death_date death_place birth_place name birth_date yearsactive article_title birth_name
25 july 1996 paris , france baden , switzerland howard vernon 15 july 1914 1945-1996 howard vernon
 mario lippert
howard vernon

howard vernon -lrb- 15 july 1914 , baden , switzerland -- 25 july 1996 , paris , france -rrb- was a swiss actor .
vernon was born mario lippert to a swiss father and an american mother and was fluent in german , english , and french .
originally a stage and radio actor , he worked primarily in france and became a well-known supporting actor after 1945 by playing villainous nazi officers in french films .
jean-pierre melville 's `` le silence de la mer '' , in which he played a gentle anti-nazi german officer , made him somewhat famous , but , in part due to his looks and swiss accent , he was subsequently relegated to playing gangsters and heavies .
in the 1960s , he became a favorite actor of spanish horror director jesús franco and began starring in many low-budget horror movies produced in spain or in france , often portraying a mad doctor named `` dr. orloff '' .
he continued to make increasingly small appearances in high-profile movies while often getting top billing in many grade-z horror films .
horror fans consider his three greatest horror film roles to be `` the awful dr. orloff '' -lrb- 1961 -rrb- which introduced franco 's famed mad doctor character , `` dracula vs frankenstein '' -lrb- 1971 -rrb- in which he played count dracula and `` the erotic rites of frankenstein '' -lrb- 1972 -rrb- in which he played the insanely evil count cagliostro .
