Frederick Stafford

Frederick Stafford

Born: March 11, 1928
Died: July 28, 1979
in Czechoslovakia
Frederick Stafford (11 March 1928 – 28 July 1979) was a Czechoslovak-born actor. Born Friedrich Strobel von Stein, he spoke fluent Czech, German, English, French and Italian, and was a leading man in European spy-movies. In 1964 French director André Hunebelle discovered him on holiday at a hotel in Bangkok and asked him "How would you like to make movies with me?". Stafford replied "Why not?" and replaced Kerwin Matthews to play an agent code-named OSS 117 in two Bond-like-adventures. The first co-starring with Mylène Demongeot, in the second with Marina Vlady. He also appeared in war-films (The Battle of El Alamein) and in Michel Boisronds thriller Million Dollar Man alongside Anny Duperey. These movies got him the attention of the Master of Suspense: Alfred Hitchcock who signed him in 1968 to play the leading role as agent André Devereaux in Topaz (1969), but the film was not a success, and the casting of Stafford, whose performance was found lacking by critics, was largely blamed for its failure. Channel4 told: Heading the international cast is a very wooden Stafford, who is no Cary Grant. He married German actress Marianne Hold. He had a come-back in 1972 as Commissario Luca Micelli in Italian Giallo Shadows Unseen. Five years after Topaz he starred as detective Sandro Mattei beside the actress who played his daughter in Topaz, French actress Claude Jade, in the Italian thriller La ragazza di Via Condotti (Meurtres à Rome/Special Killers) (1973/74). In that movie the character of 20 years older Stafford has a brief platonic romance with Jade's character Tiffany. His last successes were the Spanish Movies Blood and Passion(1975) and White Horses of Summer (1975, starring Jean Seberg, his co-star from 1966 Estouffade à la Caraïbe), the Italian thriller Werewolf Man (1976) and the Spanish- Italian-French coproduction Hold-Up (1977). He died in 1979 in a plane crash. His son is the singer Roderick Stafford (born 1964), Flowers from Hitchcock.

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Movies for Frederick Stafford...

