Anton Diffring

About Anton Diffring

Who is it?: Actor, Miscellaneous Crew
Birth Day: October 20, 1918
Birth Place:  Koblenz, Germany, Germany
Other names: Anton de Vient
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1940–1988

Anton Diffring

Anton Diffring was born on October 20, 1918 in  Koblenz, Germany, Germany, is Actor, Miscellaneous Crew. Anton Diffring was a character actor who worked continuously in motion pictures due to his aristocratic, German face and cool, clipped diction, making him ideal for typecasting in British and later American motion pictures as Nazis and other vile, despicable characters. What was ironic about his typecasting as a Nazi is that Diffring, born in Koblenz, Germany, on October 20, 1916, fled Nazi Germany in 1939.He was born into a family that boasted generations of actors, and he studied drama in Berlin and Vienna. At the outbreak of World War II he fled Germany and wound up in Canada, where he was interned as an enemy alien for the duration of the war. It was in Canada where he began his acting career after World War II, working primarily there and in the US before moving to Britain in 1950.He became popular playing Nazis in the postwar period, as the British film industry turned out film after film about the war, which created a great demand for actors who could convincingly play Nazis, the nastier the better. Diffring could play nasty, and his career as a character actor soared. He was still going at it in the 1960s, when he began appearing in American and international co-productions as German soldiers from both WW I and WW II, including The Blue Max (1966), Counterpoint (1968) and that Turner Network Television staple, Where Eagles Dare (1968). He was still going at it in the 1970s and 1980s, as he continued a nearly 40-year-long acting career that was terminated only by his death.He was a much better actor than most of his roles required. Diffring broadened his range as an actor with stage and television work, but the movies continually beckoned, as casting agents were hooked on him when it came to Nazi roles. It was that face that did it; it was both his blessing and his curse. He had the light hair, the piercing blue eyes and the chiseled face of the haughty aristocrat, the German Junker, but it was a face that could telegraph much in the few seconds that was the average shot of a motion picture. As a character actor, he got much done with less (time).In François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) he was cast in all likelihood as a counterpart to the Austrian actor Oskar Werner, so that Werner's own Teutonicness in the English setting wouldn't be as arch. He excelled as Werner's nemesis, as he could create a mood or signal an entire story line with just a look; dialog didn't matter (he likely would have been a superstar in silent films, when it was "the faces" that mattered).Diffring tried to break out of those silken villain roles, moving to Rome in 1968, but producers turned to him again and again to fill their needs for a foreign heavy. He appeared as one of the most infamous Nazis of all, Adolf Hitler's hangman Reinhard Heydrich, in Operation: Daybreak (1975), and as Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the American mini-series The Winds of War (1983). It made him a good living and it made him known, even if it did not fulfill his artistic ambitions.What made his career such a success in terms of its longevity and fecundity was that Diffring was an actor who was enjoyable to watch. From Jack Clayton's I Am a Camera (1955) to Terence Fisher's The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), from Samuel Fuller's Tatort: Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße (1973) to Ken Russell's Valentino (1977), Diffring gave memorable performances, sandwiched in with all the Nazi heavies one career could possibly bear.Anton Diffring died at his home in Chateauneuf-de-Grasse, France, on May 20, 1989. He was 70 years old.
Anton Diffring is a member of Actor

Does Anton Diffring Dead or Alive?

As per our current Database, Anton Diffring has been died on 19 May 1989(1989-05-19) (aged 70)\nChâteauneuf-Grasse, France.

🎂 Anton Diffring - Age, Bio, Faces and Birthday

When Anton Diffring die, Anton Diffring was 70 years old.

Popular As Anton Diffring
Occupation Actor
Age 70 years old
Zodiac Sign Scorpio
Born October 20, 1918 ( Koblenz, Germany, Germany)
Birthday October 20
Town/City  Koblenz, Germany, Germany
Nationality Germany

🌙 Zodiac

Anton Diffring’s zodiac sign is Scorpio. According to astrologers, Scorpio-born are passionate and assertive people. They are determined and decisive, and will research until they find out the truth. Scorpio is a great leader, always aware of the situation and also features prominently in resourcefulness. Scorpio is a Water sign and lives to experience and express emotions. Although emotions are very important for Scorpio, they manifest them differently than other water signs. In any case, you can be sure that the Scorpio will keep your secrets, whatever they may be.

🌙 Chinese Zodiac Signs

Anton Diffring was born in the Year of the Horse. Those born under the Chinese Zodiac sign of the Horse love to roam free. They’re energetic, self-reliant, money-wise, and they enjoy traveling, love and intimacy. They’re great at seducing, sharp-witted, impatient and sometimes seen as a drifter. Compatible with Dog or Tiger.

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Biography/Timeline

1936

Diffring was born as Alfred Pollack in Koblenz. His father Solomon Pollack was a Jewish shop-owner who managed to avoid internment by the Nazi authorities and survived the war. His mother Bertha Diffring was Christian. He studied acting in Berlin and Vienna but there is conjecture about when he left Germany prior to World War II. The audio commentary for the Doctor Who series Silver Nemesis mentions that he left Germany in 1936, to escape persecution due to his homosexuality. Other accounts point to him leaving Germany in 1939 and heading for Canada where he was interned in 1940, which is unlikely as he appears in the 1940 Ealing Studios film Convoy released in July as the officer of the U-37, although uncredited. His sister Jacqueline Diffring moved to Britain and became a famous sculptress. Although he made two fleeting uncredited appearances in films in 1940, it was not until 1950 that his acting career began to take off.

1950

With numerous British war films being produced in the 1950s, Diffring's blond hair, blue eyes and his chiselled features saw him often cast as villainous German officers, in Albert R.N. (1953) and The Colditz Story (1955). Some of his more notable roles as German characters were in The Heroes of Telemark (1965), The Blue Max (1966), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Operation Daybreak (1975) (as SS officer Reinhard Heydrich) and the match commentator in Escape to Victory (1981), though he also played a Polish parachutist in The Red Beret (1953). In 1983 he played Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the American mini-series The Winds of War. In the Italian war movie Uccidete Rommel, shot in an Egyptian desert in 1969, he played the role of a British officer of the SAS.

1959

Diffring starred in a number of horror films, such as The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) and Circus of Horrors (1960) and played the lead in the 1958 television pilot Tales of Frankenstein. He also appeared in quite a number of international films, such as Fahrenheit 451 (1966) directed by François Truffaut.

1988

His final performance was again as a Nazi for the BBC in the 1988 Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis in which he agreed to appear because the recording coincided with the Wimbledon Championships, which he wanted to watch. He died in his home at Châteauneuf-Grasse in the South of France in 1989.

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