Biography

Career

Early stage acclaim Ferrer, who was born in the Santurce district of San Juan, Puerto Rico. In 1933 he graduated from Princeton University, where he wrote a senior thesis titled French Naturalism and Pardo Bazán and was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club. Ferrer made his Broadway debut in 1935. In 1940, he played his first starring role on Broadway, the title role in Charley's Aunt — part of it in drag. He played Iago in Margaret Webster's 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 staged in the U.S., a record it still holds. Then, in 1946, he played the title role in Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, a performance which won him a Tony Award. Radio
Among other radio roles, Ferrar starred as detective Philo Vance in a 1945 series of the same name. Oscars
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, becoming the first Puerto Rican to win the award, only weeks after being subpoenaed to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee as a suspected Communist, charges that Ferrer vehemently denied. Stage Director
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. Another Oscar nomination, and later work
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 portrayed the Reverend Davidson in 1953's Miss Sadie Thompson (a remake of Rain) opposite Rita Hayworth, Barney Greenwald, the embittered defense attorney, in 1954's The Caine Mutiny and operetta composer Sigmund Romberg in the MGM musical biopic Deep in My Heart. 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 didn't appear in, Return to Peyton Place in 1961 and also the remake 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. He took over the 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. 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 stage career was as 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 film roles include an evil hypnotist in Otto Preminger's Whirlpool, co-starring Gene Tierney (1949), the Turkish Bey who sexually molests Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia (1962 - he considered this to be his finest film performance), Herod Antipas in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965), a budding Nazi in Ship of Fools (also in 1965), a pompous professor in Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982), the treacherous Professor Siletski in the 1983 remake of To Be or Not to Be, and Shaddam Corrino IV in Dune in 1984. However, in an interview given in the 1980s, he bemoaned the lack of good character parts for aging stars, and readily admitted that he now took on roles mostly for the money.

Later years

Family

Filmography

Further Information

Get more info on 'Jos Ferrer'.