Peter van Eyck

Peter van Eyck was born on Jul 16, 1911 in Poland]. Peter van Eyck's big-screen debut came with Hitler's Children directed by Edward Dmytryk in 1943, strarring Arresting Sergeant (uncredited). Peter van Eyck is known for The Spy Who Came in from the Cold directed by Martin Ritt, Richard Burton stars as Alec Leamas and Claire Bloom as Nancy 'Nan' Perry. The upcoming new movie Peter van Eyck plays is The Bridge at Remagen which will be released on Oct 23, 1969.

With his whitish blond crew-cut, slow, menacing drawl and Germanic manner, Van Eyck was destined to be typecast as stereotypically scowling, arrogant Nazi officers. This was ironic, because being an avowed anti-fascist, he had left Germany in 1931 -- two years before Adolf Hitler came to power. The son of an aristocratic Prussian land owner, his father had intended him to embark on a military career. Instead, Peter spent his education in Berlin, where he trained as a musician.In 1937, Van Eyck arrived in New York via Havana, Cuba, and became acquainted with the composer Aaron Copland. This led to a collaboration, as well as solo efforts, as composer and lyricist on a variety of songs for revue and cabaret. He also moonlighted as a pianist in bars and nightclubs. Around this time, he also began to work as a stage manager and arranger for Irving Berlin. Not afraid to try any job that came along, he tried his hand at driving a truck, and this, somehow, led him to Hollywood where he became a protege of the director Billy Wilder. Wilder prompted him to appear in front of the cameras. In 1943, Peter began a career in films, by this time as a naturalized American citizen. For the remainder of the decade, he had little to do but re-enact basically the same part of German officers and Gestapo henchmen in films like Les cinq secrets du désert (1943) and Address Unknown (1944).After the war, Van Eyck returned to Germany, where he was ironically cast as an American officer in Hello Fräulein (1949). He also appeared in the comedy Enfants de roi (1950) ,with Jenny Jugo), as yet another American. One of his best ever performances as an actor was in the role of Bimba, in Henri-Georges Clouzot's high octane thriller Le salaire de la peur (1953). Van Eyck played one of a group of daredevil truck drivers traversing an impenetrable South American jungle with a deadly load of nitroglycerin. There were other good roles: as the womanising Frenchman Fribert in La fille Rosemarie (1958); a police inspector investigating a famous murder in Témoins à abattre (1958),aka 'Dr.Crippen lives'); a starring role as Paul Decker, who attempts the perfect murder of his wife in L'homme au masque de verre (1958); and one of two industrialist brothers in 'Helmut Kautner''s Et tout le reste n'est que silence (1959).In the 1960's, Peter Van Eyck appeared increasingly in unmemorable international co-productions. Having settled in Switzerland and maintaining a residence in Paris, he was ideally placed to alternate between French, English and German film roles. He was seen in three potboilers about the master criminal Dr.Mabuse, which were extremely popular in Germany. His best roles during this period were as the East German intelligence officer Mundt, who is the target of L'espion qui venait du froid (1965); and as Colonel General von Brock in the absorbing war drama Le pont de Remagen (1969), which was also his last film. Van Eyck died near Zuerich in Juli 1969 of septicemia, just short of his 58th birthday.