Peter van Eyck

Peter van Eyck (born Götz von Eick; 16 July 191115 July 1969) was a German-American film and television actor. Born in Prussian Pomerania, he moved to the United States in the 1930’s and established a career as a character actor. After World War II, he returned to his native country and became a star of West German cinema.
Internationally, his best known roles included The Wages of Fear (1953), Mr. Arkadin (1955), The Longest Day (1962), The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965), and the 1960s Dr. Mabuse films. He was twice nominated for the German Film Award for Best Actor, for Blind Justice (1961) and for The River Line (1964).
Biography
Van Eyck was born into an aristocratic German family from Pomerania (since 1945 part of Poland). After graduating from high school he studied music in Berlin.
While studying music in Berlin, Van Eyck purportedly had a brief liaison with Jean Ross, a cabaret singer who inspired the fictional character of Sally Bowles. Ross became pregnant with Eyck's child and, when Eyck departed Weimar-era Berlin, Ross had an abortion authorized by gay author Christopher Isherwood who falsely claimed to be her impregnator. These factual events served as the genesis for a short story by Isherwood which later became the 1937 novella Sally Bowles and was later adapted into the 1966 Cabaret musical and the 1972 film of the same name.
In 1931, after leaving Berlin, Van Eyck lived in Paris, London, Tunis, Algiers and Cuba, before settling in New York. He earned a living playing the piano in a bar, and wrote and composed for revues and cabarets, including several songs for Madame Spivy with lyricist John LaTouche. He worked for Irving Berlin as a stage manager and production assistant, and for Orson Welles Mercury Theatre company as an assistant director.
Van Eyck went to Hollywood where he worked as a truck driver. He initially found radio work with the help of Billy Wilder, who later gave him small film roles. In 1943, he took US citizenship and was drafted into the U.S. Army as a commissioned officer. At the end of World War II, he returned to Germany as a control officer for film and remained there until 1948 as director of the film section. He completed training at Camp Ritchie and is considered to be one of the Ritchie Boys. In 1949, he appeared in his first German film Hallo, Fräulein!
He gained international recognition with a leading role in the 1953 film Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. He went on to appear in episodes of several US TV series including The Adventures of Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In English-language films he was most often typecast as a Nazi or other unsympathetic type, while in Germany he was a popular leading man in a wider range of films, including several appearances in the Doctor Mabuse thriller series of the 1960s.
Personal life
Van Eyck was married to the American actress Ruth Ford for a short time in the 1940s. With his second wife, Inge von Voris, he had two daughters also an actor, and Claudia.
Death
He died in 1969 in Männedorf, Switzerland, of septicaemia, caused by an untreated (relatively) minor injury, a day before his 58th birthday.
Selected filmography
Hitler's Children (1943) — Arresting Sergeant (uncredited)
The Moon Is Down (1943) — Lieutenant Tonder
Edge of Darkness (1943) — German Soldier (uncredited)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943) — Lieutenant Schwegler
Action in the North Atlantic (1943) — German Ensign (uncredited)
Hitler's Madman (1943) — Gestapo (uncredited)
The Impostor (1944) — Hafner
Address Unknown (1944) — Heinrich Schulz
Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944) — Capt. Granach - Young Nazi Officer (uncredited)
Hello, Fraulein! (1949) — Tom Keller
Royal Children (1950) — Paul König
Blondes for Export (1950) — Rolf Carste
The Orplid Mystery (1950) — Steward Stefan Lund
Furioso (1950) — Peter von Rhoden
Third from the Right (1950) — Renato
The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) — German officer (uncredited)
Heart of the Casbah (1952) — Jo
The Wages of Fear (1953) — Bimba
Sailor of the King, also known as Single-Handed (1953) — Kapitän Ludvik von Falk
Alarm in Morocco (1953) — Howard
La chair et le diable (1953) — Mathias Valdès
Night People (1954) — Capt. Sergei "Petey" Petrochine
Flesh and the Woman (1954) — Fred
Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955) — Dr. Celliers
A Bullet for Joey (1955) — Eric Hartman
Sophie and the Crime (1955) — Franck Richter
Mr. Arkadin (1955) — Thaddeus
Jump into Hell (1955) — Lt. Heinrich Heldman
The Cornet (1955) — Mönchschreiber
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1956) (Season 1 Episode 21: Safe Conduct") as Officer
The Rawhide Years (1956) — Andre Boucher
Run for the Sun (1956) — Dr. Van Anders / Colonel Von Andre
Attack! (1956) — SS Captain
Burning Fuse (1957) — Pedro Wassewich
(1957) — Peter Simon
Retour de manivelle (1957) — Eric Fréminger
The Glass Tower (1957) — John Lawrence
Anyone Can Kill Me (1957) — Cyril Glad
Doctor Crippen Lives (1958) — Kriminalkommissar Léon Ferrier
Rosemary (1958) — Alfons Fribert
Schmutziger Engel (1958) — Studienrat Dr. Torsten Agast
The Snorkel (1958) — Paul Decker
(1958) — Alexandre
(1959) — Alexander
Rommel Calls Cairo (1959) — Capt. Graf von Almassy
(1959) — Karl Amsel
The Rest Is Silence (1959) — Generaldirektor Paul Claudius
Crime After School (1959) — Dr. Knittel
Labyrinth (1959) — Ron Stevens
The Black Chapel (1959) — Robert Golder
Rebel Flight to Cuba (1959) — Captain Pink Roberti
Sweetheart of the Gods (1960) — Dr. Hans Simon
The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) — Henry B. Travers
Foxhole in Cairo (1960) — Cont Almasky
World in My Pocket (1961) — Bleck
(1961) — Hauptmann Langenau
(1961) — Michel Georgenko
(1961) — Bönisch
Blind Justice (1961) — Prosecutor Dr. Robert Kessler
(1962) — Dr. Fred Calonder
The Devil's Agent (1962) — Georg Droste
The Longest Day (1962) — Lt. Col. Ocker
The Brain (1962) — Dr. Peter Corrie
Station Six-Sahara (1962) — Kramer
Ostrva (1963) — Peter
Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse (1963) — Major Bill Tern
(1963) — Chef
An Alibi for Death (1963) — Günther Rohn
The Secret of Dr. Mabuse (1964) — Maj. Bob Anders
The River Line (1964) — Major Barton
Kidnapped to Mystery Island (1964) — Captain McPherson
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) — Hans-Dieter Mundt
The Dirty Game (1965) — Petchatkin
Die Herren (1965) — Colonel - episode 'Die Soldaten'
Duel at Sundown (1965) — Don McGow
Living It Up (1966) — Peter von Kessner
Requiem for a Secret Agent (1966) — Oscar Rubeck
High Season for Spies (1966)— Kramer / Jack Haskins
(1967, TV film) — Ivar Kreuger
(1967) — Muller
Red Roses for the Fuhrer (1968) — Oberst Kerr
Tevye and His Seven Daughters (1968) — Priest
Assignment to Kill (1968) — Walter Green
Shalako (1968) — Baron Frederick Von Hallstatt
The Bridge at Remagen (1969) — Generaloberst von Brock (final film role)
References
External links
Photographs of Peter van Eyck
1911 births
1969 deaths
People from Chojna
Actors from the Province of Pomerania
Emigrants from the Weimar Republic
Immigrants to the United States
German male film actors
United States Army Air Forces officers
First Motion Picture Unit personnel
20th-century German male actors
Infectious disease deaths in Switzerland
Deaths from sepsis
Ritchie Boys