Frederick Stafford

Description

Frederick Stafford (11 March 1928&mdash;28 July 1979) was an Austrian-born actor. <p>The Czech actor Frederick Stafford (Friedrich Strobel von Stein), who spoke fluent Czech, German, English, French and Italian, was a leading man in European spy-movies (his hero was an agent code-named OSS 117 in two Bond-like-adventures, in 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 were mediocre B-Pictures, but they got him the the attention of the Master of Suspense: Alfred Hitchcock engaged 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...