Derren Nesbitt (born Derren Michael Horwitz; 19 June 1935) is a British actor. Nesbitt's film career began in the late 1950s, and he appeared in many British television series throughout the 1960s and 1970s. He is perhaps best known for his role as Major von Hapen in the 1968 film Where Eagles Dare.
Derren Nesbitt | |
|---|---|
| Born | Derren Michael Horwitz 19 June 1935 London, England, U.K. |
| Alma mater | Royal Academy of Dramatic Art |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1956–present |
| Spouse(s) |
Susan Parr
(m. 1976, divorced)Miranda Nesbitt |
| Children | 5 |
Acting career
editNesbitt's television appearances began in the 1950s, playing numerous different roles in series such as The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Adventures of William Tell; he was often billed as Derry Nesbitt at this stage of his career. He went on to play the villain in a number of well known tv series of the 60s and 70s, including Danger Man, The Saint, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Gideon's Way, Man in a Suitcase, UFO and The Persuaders!. In 1969 he took on the role of DCI Jordan in the police drama Special Branch.
Nesbitt has also appeared in film roles such as a predatory blackmailer of gay men in Victim (1961), a murderous pimp in The Informers (1963), a slimy assassin in Nobody Runs Forever, and the suspicious Gestapo officer in Where Eagles Dare (1968). Nesbitt was keen to be as authentic as possible with his character in Where Eagles Dare. Whilst on location, he requested to meet a former member of the Gestapo to better understand how to play the character and to get the military regalia correct. He was injured on set whilst filming the scene in which his character is killed. The blood squib attached to Nesbitt exploded with such force that he was temporarily blinded, though he made a quick recovery.[2][3] He also had leading roles in classic early sixties 'B' Movies The Man in the Back Seat and Strongroom, both directed by Vernon Sewell.
In 2018, Nesbitt played the leading role, as a drag queen, in a British independent film, Tucked.[4]
Personal life
editNesbitt has been married four times and has five children.[5]
In 1961, he married his first wife, the actress Anne Aubrey; the couple had a daughter the next year. On 25 January 1973, he was fined £250 when he pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in October the previous year. He attacked her with a leather strap after she told him that she was having an affair with another man. He also bruised her by grabbing her clothing the next day when she refused to tell him details about her lover. She divorced him a few months later.[6][7][8][9]
His third wife was an Australian beauty queen, and for a time he moved to her country where he taught theatre studies at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of Arts in the New South Wales city of Lismore. By 2014, he was living in Worthing, West Sussex, with his fourth wife, Miranda.[5]
Filmography
editFilm
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1958 | The Silent Enemy | Officer in charge of security patrol boat | uncredited |
| A Night to Remember | Stoker | uncredited | |
| 1959 | Room at the Top | Thug | |
| Life in Danger | The Man | ||
| Behemoth, the Sea Monster | Radio Officer | uncredited | |
| 1960 | In the Nick | Mick | |
| Sword of Sherwood Forest | Martin of Eastwood | uncredited | |
| 1961 | The Man in the Back Seat | Tony | |
| Victim | Sandy Youth | ||
| Karolina Rijecka | Unknown | ||
| 1962 | Strongroom | Griff | |
| Term of Trial | Lodger | ||
| Kill or Cure | Roger Forrester | ||
| 1963 | The Informers | Bertie Hoyle | |
| 1965 | The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders | Younger Brother | |
| 1966 | The Blue Max | Fabian | |
| Operation Third Form | Skinner | ||
| 1967 | The Naked Runner | Colonel Hartmann | |
| 1968 | Nobody Runs Forever | Pallain | |
| Where Eagles Dare | Major von Hapen | ||
| 1969 | Monte Carlo or Bust! | Waleska | |
| 1972 | Burke & Hare | Burke | |
| Innocent Bystanders | Andrew Royce | ||
| Ooh... You Are Awful | Sid Sabbath | ||
| 1973 | Not Now Darling | Harry McMichael | |
| 1974 | Invasion: UFO | Craig Collins | Edited from UFO (TV series) |
| 1975 | The Amorous Milkman | Replacement Milkman | uncredited. Writer, Director, Producer |
| 1976 | Spy Story | Colonel Stok | |
| 1978 | The Playbirds | Jeremy | |
| Give Us Tomorrow | Ron | ||
| 1979 | The Saint and the Brave Goose | Inspector Lebec | |
| 1981 | The Guns and the Fury | Captain Noel | |
| 1983 | Funny Money | Jake Sanderson | |
| 1987 | Eat the Rich | Manager | |
| 1990 | Bullseye! | Inspector Grosse | |
| Fatal Sky | Arthur Corbin | ||
| 1992 | Double X: The Name of the Game | The Minister | |
| 2006 | Pu-239 | Pepsi | uncredited |
| 2007 | Flawless | Sinclair | |
| 2011 | The Hot Potato | Fritz Meyer | |
| 2012 | Run For Your Wife | Man on Bus | |
| 2014 | Home for Christmas | Grandad | |
| 2018 | Tucked | Jackie | |
| 2020 | The Haunting of Margam Castle | Hugh Morgan |
Television
edit| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1956-
