Eric Pohlmann (born Erich Pollak; 18 July 1913 – 25 July 1979) was an Austrian actor, long based in the United Kingdom. He appeared in over 200 film and television productions, mostly in character roles.
His large frame and massive features typecast him in roles as master criminals and spies, or conversely as police officers or detectives, as well as other figures of authority. He voiced Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the primary antagonist of the James Bond series, in the Bond films From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).
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Early life and education
Pohlmann was born Erich Pollak to Jewish parents in Vienna in 1913. He received his acting training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, and began his professional career at the Raimund Theater, while supplementing his income by working as an entertainer in a bar.
In 1939, he followed fiancée and later wife, actress Lieselotte Goettinger, into exile in London. Until mid-1941, both were kept in an internment camp. After their release, Eric took part in propaganda broadcasts against the Nazis on the BBC World Service. In order to earn a living, the Pohlmanns temporarily took positions in the household of the Duke of Bedford, Lieselotte as a cook and Eric, as he then became known, as butler.
Career
After the war, he began a career on the West End stage. He played J.J. Peachum in Sam Wanamaker's Royal Court production of The Threepenny Opera in 1956. From the end of the 1940s, Pohlmann was often present in film and television productions, taking supporting roles in various adventure and crime films, and appearing occasionally in comedies. His large frame and massive features typecast him in roles as master criminals and spies, or conversely as police officers or detectives, as well as other figures of authority. He was frequently cast in "foreign" roles, portraying Turks, Italians, Arabs, Greeks or Asians; he also played King George II in Disney's Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue and King George III twice.
One of his earliest film appearances was in Carol Reed's classic The Third Man (1949). He also played supporting roles in such British films as They Who Dare (1954), Chance of a Lifetime (1950), Reach for the Sky (1956), and Expresso Bongo (1960). He also appeared in US productions, notably Moulin Rouge (1952), Mogambo (1953), Lust For Life (1956) and 55 Days at Peking (1963). Twice he appeared in films directed by Richard Thorpe and starring Robert Taylor – The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) and The House of the Seven Hawks (1959).
He displayed his comedic talents in films like Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) with Jane Russell, as a lecherous Arab sheikh in The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), as "The Fat Man" in Carry On Spying (1964) and in The Return of the Pink Panther (1975).
Pohlmann (uncredited) also provided the voice of the unseen head of SPECTRE, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the James Bond films From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965).
In the 1960s and 1970s, Pohlmann relaunched his German-speaking career in West German and Austrian film and television productions. He had guest roles in the popular crime series Der Kommissar and Derrick, and also appeared in television plays for ORF and Bayerischer Rundfunk, often under the direction of Franz Josef Wild. In addition to The Defence Counsel (1961) with Barbara Rütting and Carl Heinz Schroth, he appeared in Little Lord Fauntleroy (1962) with Albrecht Schoenhals and Michael Ande, as well as The Dreyfus Affair (1968) with Karl Michael Vogler and Bernhard Wicki. In 1962, Pohlmann also appeared in The Puzzle of the Red Orchid starring Marisa Mell, Christopher Lee and Klaus Kinski, a West German film adaptation of an Edgar Wallace novel.
Death
On 25 July 1979, during final rehearsals for his second appearance at the Salzburg Festival, Pohlmann suffered a heart attack, and died the same day in a hotel in Bad Reichenhall. He was 66.
He was survived by his children and his second wife, Lili Stern-Pohlman, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor.
Cultural references
In 2006, the Turner Classic Movies "31 Days of Oscar" festival was based on the theme of "360 Degrees of Oscar" (based on the game of "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon") in which TCM chooses an actor who has played a significant role in Oscar history, and builds its entire schedule around him. They chose Eric Pohlmann.