Jose Ferrer

Actor

About

Also Known As

Jose Vicente Ferrer De Otero Y Cintron

Birth Place

Puerto Rico

Born

January 08, 1912

Died

January 26, 1992

Cause of Death

Cancer

Biography

Broadway actor-director-producer whose noteworthy stage performances include Iago to Paul Robeson's "Othello" (1942), a Tony-winning "Cyrano de Bergerac" (1946) and the prince in the Noel Coward musical, "The Girl Who Came to Supper" (1964)....

Filmography

State Fair (1962)

Director

Return to Peyton Place (1961)

Director

The High Cost of Loving (1958)

The Cockleshell Heroes (1956)

Director

Photos & Videos

View All

Ship Of Fools (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Don't Bother Getting Up

Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) You Have Followed A Star?

Family & Companions

Uta Hagen

Wife

Actor, acting teacher. Married on December 8, 1938, divorced in June 1948; wrote books including "Respect for Acting"; had one daughter together.

Phyllis Hill

Wife

Actor, ballerina. Married on June 19, 1948, just days after his divorce from Uta Hagen; divorced in July 1953; died on January 1, 1993 at age 72; daughter of actor Peggy Johnson Hill.

Rosemary Clooney

Wife

Singer. Married on July 13, 1953; divorced in 1962; remarried in 1963; divorced a second time in 1966; had five children together; noted pop songstress of the 1950s; made comeback on TV and nightclubs in the 1980s.

Stella Daphne Magee

Wife

Fourth wife.

Biography

Filmography

Life Events

1918

First visited the United States for an operation on his palate; family later moved to the USA when he was six

1934

Made professional debut on a showboat on Long Island

1935

Broadway debut in "A Slight Case of Murder"

1935

Joined Joshua Logan's Suffern (New York) stock company as assistant stage manager

1940

First major stage role in Broadway revival of "Charley's Aunt"

1941

Broadway directing debut, Marcel Pagnol's "Topaz"

1942

Played Iago to Paul Robson's Othello on Broadway

1945

Broadway producing debut, "Strange Fruit" (also director)

1945

Turned down lead in Billy Wilder's "The Lost Weekend"

1946

Film debut as narrator of short, "Bolivia"

1948

Film acting debut (feature) in "Joan of Arc"

1949

Starred in TV version of his 1947 stage triumph, "Cyrano de Bergerac"; also starred in 1950 film version

1955

Film directing debut, "The Shrike" (also actor)

1958

Co-writing debut, "Oh, Captain" on Broadway (also director)

1990

Final stage performance opposite Mandy Patinkin in the RSC's musical "Born Again" (based on Ionesco's "Rhinoceros")

1990

Last American stage appearance at the Paper Mill Playhouse's revival of the Harold Rome musical "Fanny" in Millburn, New Jersey

1991

Planned to return to Broadway in the spring of 1992 to star opposite Judd Hirsch in Herb Gardner's "Conversations with My Father"; forced to bow out due to illness

Photo Collections

Miss Sadie Thompson - Lobby Card

The Caine Mutiny - Movie Posters

Here is a group of American movie posters from Columbia Pictures' The Caine Mutiny (1954), starring Humphrey Bogart, Jose Ferrer, and Fred MacMurray.

Videos

Ship Of Fools (1965) -- (Movie Clip) Don't Bother Getting Up Widow Mary (Vivien Leigh) meets ex-ballplayer Tenny (Lee Marvin), then anti-Semite Rieber (Jose Ferrer) is joined by Dr. Schumann (Oskar Werner), then misfits Glocken (Michael Dunn) and Lowenthal (Heinz Rumann) on board a German liner off Mexico, 1933, in Ship Of Fools, 1965.

Greatest Story Ever Told, The (1965) -- (Movie Clip) You Have Followed A Star? Impressive landscapes, three kings (Cyril Delevanti, Mark Lenard, Frank Silvera) visiting the duly worried Herod (Claude Rains), his son Antipas (Jose Ferrer) standing by, early in George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told, 1965.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) It's April Again Still in director John Huston’s extended opening, 1890 at Moulin Rouge in Paris, Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) consults with the bothered owner (Harold Kasket), then everything stops as we meet Zsa Zsa Gabor, as singer Jane, song by Georges Auric and Jacques Larue, in Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I'll Make You Like Me Artist Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) has rescued streetwalker Marie (Collette Marchand) from a Paris cop, after which she invites herself home with him, beginning a key relationship, in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) The Smell Of Paint Moderately frustrated painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) meets colleagues Anquetin, Seurat and Gauzi (Jean Landler, Christopher Lee, Robert Le Fort) at a Paris cafe, then his enthusiastic semi-agent Maurice (Lee Montague), in John Huston’s Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Moulin Rouge (1952) -- (Movie Clip) I Can Drink Cognac Already several minutes into director John Huston’s opening, at club Moulin Rouge, Paris, 1890, our first look at Jose Ferrer as painter Toulouse-Lautrec, visited by a waitress (Jill Bennett), his friend Maurice (Lee Montague) and warring dancers Katherine Kath and Muriel Smith in Moulin Rouge, 1952.

Miss Sadie Thompson (1954) -- (Movie Clip) The Situation Has Landed Stuck in American Samoa, reformer Davidson and wife (Jose Ferrer, Peggy Converse) and the doctor MacPhails (Russell Collins, Frances Morris), can't help noticing the title character (Rita Hayworth) and servicemen (Aldo Ray et al), in Miss Sadie Thompson, 1954, from a Somerset Maugham story.

