Ferdy Mayne

Ferdy Mayne (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998), also spelled Ferdie Mayne, was a German-British actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regime. He resided in the UK for the majority of his professional career.

Working almost continuously throughout a 60-year-long career, Mayne was known as a versatile character actor, often playing suave villains and aristocratic eccentrics in films like The Fearless Vampire Killers, Where Eagles Dare, Barry Lyndon, and Benefit of the Doubt. He also appeared in many West End plays.

Early life and education Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel was born in Mainz, Germany, on 11 March 1916. His German father was the judge of Mainz, while his half-English mother was a singing instructor.

Because his family was Jewish, a teenage Mayne was sent to Britain in 1932 to protect him from the Nazis. He stayed with his aunt, Li Osborne (1883–1968), nee Luisa Friedericka Wolf, a well-known German theatre and film portrait photographer. Just a few years previously, she fled Germany for England, married, became Li Hutchinson-Wolf, and, as a noted sculptor, used the name Lee Hutchinson.

In 1960 he appeared in the fourth Danger Man episode entitled "The Blue Veil".

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".

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

In 1983, he played the role of Ludwig Rosenthal, a wealthy Jewish merchant persecuted and dispossessed by the Nazis, in Winds of War, a television miniseries based on the eponymous novel by Herman Wouk.

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

Illness and death In the 1990s, Mayne developed Parkinson's disease, and moved back to England. He died in West Sussex on 30 January 1998, aged 81.

Partial filmography