Turhan Bey obit

Turhan Bey, Actor With Continental Charm, Dies at 90

 

He was not on the list.

He was an Austrian-born actor of Turkish and Czech-Jewish origins. Bey was active in Hollywood from 1941 to 1953. He was dubbed "The Turkish Delight" by his fans.[3] After his return to Austria, he pursued careers as a photographer and stage director. Returning to Hollywood after a 40-year hiatus, he made several guest appearances in 1990s television series including SeaQuest DSV, Murder, She Wrote and Babylon 5 as well as a number of films. After retiring he appeared in a number of documentaries, including a German-language documentary on his life.

Bey was born Turhan Gilbert Selahattin Sahultavy in Vienna, Austria, on 30 March 1922, as the son of a Turkish diplomat and a Czechoslovakian-Jewish mother.

After the annexation of Austria to Nazi Germany and his parents' divorce, he and his mother emigrated to the United States in October 1938, initially settling in New Hampshire. In 1939, they moved to Los Angeles.

Bey was an acting student at Ben Bard's School of Dramatic Art and was active in the Pasadena Playhouse.

When he enrolled in classes to improve his English, he was asked to play a role in a teacher's play.

Bey says it was Bard who helped come up with his stage name. He said "He knew that 'Bey' was a term of respect in Turkey so said 'Why don't we just make it Turhan Bey?'"

In December 1939, he appeared in Bard's Talent Scout Revue on stage. "Vivid playing and several fine characterizations distinguished the evening" reported the Los Angeles Times.

A talent scout from Warner Brothers was in the audience, was impressed and signed him to a contract, under the name of Turhan Bey.

Bey appeared in a number of films in small roles, usually playing someone sinister: Shadows on the Stairs (1941), and Footsteps in the Dark (1941) with Errol Flynn and Ralph Bellamy. Warners then dropped him.

Bey moved to Universal, where he had small roles in Raiders of the Desert (1941) (which had an early appearance from Maria Montez), and Burma Convoy (1941).

He went to RKO to appear in The Gay Falcon (1941), the first in The Falcon series of B movies. He returned to Universal for a small role in Bombay Clipper (1942), starring Montez and directed by John Rawlins.

Bey had a slightly bigger part in Unseen Enemy (1942), directed by Rawlins, playing a Japanese spy. He was in the serial Junior G-Men of the Air (1942). Bey was in Drums of the Congo (1942), then went back to RKO for The Falcon Takes Over (1942), an adaptation of Farewell My Lovely.

Bey played a South Sea islander in Danger in the Pacific (1942) and a Japanese officer in Destination Unknown (1942). He had a role as an Egyptian follower of Kharis in The Mummy's Tomb (1942) with Lon Chaney Jr. which he later said was his favorite film.

Bey's first "A" movie in color was Arabian Nights (1942) with Maria Montez, Jon Hall and Sabu directed by Rawlins; Bey had a support role as a captain. The movie was a huge success and led to a series of exotic adventure stories starring Montez. Bey was noticed too, with one reviewer's calling him "a handsome snake in the grass."

Bey was in The Adventures of Smilin' Jack (1942), then had his best chance to date with White Savage (1943). This was a follow up to Arabian Nights, reuniting Montez, Hall and Sabu; Bey was cast in the role of Montez's wastrel brother. Arthur Lubin directed and the movie was a hit.

Warner Bros borrowed Bey to play a small role in Background to Danger (1943), a George Raft movie set in Turkey.

Bey was receiving a lot of fan mail, and Universal began to build him into a star. Hedda Hopper called him a "Turkish Valentino."

He was top billed in the horror film The Mad Ghoul (1943), with Evelyn Ankers.

When Sabu enlisted in the army, Bey took his place in Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944), a Technicolor spectacular with Montez and Hall directed by Lubin. Bey was top billed, and the film was very popular. Bey had a cameo in Universal's all-star Follow the Boys (1944).

Bey was meant to be reunited with Montez and Hall in Gypsy Wildcat (1944) when MGM borrowed him to play a Chinese in Dragon Seed (1944) starring Katharine Hepburn and Walter Huston. His part in Wildcat went to Peter Coe.

Dragon Seed earned over $4 million but lost money due to its high cost. Bey said the experience of working at MGM was "very exciting" although he "almost preferred the way Universal worked, because it was faster and less time consuming."

Back at Universal, Bey was the romantic male lead in the big-budget The Climax (1944) with Boris Karloff and Susanna Foster, an unsuccessful attempt to duplicate the success of Phantom of the Opera (1943). He had a key role in the musical Bowery to Broadway (1944), a vehicle for Jack Oakie.

In 1944, a poll by exhibitors of "Stars of Tomorrow" listed Bey at number nine.

In May 1944, Universal announced it would star him in Return of the Sheik.

Universal put Bey and Foster in the Western Frisco Sal (1945). He was more comfortably cast in Sudan (1945), with Montez and Hall.

MGM wanted Bey for a part in Weekend at the Waldorf, but Universal and Walter Wagner wanted him for another film so he could not do it (George Zucco played the role). The Wanger film was Night in Paradise (1946), with Bey playing Aesop opposite Merle Oberon for director Arthur Lubin. Bey admitted to often arriving late on set, something he later regretted. The movie was a box-office flop and damaged Bey's standing in Hollywood.

As a Turkish subject, Bey had not been eligible to be called by the draft board. That changed when Turkey declared war on Germany in February 1945, and in June, Bey was inducted into the army at Fort MacArthur.

