Ferrer, Mel

American film director, actor, and producer known for his fourteen year marriage to Audrey Hepburn, Mel Ferrer was born on August 25, 1917 in Elberon, New Jersey to Mary Matilda Irene O'Donohue and Sr. Jose Maria Ferrer Sr. as Melchor Gaston Ferrer. Ferrer's father was born in Cuba, and met Ferrer's mother after immigrating to New York, New York. He attended Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, but dropped out in order to pursue acting during his sophomore year after earning an award for stage acting. After two years working as a chorus dancer, Ferrer made his debut on the Broadway stage in New York, New York. After a few years working in Mexico, he began directing for Columbia Pictures. He directed and acted in films throughout the 1940s and 1950s, including directing Howard Hughes' Vendetta (1950), which filmed in 1946. He continued working for the film and television industries into the 1990s, and he did not retire until his 80th birthday in 1997.

Ferrer married five times. First to Frances Gunby Pilchard in Lake Tahoe, California on October 23, 1937. After their 1939 divorce, he married Barbara C. Tripp on October 6, 1942. Ferrer and Tripp had two children, Mela and Christopher Ferrer. However, the couple quickly divorced, and Ferrer remarried Pilchard, and the couple had two children at this time, Peppa Philippa Ferrer and Mark Young Ferrer. After their second divorce in 1953, Ferrer went on to marry Audrey Kathleen Hepburn-Ruston on September 25, 1954 in Stansstad, Switzerland. The couple had one child, Sean Hepburn Ferrer. After fourteen years, the two divorced. Ferrer went on to marry Elizabeth Soukhotine on February 18, 1971 in London, England, whom he remained married to until his death from heart failure on June 2, 2008 in Santa Barbara, California.

Sources:

BERKVIST, ROBERT. "Mel Ferrer, Reluctant Star, Dies at 90." New York Times (1923-), Jun 04, 2008. 1, http://ezproxy.library.unlv.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/mel-ferrer-reluctant-star-dies-at-90/docview/897143645/se-2?accountid=3611.

Genealogy files about "Melchor Gaston Ferrer." Accessed on November 15, 2021 on FamilySearch.org.