Fear Runs Deep
Title: Fear Runs Deep
Character: Valdesio
Released: April 29, 1976
Type: Movie
An engineer has discovered a new special alloy for the construction of submarines and is about to launch it on the world market. To force him to give up the formula, his opponents kidnap his son.
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Werewolf Woman
Title: Werewolf Woman
Character: Inspector Modica
Released: March 18, 1976
Type: Movie
A woman has dreams that she is a werewolf so she goes out and finds men. She proceeds to have sex with them and then rip their throats out with her teeth. She eventually falls in love but then she is raped and her lover is murdered so she goes out for revenge.
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Blood and Passion
Title: Blood and Passion
Character: Doctor Navarro
Released: February 23, 1976
Type: Movie
Pamplona, 1975: Dr. Navarro, a famous doctor in the city, feels strongly attracted to Juana, his nurse, who is also in love with the doctor. Navarro, however, moved by his strong religious convictions (in fact, he is a numerary member of Opus Dei) remains faithful to his wife and tries by all means to prevent that their relations with Juana break through professional boundaries. For the purpose of that, he orders the nurse will sent to another hospital. This will push Juana to take the initiative and provoke the doctor during San Fermines.
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White Horses of Summer
Title: White Horses of Summer
Character: Nicholas Kingsburg
Released: April 17, 1975
Type: Movie
The marital problems of an American couple come to a head while visiting southern Italy with their impressionable young son.
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Hold Up
Title: Hold Up
Character: Robert Cunningham
Released: August 2, 1974
Type: Movie
Robert is a police agent of American origins who lost his memory through an accident during a robbery in a branch of the Bank of America. A robber who survived the shooting is convinced the agent is faking his amnesia, just to then get rid of him and enjoy the loot, that cost the other delinquents their lives, together with his ex lover.
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Suppose... I Break Your Neck
Title: Suppose... I Break Your Neck
Character: Rocky
Released: November 30, 1973
Type: Movie
The Italo-American playboy Rocky is an international thief, followed step by step by an FBI Inspector, who manages to keep a "loot" also "claimed" by an international boss belonging to the Sicilian Mafia.
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Special Killers
Title: Special Killers
Character: Sandro Mattei
Released: August 11, 1973
Type: Movie
Sandro, a detective, finds his wife strangled. His girl-friend Tiffany, who works as photographer, makes a "Blow up" from a photo, what Sandro finds beside the victim. Sandro and Tiffany are looking for the woman on the photo, Laura. They finds her in a Night Club in Rome...
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Shadows Unseen
Title: Shadows Unseen
Character: Commissioner Luca Miceli
Released: March 24, 1972
Type: Movie
When a journalist is murdered Inspector Micheli begins to investigate. Although someone comes forward to confess to the crime, Micheli doesn't believe he acted alone and keeps investigating despite coming under pressure to close the case.
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Topaz
Title: Topaz
Character: André Devereaux
Released: December 17, 1969
Type: Movie
Copenhagen, Denmark, 1962. When a high-ranking Soviet official decides to change sides, a French intelligence agent is caught up in a cold, silent and bloody spy war in which his own family will play a decisive role.
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Eagles Over London
Title: Eagles Over London
Character: Captain Paul Stevens
Released: September 20, 1969
Type: Movie
The British High Command finds itself in the thick of a huge dilemma when it is realized that they have long been infiltrated by spies from a German intelligence group. This all happens during the preliminary stages of the Battle of Britain.
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The Battle of El Alamein
Title: The Battle of El Alamein
Character: Giorgio Borri
Released: January 1, 1969
Type: Movie
June 1942. As Rommel swept toward the Nile, the fall of Egypt and the capture of the Suez Canal seemed inevitable. Italian and German advance units raced toward Alexandria. Mussolini had given explicit orders: The Italians must arrive first!
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Dirty Heroes
Title: Dirty Heroes
Character: Joe Mortimer
Released: September 21, 1967
Type: Movie
Set near the end of World War II in the Netherlands, Dirty Heroes concerns a group of ex-convicts recruited into the U.S. Army to recover Dutch jewels originally stolen by the Nazis as well as confiscated Allied plans
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Million Dollar Man
Title: Million Dollar Man
Character: Jean Sarton
Released: August 31, 1967
Type: Movie
A U.S. Treasury Department agent is sent to Morocco to find a fortune in counterfeit money hidden by the Nazis during World War II. The agent escapes from prison with the only man who knows the location of the bogus bills. The duo is shadowed by a group of former Nazi soldiers who hope they will lead them to recover the lost loot. The feature plays as a crime drama with overtones of international espionage.
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The Looters
Title: The Looters
Character: Sam Morgan
Released: August 8, 1967
Type: Movie
Morgan, a lapsed burglar, is drugged and shanghaied on board a yacht by beautiful Colleen. When he comes to, the athletic young man learns that Colleen and her friends want him to break open the vaults of a Carribean island where a ruthless dictator has deposited a treasure stolen from his people. Despite the way he has been treated, Morgan accepts the mission. The group, supported by local resistant fighters, storm the fortress, but Colleen's father gets killed during the attack. The treasure is finally retrieved and is returned to the people. Morgan and Colleen will say yes to each other for better or for worse.
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O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo
Title: O.S.S. 117: Mission to Tokyo
Character: Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath, alias OSS 117
Released: October 28, 1966
Type: Movie
After an American Navy base is annihilated by a secret weapon, Agent OSS 117 is sent to Japan to investigate the organization that's claiming responsibility, and threatening the US with another attack, if they don't pay.
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Agent 505 - Death Trap Beirut
Title: Agent 505 - Death Trap Beirut
Character: Richard Blake, Agent 505
Released: April 22, 1966
Type: Movie
A couple of beautiful girls are murdered while sunbathing at a luxury hotel. The killer too is murdered, but able to reveal – before dying - that they were disposed of because the “knew too much”. Something bad is being planned in Beirut, and it has something to do with a man called The Sheikh, who has only four fingers. It seems this isn’t a lone incident. The Sheikh is also thought to be behind the assassination of several prominent scientists.
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OSS 117: Mission for a Killer
Title: OSS 117: Mission for a Killer
Character: Hubert Bonnisseur de la Bath
Released: July 2, 1965
Type: Movie
A secret agent is dispatched to find a rare and valuable drug.