WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:12.360 You thought I drowned, Doctor. But you were wrong. I'm alive and nothing in the world 00:12.360 --> 00:31.760 will stop me now. Nothing in the world can stop me now! Can you give us some background 00:31.760 --> 00:40.960 on how you started in your acting career? Well, it was a long story. I actually didn't 00:40.960 --> 00:48.640 start it off with that in mind. I wanted to study law to start with. But then I eventually 00:48.640 --> 00:53.360 decided acting was actually... probably as a lawyer I figured I could do a bit of acting 00:53.360 --> 01:00.960 as the prosecutor or defending attorney. And so I eventually went to one of the famous 01:00.960 --> 01:10.920 Viennese teachers, got through and was selected almost immediately to one of the leading theatres, 01:10.920 --> 01:16.880 which of course made the start quite easy. You mentioned before that you were a bit of 01:16.880 --> 01:21.960 a gypsy. So when you finished your acting career in Austria, where did you move then? 01:21.960 --> 01:31.560 Well, that was after the war and I had a possibility to go to the United States. But I was then 01:31.560 --> 01:38.800 acting in Salzburg at the State Theatre and one of my fans happened to be the Consul of 01:38.800 --> 01:45.240 Canada and when he learned that I had become restless he suggested that I might want to 01:45.240 --> 01:54.000 move to Canada. So the idea appealed to me and he sort of evened the way for me a bit 01:54.000 --> 01:59.000 and that made it easier too and that's where I ended up in the end. 01:59.000 --> 02:05.280 You worked for a time at CBC. Do you have any memories of Sidney Newman? 02:05.280 --> 02:12.760 Yes, of course. He was one of the predominant producers at the time. He in fact produced 02:12.760 --> 02:21.360 the first Shakespearean production for the CBC of Othello with Lorne Green playing Othello 02:21.360 --> 02:30.760 and I played Iago. My English was then rather sort of short-lived but having done the part 02:30.760 --> 02:39.280 in German I knew what it was about. We had quite an illustrious cast with Patrick McNee 02:39.280 --> 02:50.880 playing one of the parts and other names later were known both in England and Canada. Those 02:50.880 --> 02:58.160 were the days of live television and you couldn't afford to dry up anymore so it was of course 02:58.160 --> 03:06.040 with Iago being the largest part in Shakespeare it was quite a daunting experience. 03:06.040 --> 03:11.160 And it was also in Canada where you met your wife Lois. Can you tell us how you met Lois? 03:11.160 --> 03:20.600 Well Lois was then a young actress and among other things I also produced stage plays and 03:20.600 --> 03:27.560 one of my leading ladies couldn't keep up having had a family and so I had to audition 03:27.560 --> 03:33.800 other actresses and Lois was one among them and she got the part and in the end she got 03:33.800 --> 03:37.320 me too. 03:37.320 --> 03:40.360 So from Canada, where did you move from there? 03:40.360 --> 03:48.480 Well eventually I had done in Canada all that was possible and having been a bit of a gypsy 03:48.480 --> 03:55.080 and always a bit restless I figured I should do a move and there was the choice of either 03:55.080 --> 04:01.920 going to New York or Hollywood or with Lois's English background, though she was a born 04:01.920 --> 04:10.440 Canadian, the family came from England, that decided it and we decided to go to London. 04:10.440 --> 04:19.640 So in order to even the way I wrote a letter to the drama chief of the BBC telling him 04:19.640 --> 04:27.760 my intentions and ask for his advice, he wrote back briskly advising me to stay in Canada 04:27.760 --> 04:31.880 because it was too difficult with the competition in London. 04:31.880 --> 04:38.680 But here again I felt you have to try it before you sort of cave in. 04:38.680 --> 04:44.280 So we decided to go nevertheless figuring we could always return if we didn't like it. 04:44.280 --> 04:52.480 And when I arrived I introduced myself to the producer and I got one of the answers 04:52.480 --> 04:57.480 that the actor never likes to hear, he said, had you come two weeks earlier I would have 04:57.480 --> 04:59.800 had a part for you. 04:59.800 --> 05:05.080 So I was nevertheless quite pleased with it and to cut a long story short a few weeks 05:05.080 --> 05:11.640 later he phoned me up and asked me would I like to audition for a part for an actor who 05:11.640 --> 05:14.360 had been cast and took ill. 05:14.360 --> 05:21.520 I didn't mind, I auditioned, I got the part and it was a play that had then as it turned 05:21.520 --> 05:30.720 out a great success which kind of started my career in England on a very good footing. 05:30.720 --> 05:35.000 Eventually you were cast as Professor Zaroff in The Underwater Menace, the Doctor Who story, 05:35.000 --> 05:40.360 which is only a drop in the bucket of the movies and appearances you've made. 05:40.360 --> 05:44.480 Do you have any memories of The Underwater Menace, in particular Patrick Trout? 05:44.480 --> 05:50.840 Yes, well you know it's very funny, after such a long career there are certain shows 05:50.840 --> 05:53.040 you have forgotten all together. 05:53.040 --> 05:58.240 Time and again now there are repeats on television and I see my name featured and I've forgotten 05:58.240 --> 06:01.360 all together what that whole play was about. 