Miss Sadie Thompson (1954) -- (Movie Clip) The Heat Is On Wrapping a chat on values between "reformer" Davidson (Jose Ferrer), MacPhail (Russell Collins), and innkeeper Horn (Harry Bellaver), jumping to a gratuitous number (by Lester Lee and Allan Roberts, vocal by JoAnn Greer) by the title character (Rita Hayworth), in Miss Sadie Thompson, 1954.

Deep In My Heart (1954) -- (Movie Clip) The Music Of Sigmund Romberg An unusual opening from MGM, as the studio orchestra begins a de facto tribute to the composer and subject of the bio-pic, until it’s revealed that it’s an actor, leading man Jose Ferrer, who plays Sigmund Romberg, conducting, in Deep In My Heart, 1954, Stanley Donen directing.

Deep In My Heart (1954) -- (Movie Clip) You Will Remember Vienna Sometime around 1910, New York, opera star Helen Trabuel as the employer of Jose Ferrer, who plays immigrant composer Sigmund Romberg, subject of the bio-pic, who then tangles with a roughneck American promoter (David Burns) early in MGM’s Deep In My Heart, 1954.

Deep In My Heart (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Softly, As In A Morning Sunrise Jose Ferrer in French, as composer Sigmund Romberg, meeting Tamara Toumanova as Gaby, Walter Pidgeon as Broadway impresario J.J. Shubert, and Merle Oberon as future collaborator Dorothy Donnelly, praising the first sample of a famous tune, in MGM’s Deep In My Heart, 1954.

Deep In My Heart (1954) -- (Movie Clip) Mr. And Mrs. Two Sigmund Romberg tunes, Jose Ferrer in his only musical performance plays the composer standing-in for the understudy, with Rosemary Clooney, then narrates to Gene Kelly, joined by older-brother Fred in his only movie appearance (his vocal dubbed), in the MGM musical bio-pic Deep In My Heart, 1954.

To Be Or Not To Be (1983) - (Original Trailer) Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft star in this remake of To Be Or Not To Be (1983) as Polish actors vs. Nazis.

Deep in My Heart -- (Original Trailer) Jose Ferrer stars in Deep in My Heart (1954), MGM's all-star biography of Broadway songsmith Sigmund Romberg.

Cyrano de Bergerac (1951) - (Original Trailer) The Best Actor award went to Jose Ferrer for his portrayal of Cyrano de Bergerac (1951).

5th Musketeer, The - (Original Trailer) France's King Louis XIV (Beau Bridges) tries to use his look-alike brother to political advantage in The 5th Musketeer (1979) co-starring Ian McShane and Rex Harrison.

Crisis - (Original Trailer) Cary Grant takes a strong dramatic role as an American doctor forced to operate on a dictator in Crisis (1950).

Moulin Rouge - (Original Trailer) French painter Toulouse-Lautrec (Jose Ferrer) searches for love despite his physical limitations in Moulin Rouge (1952), an Oscar winning biography by director John Huston.

Lawrence of Arabia - (Original Trailer) A British military officer (Peter O'Toole) enlists the Arabs for desert warfare during WWI in Lawrence of Arabia (1962).

Family

Rafael Ferrer

Father

Lawyer. From San Juan.

Maria Providencia Ferrer

Mother

From Yabucoa, Puerto Rico.

Rafael Ferrer

Half-Brother

Leticia Garcia

Sister

Elvira Villafane

Sister

Leticia Thyra Ferrer

Daughter

Actor. Born in 1940; mother, Uta Hagen.

Miguel Jose Ferrer

Son

Actor. Born in 1955; mother, Rosemary Clooney; appeared with father in a 1981 episode of "Magnum, P.I.".

Rafael Francisco Ferrer

Son

Born in 1956; mother, Rosemary Clooney.

Maria Providencia Ferrer

Daughter

Children's tapestry designer. Born in 1957; mother ,Rosemary Clooney.

Gabriel Vicente Ferrer

Son

Born in 1959; mother, Rosemary Clooney; married to singer-actress Debby Boone; they have four children together: Jordan (born c. 1980), twin girls Gabrielle and Dustin (born c. 1983) and Tessa (born c. 1986).

Monsita Teresa Botwick

Daughter

Born in 1960; mother, Rosemary Clooney.

Companions

Uta Hagen

Wife

Actor, acting teacher. Married on December 8, 1938, divorced in June 1948; wrote books including "Respect for Acting"; had one daughter together.

Phyllis Hill

Wife

Actor, ballerina. Married on June 19, 1948, just days after his divorce from Uta Hagen; divorced in July 1953; died on January 1, 1993 at age 72; daughter of actor Peggy Johnson Hill.

Rosemary Clooney

Wife

Stella Daphne Magee

Wife

Fourth wife.

About

Biography

Filmography

Photos & Videos

Family & Companions

Biography

Filmography

Director (Feature Film)

Cast (Feature Film)

Writer (Feature Film)

Music (Feature Film)

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Cast (Special)

Cast (TV Mini-Series)

Life Events

1918

1934

1935

1935

1940

1941

1942

1945

1945

1946

1948

1949

1955

1958

1990

1990

1991

Photo Collections

Videos

Movie Clip

Trailer

Family

Companions

Bibliography

TCM Emails