Anton Diffring

Diffring was born Alfred Pollack in Koblenz, Rhineland-Palatinate. His father, Solomon Pollack, was a Jewish shop-owner who managed to avoid internment and survived Nazi rule in Germany. His mother, Bertha Pollack (née Diffring), was Christian. He studied acting in Berlin and Vienna, but there is conjecture about when he left Germany prior to the outbreak of World War II. The audio commentary for the Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis mentions that he left in 1936 to escape persecution due to his homosexuality. Other accounts point to him leaving in 1939 and settling in Canada, where he was interned in 1940, which is unlikely as he appears in the Ealing Studios film Convoy (released in July 1940, as the officer of U-37, in an uncredited role). His sister Jacqueline Diffring moved to England and became a sculptor. While in England, he quickly became fluent in English and for a time worked in the War Office as an interpreter. Although he made two fleeting uncredited appearances in films in 1940, it was not until 1950 that his acting career began to take off.

• Illustration — Anton Diffring in an episode of One Step Beyond (1961) With numerous World War II film and television productions being produced in England from the 1950s, Diffring's "Germanic" physical type of blond hair, pale blue eyes and chiselled features saw him regularly cast in roles as Nazi military officers in films such as Albert R.N. (1953) and The Colditz Story (1955). Some of his other roles as German characters were in The Heroes of Telemark (1965), The Blue Max (1966), Where Eagles Dare (1968), Zeppelin (1971), as SS officer Reinhard Heydrich in Operation Daybreak (1975) and the football match commentator in Escape to Victory (1981), although he also played a Polish parachutist in The Red Beret (1953). He played Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the American mini-series The Winds of War (1983). In the Italian war movie Uccidete Rommel, shot in the Egyptian desert in 1969, he played the role of a British officer of the SAS. On stage, Diffring played the title role in the musical Mister Venus, opposite Frankie Howerd. It opened at the Prince of Wales Theatre on 23 October 1958 but closed after only sixteen performances. In the show, Diffring sang two solo numbers: "Love Like Ours" and "Tradition". The book was by Ray Galton and Johnny Speight, while the music was by Trevor H. Stanford (Russ Conway) and Norman Newell. He played a part in the TV mini-series Flambards as the aeronautical pioneer who assists William Russell (Alan Parnaby), second in line of inheritance to the Flambards Estate, who is obsessed with flying. Diffring's character was a German living in Britain shortly before the beginning of the Great War. Diffring starred in several horror films, such as The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959) and Circus of Horrors (1960) and played the lead in the television pilot Tales of Frankenstein (1958). He also appeared in international films, such as Fahrenheit 451 (1966), an English-language film directed by François Truffaut. He appeared in the 1964 West German comedy A Mission for Mr. Dodd having previously starred in the West End play Out of Bounds on which it is based. His final performance was once more as a Nazi for the BBC in the 1988 Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis.

Diffring died on 19 May 1989 from cancer at his home in Châteauneuf-Grasse, in the South of France, at the age of 72. In a 2002 interview, his longtime friend Arthur Brauss said Diffring had died of complications from AIDS. His ashes were buried in the graveyard of St Andrew's Church, in the village of White Colne in Essex.

• The Constant Wife (1946, Barbizon-Plaza Theatre, New York City) as John Middleton • I Am a Camera (1955, New Theatre Oxford, later Bristol Hippodrome, later UK tour) as Fritz Wendel • Mister Venus (1958, Manchester Opera House, later Prince of Wales Theatre, later UK tour) as Mr. Venus • Henry V (1960, Mermaid Theatre) • Out of Bounds (1962–63, Wyndham's Theatre, later New Theatre Oxford, later UK tour) as Anton Lesh

• Colonel March... (Episode 14: "The Silent Vow", 1956) • Edgar Wallace Mysteries episode: Incident At Midnight (1962).... Dr Erik Leichner • Scobie in September (6 episodes, 1969).... Pandorus • Assignment Vienna (8 episodes, 1972–1973).... Inspector Hoffman • Thriller (Series 2, Episode 3: "Kiss Me and Die", 1974).... Jonathan Lanceford • The Galton & Simpson Playhouse (Episode 1: "Car Along the Pass", 1977).... Heinz Steiner • Plutonium (film) (1978).... Arnold • Flambards (5 episodes, 1979).... Mr. Dermot • The Old Fox: Morddrohung (1980).... Leo Steglitz • Arsène Lupin joue et perd (TV mini-series, 1980).... Wilhelm II • Derrick: Am Abgrund (1981).... Alfred Bandera • Ein Winter auf Mallorca (1982).... Konsul Fleury • The Winds of War (4 episodes, 1983).... Joachim von Ribbentrop • Derrick: Angriff aus dem Dunkel (1984).... Scherer • House Guest (1984).... Crozier • End of the World (1984 film) (1984) • Opération O.P.E.N. (1 episode, 1984).... Beejlab • The Masks of Death (1984).... Graf Udo Von Felseck of Purbridge Manor • Messieurs les jurés (1 episode, 1985).... Karl Düren • Jane Horney (TV mini-series, 1985).... Adm. Wilhelm Canaris • Derrick: Nachtstreife (1987).... de Mohl • Doctor Who serial Silver Nemesis (3 episodes, 1988).... De Flores

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