1957 |
The Adventures of Sir Lancelot | Sir Tristam
Various other roles |
Season 1: (14 episodes) |
| 1957 | Sword of Freedom | Di Lucca | Season 1, episode 32: "The Marionettes" |
| 1957
1961 |
Armchair Theatre | Otto
Geoffrey Fitton |
Season 2, episode 5: "The Pier"
Season 4, episode 21: "Honeymoon Postponed" |
| 1958-
1959 |
The Adventures of William Tell | Captain Frederick
Various other roles |
Season 1: (8 episodes) |
| 1959 | The Larkins | Spider | Season 2, episode 2: "Teddy for Eddie" |
| The Invisible Man | Corporal
Stephan |
Season 1, episode 2: "Crisis in the Desert"
Season 2, episode 1: "Point of Destruction" | |
| ITV Television Playhouse | Tod Blake | Season 5, episode 6: "The Blood Fight" | |
| Probation Officer | Joe | Season 1, episode 6 | |
| 1960 | Skyport | Phillipe | Season 1, episode 44 |
| Theatre 70 | Unknown | Season 1, episode 10: "The Neighbour" | |
| 1960 1961 |
Danger Man | Hans Vogeler
Hugo Morelli |
Season 1: (2 episodes) |
| 1961 | International Detective | Istvan Martos | Season 1, episode 27: "The Martos Case" |
| 1962 | Man of the World | Polikoff | Season 1, episode 11: "Specialist for the Kill" |
| 1963 | Dixon of Dock Green | Brian Thomas | Season 9, episode 26: "A Woman Named Julie" |
| Emergency-Ward 10 | Campbell Goffin | Season 1: (8 episodes) | |
| Taxi! | Lennie Marsh | Season 1, episode 7: "A Long Way to Go" | |
| The Sentimental Agent | Lewis | Season 1, episode 6: "Meet My Son, Henry" | |
| The Saint | Netchideff | Season 2, episode 13: "The Sporting Chance" | |
| 1964 | No Hiding Place | Wilf Barret | Season 6, episode 6: "The Write-off" |
| Doctor Who | Tegana | Season 1: (7 episodes) | |
| The Protectors | Stodgey Payne | Season 1, episode 5: "The Loop Men" | |
| 1964
1965 1966 |
ITV Play of the Week | Caiser
Harry Ricky |
Season 10: (2 episodes)
Season 11, episode 35: "The Move After Checkmate" |
| 1965 | Public Eye | Kiley | Season 1, episode 11: "Protection Is a Man's Best Friend" |
| Gideon's Way | John Benson | Season 1, episode 14: "The Tin God" | |
| Danger Man | Rachid Noureddine | Season 2, episode 4: "Sting in the Tail" | |
| 1967 | The Rat Catchers | Charles Dinley | Season 2: (2 episodes) |
| Mr. Rose | Fred Chater | Season 1, episode 10: "The Deadly Doll" | |
| Write a Play | Unknown | Season 2, episode 8: "The White Christ & The Freeze Man" | |
| Softly, Softly | Newnes | Season 3: (2 episodes) | |
| The Troubleshooters | Lanyon | Season 4, episode 7: "And the Walls Came Tumbling Down" | |
| Man in a Suitcase | Lucas Guardino | Season 1, episode 11: "Dead Man's Shoes" | |
| The Prisoner | New Number Two | Season 1, episode 10: "It's Your Funeral" | |
| 1969 | Honey Lane | Al Dowman | Unknown |
| 1969-
1970 |
Special Branch | Detective Chief Inspector Jordan | Season 1: (14 episodes)
Season 2: (13 episodes) |
| 1970 | Strange Report | Nils Paavo | Season 1, episode 16: "Report 4977: Swindle – Square Root of Evil" |
| Berlin Affair | Galt | TV movie | |
| 1971 | UFO | Colonel Craig Collins | Season 1, episode 16: "The Man Who Came Back" |
| The Persuaders! | Groski | Season 1, episode 9: "The Old, the New and the Deadly" | |
| 1972
1973 |
The Protectors | Brad Huron
Colin Foster |
Season 1: (2 episodes) |
| 1979 | Return of the Saint | Inspector Lebec | Season 1: (2 episodes) |
| The House on Garibaldi Street | Arthur Lubinsky | TV movie | |
| 1980 | Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson | George Wharton | Season 1, episode 20: "The Case of the Luckless Gambler" |
| 1982 | The Chinese Detective | Gunther Esslin | Season 2, episode 6: "Chorale" |
| 1988
1990 1993 |
The Comic Strip Presents... | Various characters | Season 4, episode 1: "The Strike"
Season 5: (2 episodes) Season 7, episode 2: "Space Virgins from Planet Sex" |
| 1990 | Bergerac | Dennis Swain | Season 8, episode 2: "My Name's Sergeant Bergerac" |
| 1993 | Hale and Pace | Unknown | Season 5, episode 6 |
| 2004 | The Courtroom | Judge Arnold Francis | Season 1: (11 episodes) |
References
edit- ^ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 22 February 2021."Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 22 February 2021.
- ^ A Conversation with Derren Nesbitt. "Major von Hapen" in "Where Eagles Dare". YouTube (10 June 2013). Retrieved on 2015-11-20.
- ^ "Actor Injured as Burton Fires 'Shot'". Chicago Tribune. 25 April 1968. p. b30.
- ^ "Tucked - cast list". IMDB.com. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
- ^ a b "Derren Nesbit at 75". sussex.greatbritishlife.co.uk. Sussex Life. Archived from the original on 2 January 2011. Retrieved 30 May 2024.
- ^ Actor Derren Nesbitt Thrashed Wife With Leather, Evening Standard, 25 January 1973
- ^ Actor Spanked 'Errant' Wife With Thong, The Daily Telegraph, 26 January 1973
- ^ Derren Nesbitt Fined £250 For Wife Assaults, The Times, 26 January 1973 (see Times Digital Archive)
- ^ Moore, Matthew (24 July 2008). "TV actor Derren Nesbitt to expose 'biblical myths' in controversial book". The Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 28 September 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2009.