hickox’s Branigan (1975) with John Wayne and Richard Attenborough.

From 1981 to 1984, he had modest success on TV’s Falcon’s Crest, as Phillip Erikson, Angela Channing’s lawyer and, briefly, husband.

He is survived by his fourth wife, four sons and two daughters.

Mel Ferrer, actor and director; born Aug 25, 1917, died June 2, 2008.