RIP Hans Meyer

RIP Hans Meyer

According to a post on Facebook by Spanish author Carlos Aguilar and the French blog Cinephemeride South African actor Hans Meyer died April 5, 2020. He was 94.

Born to German parents Hans was born in Paulpietersburg, KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa on July 21, 1925. He worked initially as a model where he posed for book covers until a friend in Germany working for an advertising agency lined up his first work as an actor, a television advert for Puschkin Vodka. The brand became Germany's best selling vodka and Meyer became known as "Frank S. Thorn" The Puschkin Man. He was hired by Anatole Litvak as an extra for his film The Night of the Generals.

In the 1960s, he played supporting roles in numerous French films alongside French cinema stars such as Lino Ventura, Alain Delon and Jean-Paul Belmondo. In 1966 he was engaged for La grande vadrouille, where he embodied an angry SS representative. In 1968 he played in the action thriller The Devil's Garden by Yves Boisset. In 1969 he took on the role of Sheriff Blade in the thriller Les Étrangers, shot in Spain. In 1970 he played in the Western Cannon for Cordoba. In the role of the Swedish major Svedberg, the leader of a private mercenary army. In 1975 he had a small role in Stanley Kubrick's film adaptation of Barry Lyndon.

In the 1970s Meyer also worked for television. He played a continuous series role in the British television series Colditz. In 1978 he appeared in the mini-series Holocaust - The History of the Weiss Family; in it he played the SS official Ernst Kaltenbrunner. In the tv movie The Girlfriend from Childhood (L'amie d'enfance, 1981) from the Commissaire Moulin - series, he played the assassin, whom Yves Rénier and title heroine Claude Jade ultimately put to the test. He then appeared in other television series. Since then, he has appeared in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as well as the French cult movie Brotherhood of the Wolf.

MEYER, Hans

Born: 7/21/1925, Paulpietersburg, KwaZulu/Natal, South Africa

Died: 4/4/2020, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Ile-de-France, France

Hans Meyer’s western – actor:

Cannon for Cordoba – 1970 (Svedborg)