Frederick Stafford

Born: 1928-03-11

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.


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Topaz

as André Devereaux
Released: 1969-12-17

Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official decides to change sides, a French...

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Eagles Over London

as Captain Paul Stevens
Released: 1969-09-20

The British High Command finds itself in the thick of a huge dilemma when it is realized that...

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Werewolf Woman

as Inspector Modica
Released: 1976-03-18

A woman has dreams that she is a werewolf so she goes out and finds men. She proceeds to have...

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OSS 117: Mission for a Killer

as Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath
Released: 1965-07-02

A secret agent is dispatched to find a rare and valuable drug.

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The Battle of El Alamein

as Giorgio Borri
Released: 1969-01-01

June 1942. As Rommel swept toward the Nile, the fall of Egypt and the capture of the Suez Canal...

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Special Killers

as Sandro Mattei
Released: 1973-08-11

Sandro, a detective, finds his wife strangled. His girl-friend Tiffany, who works as...

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Agent 505 - Death Trap Beirut

as Richard Blake, Agent 505
Released: 1966-04-22

A couple of beautiful girls are murdered while sunbathing at a luxury hotel. The killer too is...

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O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo

as Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117
Released: 1966-10-28

After an American Navy base is annihilated by a secret weapon, Agent OSS 117 is sent to Japan to...

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Hold Up

as Robert Cunningham
Released: 1974-08-02

Robert is a police agent of American origins who lost his memory through an accident during a...

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Dirty Heroes

as Joe Mortimer
Released: 1967-09-21

Set near the end of World War II in the Netherlands, Dirty Heroes concerns a group of...

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White Horses of Summer

as Nicholas Kingsburg
Released: 1975-04-17

The marital problems of an American couple come to a head while visiting southern Italy with...

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Million Dollar Man

as Jean Sarton
Released: 1967-08-31

A U.S. Treasury Department agent is sent to Morocco to find a fortune in counterfeit money...

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Shadows Unseen

as Commissioner Luca Miceli
Released: 1972-03-24

When a journalist is murdered Inspector Micheli begins to investigate. Although someone comes...

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Suppose... I Break Your Neck

as Rocky
Released: 1973-11-30

The Italo-American playboy Rocky is an international thief, followed step by step by an FBI...

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Blood and Passion

as Doctor Navarro
Released: 1976-02-23

Pamplona, 1975: Dr. Navarro, a famous doctor in the city, feels strongly attracted to Juana, his...

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The Looters

as Sam Morgan
Released: 1967-08-08

Morgan, a lapsed burglar, is drugged and shanghaied on board a yacht by beautiful Colleen. When...

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Fear Runs Deep

as Valdesio
Released: 1976-04-29

An engineer has discovered a new special alloy for the construction of submarines and is about...

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