JOSé FERRER

'José Vicente Ferrer de Otero y Cintrón' (January 8, 1909 – January 26, 1992), was an Academy Award-winning Puerto Rican actor and film director, born in the Santurce district of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He was a 1933 graduate of Princeton University, where he wrote a senior thesis titled ''French Naturalism and Pardo Bazán'' and was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club.

Contents

Career

Family

See also

External links

Career

Ferrer first became famous on Broadway in 1935. In 1940, he played his first starring role on Broadway, the title role in ''Charley's Aunt'' — part of it in drag. But his next triumph was even greater, as Iago in Margaret Webster's famous 1943 Broadway production of ''Othello'', starring Paul Robeson in the title role, Webster as Emilia, and Ferrer's wife at the time, Uta Hagen, as Desdemona. It became the longest-running production of a Shakespeare play ever staged in the U.S., a record it still holds. Then, in 1946, came his greatest stage triumph, the title role in Edmond Rostand's ''Cyrano de Bergerac'', a performance which won him a Tony Award, and which he would repeat throughout his career, always winning acclaim for it.
Ferrer made his film debut with Ingrid Bergman in ''Joan of Arc'' in 1948, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, for "Best Supporting Actor". Ferrer won an Academy Award as "Best Actor" for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac in the 1950 film version of ''Cyrano de Bergerac'' only weeks after being subpoenaed to appear before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee as a suspected Communist, charges that Ferrer vehemently denied.
In 1952 Ferrer won a Tony Award for directing three plays (''The Shrike'', ''Stalag 17'', ''The Fourposter'') in the same season and earned another for his performance in ''The Shrike''. Additional Broadway directing credits include ''Twentieth Century'', ''Carmelina'', ''My Three Angels'', and ''The Andersonville Trial''.

Also in 1952, Ferrer portrayed French painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in John Huston's ''Moulin Rouge'' , for which he was Oscar nominated for the third and last time. He appeared in 1953's ''Miss Sadie Thompson'' opposite Rita Hayworth, in 1954's ''The Caine Mutiny'' and the MGM musical ''Deep in My Heart'' (portraying composer Sigmund Romberg). In 1955 Ferrer directed himself in the film version of ''The Shrike'', with June Allyson. ''The Cockleshell Heroes'' followed a year later, along with ''The Great Man'', both of which he also directed. In 1958 Ferrer directed and appeared in ''I Accuse!'' and ''The High Cost of Loving''. Ferrer also directed, but did not appear in, ''Return to Peyton Place'' in 1961 and also the re-make of ''State Fair'' in 1962.
In 1959 Ferrer directed the original stage production of Saul Levitt's ''The Andersonville Trial'', about the trial following the revelation of conditions at the infamous Civil War prison. It was a hit and featured George C. Scott in one of his most notable early roles. And he took over direction of the troubled musical ''Juno'' from Vincent J. Donehue, who had himself taken over from Tony Richardson. The show folded after 16 performances and mixed-to extremely negative critical reaction. In retrospect, much of ''Juno'' was very well done, especially the score by Marc Blitzstein and the choreography by Agnes de Mille, but the show's commercial failure (along with his earlier flop, ''Oh, Captain!''), was a considerable setback to Ferrer's directing career. Nor did the short-lived ''The Girl Who Came to Supper'' do much for his acting career.
In the midst of his film work, Ferrer would return to the stage every so often, and the most notable performance of his later career was in the dual role of Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in the hit musical ''Man of La Mancha''. Ferrer took over the role from Richard Kiley in 1967, and subsequently went on tour with it in the first national company of the show.
Ferrer's other notable films include Otto Preminger's '' Whirlpool'' co-starring Gene Tierney in 1949, ''Lawrence of Arabia'' in 1962 (he considered this to be his finest film performance), ''The Greatest Story Ever Told'' in 1965, ''Ship of Fools'' also in 1965, Woody Allen's ''A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy'' in 1982, and ''Dune'' in 1984.
In 1980 he had a memorable role as future Justice Abe Fortas in the made-for-television film version of Anthony Lewis's ''Gideon's Trumpet''.
Ferrer had a recurring role as Julia Duffy's insanely wealthy WASPy father on the popular ''Newhart'' television sitcom in the U.S. in the 1980s. He also had a memorable recurring role as elegant and flamboyant attorney Reuben Marino on the soap opera ''Another World'' in the early 1980s. He narrated the very first episode of the popular 1964 sitcom ''Bewitched'', in mock documentary style.
He also provided the voice of the evil Ben Haramed on the 1968 Rankin/Bass Christmas TV special "The Little Drummer Boy".

Family

Ferrer had five children with singer-actress Rosemary Clooney: Miguel was born in 1955, Maria in 1956, Gabriel in 1957, Monsita in 1958, and Rafael in 1960. Clooney was Ferrer's third wife. The two were married in 1953, divorced in 1961, and remarried in 1964, only to be divorced again in 1967. Ferrer had previously been married to famed actress and acting teacher Uta Hagen (1938-1948), by whom he had a daughter, Leticia (Lettie), and actress Phyllis Hill (1948-1953). At the time of his death, Ferrer was married to Stella Magee, whom he married in the late sixties.
Ferrer was the uncle of actor George Clooney and the father-in-law of singer Debby Boone. José Ferrer died following a brief battle with colon cancer in Coral Gables, Florida at the age of 83. He was laid to rest in Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in Old San Juan.

See also

★ List of famous Puerto Ricans

External links

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★ José Ferrer's Gravesite