Long ago we missed the 105th anniversary of the birth of Curd Jurgens, who died in 1982 aged 66. For us he was memorable as the villain Stromberg in The Spy Who Loved Me 1977 with all his scenes shot at Pinewood, Buckinghamshire but in a very long career with 170 screen credits there were many other memorable roles ...And God Created Woman 1956, Bitter Victory 1957, The Longest Day 1962, Lord Jim 1965, The Assassination Bureau & The Battle of Britain 1969, and on TV he played Otto von Bismarck in Fall of Eagles 1974 and General Vladimir in Smiley’s People 1982. He also had two nominations for BAFTA awards for The Inn of the Sixth Happiness 1958 and The Enemy Below 1957. He was the warm affable representative of Germany through the 20th century, particularly in military roles as he carried great authority and bearing; the German Film Awards recognised his outstanding contribution to film with an Honorary Award in 1981 and he is proudly remembered in their Film Institute. Born in Solin, Munich, Bavaria, Germany he was educated at HerderSchule, a grammar school in Berlin, but he spent much of his life in Vienna, Austria particularly in stage roles and it is where he passed and is interred in the Vienna Central Cemetery. He started as a journalist, but then began his early acting career on stage in Vienna. He was highly critical of Nazism and in a large family had a Jewish brother-in-law and the bulk of his family emigrated to Barcelona during WW2, but in 1944 he had an argument in a bar in Vienna with unbeknown-to-him SS officials and was sent to a labour camp in Hungary, from which he escaped. He became an Austrian citizen after the war, but with his fame and fortune established over the years he had homes in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in the Alpes Maritimes, Provence, Cote D’Azur, France; also Angeln, Schleswig-Holstein, North Germany; Gstaad + Lausanne, Switzerland; Great Harbour Cay, North Berry Islands, Bahamas. We believe he is more than worthy of a match in his honour and hope you will accept for a friendly sporting contest in commemoration – if the numbers or ratings do not suit, then please make contact.
Equaliser769
