Richard Marner
| Richard Marner | |
|---|---|
Richard Marner as Colonel Kurt Von Strohm
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| Born | Alexander Molchanoff 27 March 1921 Petrograd, Russian SFSR (now St. Petersburg, Russian Federation) |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Perth, Scotland |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1950–2002 |
| Spouse(s) | Pauline Farr (1947–2004) |
Richard Marner (born Alexander Molchanoff, 27 March 1921 – 18 March 2004) was a Russian-born British actor. He was probably best known for his role as Colonel Kurt Von Strohm in the British sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!.
Biography
Early life
Born in Petrograd, Soviet Union, Molchanoff (nicknamed "Sacha" by his family) was the eldest son of Colonel Paul Molchanoff, of the Semyonovsky Regiment, one of two that were set up for children of children who had played with Peter the Great of Russia. In 1924, his entire family left Russia and went to Finland and then Germany, before ending up in London, where Alexander's grandmother, Olga Novikov (known in the family as "Babushka London") lived in Harley Street.[1]
After being educated at Monmouth School in Wales, Molchanoff became an assistant to the Russian tenor Vladimir Rosing, where he performed at Covent Garden. During World War II he joined the RAF, and was posted to South Africa with the Air Training Corps. After being invalided out, he changed his name to Richard Marner, and began his long successful career as a stage and film actor.
Career
One of Marner's early stage roles – as Dracula, with Howard Dean – is still regarded by some as the definitive interpretation of the role.[2] In 1967, well before his role as the German Colonel in 'Allo 'Allo Marner played the minor and uncredited role of a German sentry in the classic war film The Dirty Dozen. His other films include Ice Cold in Alex, You Only Live Twice, The Boys from Brazil, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, The African Queen and the Swiss film Four in a Jeep, in which he did all the Russian dialogue. He was also in the television movie Birth of the Beatles, as Bruno Koschmider.
Marner's best known role was in 'Allo 'Allo! as German Commandant Colonel Kurt Von Strohm. He appeared in all nine series of the programme between 1984 and 1992.[1] He also appears in an episode of Secret Army, the programme that 'Allo 'Allo parodies.
Latest work included guest shots in Lovejoy (1994) and the film The Sum of All Fears (as the Russian president).
In 1991, when Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR Boris Yeltsin, convened a "Congress of Compatriots" (an olive branch to some of the post-1917 White Russian diaspora), Marner was one of the 600 people who returned to the motherland. Despite being caught up in a coup, he stayed long enough to watch, through tearful eyes, the raising of the first Imperial Russian flag flown in Moscow since the 1920s.
He died in Perth, Scotland and left a wife, actress Pauline Farr,[2] who retained Molchanoff as her off-stage name. Marner was fluent in Russian, English, French and German, and was also survived by a daughter – Helen – and three grandchildren.
Selected filmography
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
- EngvarB from June 2014
- Use dmy dates from June 2014
- Articles with hCards
- 1921 births
- 2004 deaths
- Male actors from Saint Petersburg
- British people of Russian descent
- White Russian emigrants to the United Kingdom
- Russian male film actors
- Russian male television actors
- Russian male stage actors
- British male film actors
- British male stage actors
- British male television actors
- People educated at Monmouth School
- Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
