Peter van Eyck

Peter van Eyck
Born	Götz von Eick 16 July 1911 Steinwehr, Pomerania, Germany
Died	Männedorf near Zürich, Switzerland
Cause of death	sepsis
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1943–1969
Spouse(s)	Ruth Ford (1940-194?) (divorced) 1 child Inge von Voris (?-1969) (his death) 2 children

Peter van Eyck, born Götz von Eick (16 July 1911, Steinwehr, Pomerania, Germany [now Kamienny Jaz, Poland] – 15 July 1969, Männedorf near Zürich, Switzerland), was a German-American actor.

Biography

After graduating from high school he studied music. In 1931 he left Germany, living 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. He then 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 army as a commissioned officer. At the end of the war he returned to Germany as a control officer for film and remained there until 1948 as director of the film section. 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 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, de, also an actor, and Claudia.

He died of sepsis in 1969 after he had left a relatively small injury untreated, aged 57.

Partial filmography

• The Moon Is Down (1943) — Lieutenant Tonder
• Five Graves to Cairo (1943) — Lieutenant Schwegler
• Action in the North Atlantic (1943) — German Ensign
• Address Unknown (1944) — Heinrich Schulz
• The Impostor (1944) — Hafner
• Resisting Enemy Interrogation (1944) — Granach
• Hello, Fraulein! (1949) — Tom
• The Orplid Mystery (1950) — Lund
• The Desert Fox: The Story of Rommel (1951) — German officer
• The Wages of Fear (1953) — Bimba
• Sailor of the King, also known as Single-Handed (1953) — Kapitän Ludvik von Falk
• fr (1953) — Howard
• 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) — Hartman
• fr (1955) — Franck Richter
• Mr. Arkadin (1955) — Thaddeus
• Jump into Hell (1955) — Lt. Heinrich Heldman
• The Rawhide Years (1955) — Andre Boucher
• Der Cornet - Die Weise von Liebe und Tod (1956) — Scribe
• Run for the Sun (1956) — Dr. Van Anders / Colonel Von Andre
• Attack! (1956) — SS Captain
• fr (1957) — Pedro Wassewich
• Retour de manivelle (1957) — Eric Fréminger
• The Glass Tower (1957) — John Lawrence
• fr (1957) — Cyril Glad
• The Snorkel (1958) — Paul Decker
• Rosemary (1958) — Alfons Fribert
• The Rest Is Silence (1959) — Paul Claudius
• The Black Chapel (1959) — Robert Golder
• Rebel Flight to Cuba (1959) — Captain Roberti
• The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960) — Henry Travers
• Sweetheart of the Gods (1960) — Dr. Hans Simon
• Foxhole in Cairo (1960) — Cont Almaszy
• de (1961) — Bleck
• it (1961) — Capitano Paul
• fr (1961) — Michel Georgenko
• de (1962) — Dr. Fred Calonder
• The Devil's Agent (1962) — Georg Droste
• The Brain (1962) — Dr. Peter Corrie
• The Longest Day (1962) — Lieutenant-Colonel Ocker
• Station Six-Sahara (1962) — Kramer
• Ostrava (1963) — Peter
• Scotland Yard vs. Dr. Mabuse (1963) — Major Bill Tern
• de (1963) — Chef
• de (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 Dirty Game (1965) — Petchatkin
• Duel at Sundown (1965) — Don McGow
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) — Hans-Dieter Mundt
• fr (1966) — Peter von Kessner
• Requiem for a Secret Agent (1966) — Oscar Rubeck
• de (1967) — Muller
• it (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

External links

• Peter van Eyck at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs of Peter van Eyck