Actor/director/producer Mel Ferrer was born Melchor Gaston Ferrer on August 25, 1917, in Elberon, New Jersey. The son of a Cuban-born surgeon and a Manhattan socialite, he went to prep school and attended Princeton University. From the age of 15 he worked in summer stock. After Princeton he became an editor on a small Vermont newspaper and wrote a children's book, "Tito's Hats." He became a chorus dancer on Broadway in 1938 in two musicals and made his New York debut as an actor two years later. After a bout with polio he started in radio as a disc jockey in Texas and Arkansas and rose to producer-director of top-rated shows for NBC in New York. He made a modest debut as a director at Columbia with the low-budget The Girl of the Limberlost, then returned to acting on Broadway to star in Lillian Smith's "Strange Fruit." He was John Ford's assistant on The Fugitive.

Ferrer made his screen acting debut in Lost Boundaries. He is best remembered for the role of the lame puppeteer in Lili and as Prince Andrei in War and Peace. He directed Claudette Colbert in The Secret Fury and Audrey Hepburn - his wife at the time - in Green Mansions. Ferrer produced the hit Wait Until Dark, also with Hepburn. In the following year, the couple separated and ultimately divorced. Since 1960 he has been producing and acting mainly in Europe. Ferrer is married and lives in Lausanne, Switzerland.


War and Peace (1956): $100,000
Lost Boundaries (1949): $7,500

Father of Sean H. Ferrer with Audrey Hepburn His oldest child, with Pilchard, died as an infant. Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1962 Spoke French fluently. Not related to José Ferrer and Miguel Ferrer. Made his Broadway debut as an actor at age 23, two years after making his debut as a dancer aged 21. Directed José Ferrer (no relation) in the latter's first performance as Cyrano de Bergerac.