Turhan Bey is one of the very few actors from Hollywood's golden age, who is still among us. This year he went 85 and in 2002 he had his 80th birthday.
For this reason Andrea Eckert, who is a better directrice than actress, unburied the unjustifiably forgotten actor, who was born in Vienna/Austria, and Ms. Eckert made a wonderful documentary about his life. Awesome ! Watch it if you can, but I fear it will only be available in German speaking parts of Europe. When Turhan, who is still alive today and living in Vienna again, got 85 Austrian TV showed this documentary again and I taped it for repeated viewing.
It is wonderful to see this "oldtimer", who has superbly aged and looks incredible for an 80 year old, sitting in his armchair and telling about this life and career in Hollywood, which in fact lasted less than a decade (from 1941 to 1949, with a last picture in 1953). However, in those few years he seems to have been a "hotshot" there and enjoyed a certain fame, especially among starlets, as he indeed was a good looking guy and being from good old Europe meant something there then. :-) Must have been swell years then !! When his career faded in the later 40ies he went back to Europe and became a photographer, but since he inherited a fortune, he could live of and still is living of that. Looking at this guy you can easily see that he never had money problems, but nevertheless has stayed reasonable and down-to-earth.
Since Hollywood does not seem such a bad place even today and people there have a longer memory than one would assume, Turhan surfaced again on the (mostly smaller) screen from 1993 to 1998 and very much enjoyed it. He tells us, what a great actor Roy Schweider is (I agree, but unfortunately he does not get the roles anymore, which he deserves), how he met this and that celebrity, etc., etc., ... .
It's just 40 minutes "long", but they go fast and the fact, that I have never forgotten this documentary since I saw it first time and am keeping an eye out for Turhan Bey movies since 2002 (before that year I was not even aware of his existence!) is proof enough that this is a very memorable slice of life.
10 out of 10 !
For this reason Andrea Eckert, who is a better directrice than actress, unburied the unjustifiably forgotten actor, who was born in Vienna/Austria, and Ms. Eckert made a wonderful documentary about his life. Awesome ! Watch it if you can, but I fear it will only be available in German speaking parts of Europe. When Turhan, who is still alive today and living in Vienna again, got 85 Austrian TV showed this documentary again and I taped it for repeated viewing.
It is wonderful to see this "oldtimer", who has superbly aged and looks incredible for an 80 year old, sitting in his armchair and telling about this life and career in Hollywood, which in fact lasted less than a decade (from 1941 to 1949, with a last picture in 1953). However, in those few years he seems to have been a "hotshot" there and enjoyed a certain fame, especially among starlets, as he indeed was a good looking guy and being from good old Europe meant something there then. :-) Must have been swell years then !! When his career faded in the later 40ies he went back to Europe and became a photographer, but since he inherited a fortune, he could live of and still is living of that. Looking at this guy you can easily see that he never had money problems, but nevertheless has stayed reasonable and down-to-earth.
Since Hollywood does not seem such a bad place even today and people there have a longer memory than one would assume, Turhan surfaced again on the (mostly smaller) screen from 1993 to 1998 and very much enjoyed it. He tells us, what a great actor Roy Schweider is (I agree, but unfortunately he does not get the roles anymore, which he deserves), how he met this and that celebrity, etc., etc., ... .
It's just 40 minutes "long", but they go fast and the fact, that I have never forgotten this documentary since I saw it first time and am keeping an eye out for Turhan Bey movies since 2002 (before that year I was not even aware of his existence!) is proof enough that this is a very memorable slice of life.
10 out of 10 !