Frederick Stafford 11 March 1928 28 July 1979 was a Czechoslovakborn actor Born Friedrich Strobel von Stein he spoke fluent Czech German English French and Italian and was a leading man in European spymovies 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 codenamed OSS 117 in two Bondlikeadventures The first costarring with Mylène Demongeot in the second with Marina Vlady He also appeared in warfilms 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 comeback 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 RomeSpecial Killers 197374 In that movie the character of 20 years older Stafford has a brief platonic romance with Jades character Tiffany His last successes were the Spanish Movies Blood and Passion1975 and White Horses of Summer 1975 starring Jean Seberg his costar from 1966 Estouffade à la Caraïbe the Italian thriller Werewolf Man 1976 and the Spanish ItalianFrench coproduction HoldUp 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia
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