He served at Santa Ana Air Base for a time and performed in a version of Carmen at Fort Roberts.

Bey was in the army for 18 months, which halted his career's momentum.

When he got out, Universal offered him a film that Bey refused, and he was put on suspension. It sold his contract, which had three years to go, to Eagle-Lion.

Bey later recalled his time at Universal as "very pleasant, very constructive; the end, unfortunately, a big flop but c'est la vie...It was a studio of cooperation where the biggest producer was never too big to listen to you...I should have been a little more serious about my work but I was very young."

Bey made four films with Eagle-Lion. The first was the comedy Out of the Blue (1947) with George Brent and Virginia Mayo. Bey followed it with the swashbuckler Adventures of Casanova (1948), supporting Arturo de Córdova. Bey made the thriller The Amazing Mr. X (1948) with Lynn Bari. His fourth film for Eagle-Lion was Parole, Inc (1948) with Michael O'Shea.

In August 1948, he appeared on stage in The Second Man in Princeton.

Bey made Song of India (1949) at Columbia with Sabu and Gail Russell. The film was not a success.

He bought an interest in a cafe in Palm Springs. The same year, he tried to get financing for a film on Sir Edward Coke, A Lion Under the Throne.

In Austria he produced, but did not star in, Stolen Identity (1953).

He returned to Hollywood and was cast in Sam Katzman's Prisoners of the Casbah (1953), billed after Gloria Grahame and Cesar Romero.[37][30] He announced he had set up his own production company, Metropolitan Pictures, and wanted to produce but not star in Dikov, a film about a boy and his bird.

Turhan returned to the United States in the early 1990s. He appeared in episodes of SeaQuest 2032, Murder, She Wrote, VR.5, and The Visitor. He also guest-starred in two episodes of the TV series Babylon 5: first as the emperor of the Centauri Republic (who also had the name Turhan), and later as a Minbari Ranger named Turval.

Bey was in the Fred Olen Ray thriller Possessed by the Night (1994), the drama Healer (1994), The Skateboard Kid 2 (1995), and Grid Runners (1995).

The documentary Vom Glück verfolgt. Wien – Hollywood – Retour, made in 2002 by Andrea Eckert, was about him.

Another documentary in which he appeared was film historian Scott MacQueen's Extra Bonus, filmed in 2000.

Feuerhalle Simmering, grave of Turhan Bey and his mother Friederike

Bey was romantically linked with Lana Turner at one time. In September 1944, he had a brawl over Turner with the latter's ex-husband Stephen Crane. His relationship with Turner ended when he went into the army.

Turhan died on 30 September 2012 from Parkinson's disease.[42] He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, where his ashes are buried next to his mother's.

Filmography

Actor Year           Film       Role       Notes

1941      Shadows on the Stairs    Ram Singh          

1941      Footsteps in the Dark     Ahmed

1941      Raiders of the Desert      Hassen Mohammed       

1941      Burma Convoy   Mr. Yuchau        

1941      The Gay Falcon Manuel Retana

1941      Bombay Clipper                Captain Chundra              

1942      Unseen Enemy Ito         

1942      Junior G-Men of the Air Henchman Araka             

1942      The Falcon Takes Over   Jules Amthor      Uncredited

1942      Danger in the Pacific       Tagani  

1942      Drums of the Congo        Juma     

1942      Destination Unknown    Captain Muto    

1942      The Mummy's Tomb       Mehemet Bey  

1942      Arabian Nights   Captain of the Guard     

1943      The Adventures of Smilin' Jack    Kageyama           Serial film

1943      White Savage     Tamara                

1943      Captive Wild Woman      End Narrator      Voice, Uncredited

1943      Background to Danger   Hassan

1943      Crazy House       Turhan Bey         Uncredited

1943      The Mad Ghoul Eric Iverson        

1944      Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves    Jamiel  

1944      Dragon Seed      Lao Er Tan – Middle Son               

1944      The Climax          Franz Munzer   

1944      Bowery to Broadway      Ted Barrie          

1945      Frisco Sal             Dude Forante    

1945      Sudan    Herua   

1946      Night in Paradise              Aesop  

1947      Out of the Blue David Gelleo      

1948      Adventures of Casanova               Lorenzo               

1948      The Amazing Mr. X          Alexis   

1948      Parole, Inc.          Barney Rodescu               

1949      Song of India      Gopal   

1953      Prisoners of the Casbah                 Ahmed

1993      SeaQuest DSV    Dimitri Rossovich              TV series (one episode: "Treasure of the Mind")

1994      Possessed by the Night Calvin   

1994      Healer   Igor Vostovich  

1995, Broadcast Jan.22, US.         Murder, She Wrote         Sherif Faris          TV series (one episode: "Death 'N Denial")

1995      VR.5       Abernathy           TV series (one episode: "Reunion")

1995      Grid Runners      Dr. Cameron      

1997      The Visitor                          TV series (one episode: "The Black Box")

1995, 1998          Babylon 5            Centauri Emperor Turhan / Turval             TV series (two episodes: "The Coming of Shadows" and "Learning Curve" )

2000      The Skateboard Kid II      Zeno, an Angel

2002      Vom Glück verfolgt. Wien – Hollywood – Retour                 Himself                 TV documentary

Producer Year    Film       Notes

1953      Stolen Identity   Producer