Ferdy Mayne (born Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel; 11 March 1916 – 30 January 1998), also spelled Ferdie Mayne, was a German-British actor. Born in Mainz, he emigrated to the United Kingdom in the early 1930s to escape the Nazi regime. He resided in the UK for the majority of his professional career.
Working almost continuously throughout a 60-year-long career, Mayne was known as a versatile character actor, often playing suave villains and aristocratic eccentrics in films like The Fearless Vampire Killers, Where Eagles Dare, Barry Lyndon, and Benefit of the Doubt. He also appeared in many West End plays.
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Early life and education
Ferdinand Philip Mayer-Horckel was born in Mainz, Germany, on 11 March 1916. His German father was the judge of Mainz, while his half-English mother was a singing instructor.
Because his family was Jewish, a teenage Mayne was sent to Britain in 1932 to protect him from the Nazis. He stayed with his aunt, Li Osborne (1883–1968), nee Luisa Friedericka Wolf, a well-known German theatre and film portrait photographer. Just a few years previously, she fled Germany for England, married, became Li Hutchinson-Wolf, and, as a noted sculptor, used the name Lee Hutchinson. Mayne obtained British citizenship. His parents were detained briefly in Buchenwald but, due to his mother's British family connections, were able to leave Germany for Britain, where they settled permanently. He was educated at Frensham Heights School, and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School.
