Charles Fernley Fawcett

Charles Fernley Fawcett (2 December 1915 – 3 February 2008) was an American adventurer, soldier, film actor, and a co-founder of the International Medical Corps. He was a recipient of the French Croix de Guerre and the American Eisenhower medal. Varian Fry, his longtime associate, described him as "a moral adventurer". Having been orphaned at an early age, Fawcett and his younger brother and two sisters grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, in the care of their aunt.

At age 15, Fawcett became involved in an affair with his best friend's mother. He remarked, "If that's child molestation, I would wish this curse on every young boy." The end of the affair made Fawcett contemplate suicide, and he left the United States in 1932 at age 16 to travel to the Far East, working his passage on a number of steamships with the U.S. Merchant Marine. He tried to join both U.S. Intelligence and the French Armed Forces but his services were declined, so he briefly joined the Section Volontaire des Américains of the French ambulance corps in 1940. His life was characterized by advocacy for marginalized individuals alongside pursuits of travel and public engagement. Then he spent three years in the Belgian Congo, during the civil war in the early 60s, where he flew out those who were unable to escape the fighting. But it was the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, in June 1979, that signaled his longest mission, and he was off to help the Afghan resistance fighters for the next 12 years.

Acting career Fawcett appeared in some 100 film, television and radio productions between 1949 and 1976. He initially worked in France, but after 1952 worked primarily in Italy, having moved to Rome with his wife that year. During this time, he purportedly engaged in an affair with actress Hedy Lamarr.

Personal life Fawcett's first wife, with whom he had a daughter, died in 1956. In 1991, he married again, when after a 30-year engagement he married April Ducksbury, a British model agency executive, and settled in London.

Death Fawcett died on 3 February 2008 in London at the age of 92.

Selected filmography

Hans le marin (1949) Le grand rendez-vous (1950) – L'ambassadeur Casimir (1950) – Mr. Brown, le PDG de Prima Lost Souvenirs (1950) – L'Américain (segment "Une statuette d'Osiris") (uncredited) L'inconnue de Montréal (1950) Adventures of Captain Fabian (1951) – Defense Counsel Fugitive in Trieste (1951) Ils étaient cinq (1951) Ha da venì... don Calogero (1952) – Don Andrea When in Rome (1952) – Mr. Cates La Putain respectueuse (1952) – (uncredited) Three Forbidden Stories (1952) – Mottaroni (Second segment) I sette dell'Orsa maggiore (1953) The Unfaithfuls (1953) – Harry Rodgers The Blind Woman of Sorrento (1953) – Marchese di Rionero Terminal Station (1953) – Il signore triste all'ufficio postale (uncredited) Egypt by Three (1953) – American Doctor (second episode) The Enchanting Enemy (1953) – (uncredited) At the Edge of the City (1953) Fermi tutti... arrivo io! (1953) – Mr. Brown Frine, Courtesan of Orient (1953) – re Arconte Mizar (1954) – maggiore Crob The Country of the Campanelli (1954) – L'ammiraglio Pietà per chi cade (1954) – Oliver Appassionatamente (1954) – Count D'Alberti The Two Orphans (1954) An American in Rome (1954) – Mr. Brooks Goodbye Naples (1955) – Charles Burton Il falco d'oro (1955) – Ubaldo della Torre Andrea Chenier (1955) Incatenata dal destino (1956) – John Carrington Mai ti scorderò (1956) – Neri, il regista War and Peace (1956) – Russian artillery captain (uncredited) I Vampiri (1957) – Signor Robert Boy on a Dolphin (1957) – Bill B. Baldwin (uncredited) The Love Specialist (1957) The Violet Seller (1958) – Van de Ritzen The Last Rebel (1958) – Captain Harry Love Lonelyhearts (1958) – Smitty Civitas De (1958) No Time to Kill (1959) – Marine Face of Fire (1959) – Citizen in Barbershop La duchessa di Santa Lucia (1959) – Il padre di Archibald Les canailles (1960) The Loves of Salammbo (1960) – Annone Heaven on Earth (1960) – Henry Brent Come September (1961) – Warren (uncredited) Barabbas (1961) – Old Man Warning Rachel (uncredited) The Witch's Curse (1962) – Doctor It Happened in Athens (1962) – Ambassador Cyrus T. Gaylord The 300 Spartans (1962) – Megistias Zorro and the Three Musketeers (1963) I Am Semiramis (1963) Captain Sindbad (1963) Dark Purpose (1964) – Martin The Secret of Dr. Mabuse (1964) – Cmdr. Adams Panic Button (1964) Old Shatterhand (1964) – General Taylor Uncle Tom's Cabin (1965) – Mr. Shelby Wild Kurdistan (1965) – Scheik Mohammed Emin / Scheik Kadir Bei Kingdom of the Silver Lion (1965) – Scheik Kadir Bei Savage Pampas (1966) – Pvt. El Gato Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (1967) – General Stikker (1967) – Prof. Peers Caccia ai violenti (1968) The Girl of the Nile (1969) – Marco Alfieri The Massacre of Glencoe (1971) – John Macdonald Kalimán, el hombre increíble (1972) – Professor Morgan Down the Ancient Staircase (1975) – Doctor Sfameni Blue Belle (1976) – Michael / Annie's lover (final film role)