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Frederick Stafford

Frederick Stafford

Actor · 1928 – 1979 · Czechoslovakia

Frederick Stafford (11 March 1928 – 28 July 1979) was a Czechoslovak-born actor. Born Friedrich Strobel von Stein, he spoke fluent Czech, German, English, French and Italian, and was a leading man in European spy-movies. In 1964 French director André Hunebelle discovered him on holiday at a hotel in Bangkok and asked him "How would you like to make movies with me?". Stafford replied "Why not?" and replaced Kerwin Matthews to play an agent code-named OSS 117 in two Bond-like-adventures. The first co-starring with Mylène Demongeot, in the second with Marina Vlady. He also appeared in war-films (The Battle of El Alamein) and in Michel Boisronds thriller Million Dollar Man alongside Anny Duperey. These movies got him the attention of the Master of Suspense: Alfred Hitchcock who signed him in 1968 to play the leading role as agent André Devereaux in Topaz (1969), but the film was not a success, and the casting of Stafford, whose performance was found lacking by critics, was largely blamed for its failure. Channel4 told: Heading the international cast is a very wooden Stafford, who is no Cary Grant. He married German actress Marianne Hold. He had a come-back in 1972 as Commissario Luca Micelli in Italian Giallo Shadows Unseen. Five years after Topaz he starred as detective Sandro Mattei beside the actress who played his daughter in Topaz, French actress Claude Jade, in the Italian thriller La ragazza di Via Condotti (Meurtres à Rome/Special Killers) (1973/74). In that movie the character of 20 years older Stafford has a brief platonic romance with Jade's character Tiffany. His last successes were the Spanish Movies Blood and Passion(1975) and White Horses of Summer (1975, starring Jean Seberg, his co-star from 1966 Estouffade à la Caraïbe), the Italian thriller Werewolf Man (1976) and the Spanish- Italian-French coproduction Hold-Up (1977). He died in 1979 in a plane crash. His son is the singer Roderick Stafford (born 1964), Flowers from Hitchcock. Description above from the Wikipedia article Frederick Stafford, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies17

  • Movie4.7

    La lupa mannara

    Werewolf Woman

    1976 · 40 votes

  • Movie6.0

    Topaz

    1969 · 433 votes

  • Movie6.3

    La battaglia d'Inghilterra

    Eagles Over London

    1969 · 24 votes

  • Movie5.3

    La battaglia di El Alamein

    The Battle of El Alamein

    1969 · 30 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Atout cœur à Tokyo pour OSS 117

    O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo

    1966 · 34 votes

  • Movie5.6

    Dalle Ardenne all'inferno

    Dirty Heroes

    1967 · 9 votes

  • Movie7.5

    Furia à Bahia pour OSS 117

    OSS 117: Mission for a Killer

    1965 · 61 votes

  • Movie5.0

    La ragazza di via Condotti

    Special Killers

    1973 · 4 votes

  • Movie6.5

    Metti... che ti rompo il muso

    Suppose... I Break Your Neck

    1973 · 2 votes

  • Movie6.0

    L'Homme qui valait des milliards

    Million Dollar Man

    1967 · 5 votes

  • Movie5.3
  • Movie6.4

    Estouffade à la Caraïbe

    The Looters

    1967 · 5 votes

  • Movie4.8

    Agent 505 - Todesfalle Beirut

    Agent 505 - Death Trap Beirut

    1966 · 8 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Abuso di potere

    Shadows Unseen

    1972 · 12 votes

  • Movie5.8

    Bianchi cavalli d'Agosto

    White Horses of Summer

    1975 · 3 votes

  • Movie5.1

    La trastienda

    Blood and Passion

    1976 · 15 votes

  • Movie8.0

    Sfida sul fondo

    Fear Runs Deep

    1976 · 2 votes