06:01.360 --> 06:10.520 But if nothing else of the Doctor Zaroff incident I remember is the drowning sequence because 06:10.520 --> 06:18.200 in the water tank where it was filmed it had to be done in reversed order. 06:18.200 --> 06:26.040 We started with the drowning first and then I dashed out and then got dried off and my 06:26.040 --> 06:33.720 hair got blown dry again and then they had let out the water to a certain extent and 06:33.720 --> 06:40.000 so forth until we came to the point where it started rising from my ankles. 06:40.000 --> 06:48.720 So that was quite an experience because to shoot that, that alone took about two days. 06:48.720 --> 06:53.600 You also worked with Patrick Trout on The Midnight Men, that was a film in 1964. 06:53.600 --> 06:55.120 Do you have any memories of that film with Patrick? 06:55.120 --> 07:02.080 Yes, well I played King Alexander of Serbia and Eva Bartok, the Hungarian movie star, 07:02.080 --> 07:13.000 played my mistress and it was a six episode television serial and those were actually 07:13.000 --> 07:22.160 about the attempted assassination of King Alexander and The Midnight Men were all people 07:22.160 --> 07:31.760 who tried to oust the monarchy and of course Patrick was one of the villains in that, which 07:31.760 --> 07:37.640 with his kind face was a bit difficult to believe. 07:37.640 --> 07:47.320 But anyway, the King survived and I believe the BBC even put the serial into a time capsule 07:47.320 --> 07:53.200 to be looked at, what we did in those days, a hundred years from when they put it in. 07:53.200 --> 07:57.560 How did you enjoy your work on the James Bond film, Diamonds of Heaven? 07:57.560 --> 08:03.440 Yes, that was quite nice too, particularly since I was called back once I had left England 08:03.440 --> 08:13.800 and come to Australia to do a part in Diamonds are Forever and since it was a nice small 08:13.800 --> 08:18.760 part I was quite pleased that they found it necessary to call me back. 08:18.760 --> 08:24.360 There must have been a number of actors in London who could have done it cheaper. 08:24.360 --> 08:33.080 But we had a marvellous time and I got back, I had met various actors of course in previous 08:33.080 --> 08:42.600 shows and Connery I had known for many years but he still had the habit of looking at your 08:42.600 --> 08:49.120 eyebrows rather than in your eyes, which is always very disconcerting if you play opposite 08:49.120 --> 08:50.640 an actor. 08:50.640 --> 08:58.280 But that also happened with Eva Bartok who was always so concerned with the angle of 08:58.280 --> 09:07.780 her face and her eyelids and all and I constantly had to play against the forehead. 09:07.780 --> 09:13.400 You played the hero in Brides of Fu Manchu and you've had your fair share of hero and 09:13.400 --> 09:14.400 villain parts. 09:14.400 --> 09:17.600 Do you prefer villains or heroes? 09:17.600 --> 09:20.960 No, I like them both. 09:20.960 --> 09:33.720 Villains are mostly the most welcome parts because people like to hate villains and I 09:33.720 --> 09:40.240 made it a point that I never played them sort of straight, just for the villain. 09:40.240 --> 09:48.560 I always tried to find a human element to it and that paid off in the long run. 09:48.560 --> 09:59.120 As far as the heroes are concerned of course they are somewhat easier to play and probably 09:59.120 --> 10:00.800 equally thankful. 10:00.800 --> 10:04.840 So it's an even choice. 10:04.840 --> 10:10.000 You were offered a role in Number 96 after you moved to Australia. 10:10.000 --> 10:12.560 Tell us about how you got that role. 10:12.560 --> 10:18.600 The American producer had offered me a part to start with when the series started but 10:18.600 --> 10:23.040 they had never done anything like that before so I declined. 10:23.040 --> 10:30.880 And then they got a bit of difficulties after years of successful run so they decided it 10:30.880 --> 10:40.160 needed a bit of freshening up and so they blew up part of the scenery with some characters 10:40.160 --> 10:41.880 who were then replaced. 10:41.880 --> 10:44.960 I was one of the new characters. 10:44.960 --> 10:53.680 It was an Italian Carlo Lenzi who was sort of a ladies man but actually he was a jewel 10:53.680 --> 10:57.240 thief who had never been caught. 10:57.240 --> 11:00.360 So that revived the series. 11:00.360 --> 11:06.600 I only accepted it because the producer promised me that first of all if I didn't like a line 11:06.600 --> 11:09.720 I didn't want to say he would change it. 11:09.720 --> 11:15.600 And then since this was the first series in Australia where you had homosexuality and 11:15.600 --> 11:23.480 nudity I made a point that I would not sign a contract where they want me to take my gear 11:23.480 --> 11:24.480 off. 11:24.480 --> 11:27.760 One of your last roles was the Denera Boys. 11:27.760 --> 11:28.760 Yes. 11:28.760 --> 11:29.760 If it was your last role I think it was. 11:29.760 --> 11:31.120 Do you have any memories of that? 11:31.120 --> 11:33.560 Can you tell us some stories about that? 11:33.560 --> 11:43.840 Yes, the Denera Boys was a true story about Jewish migrants in England. 11:43.840 --> 11:49.840 The Brits thought there might be a group of spies among them and terrorists and so they 11:49.840 --> 11:54.900 decided to send them all on the ship Denera to Australia. 11:54.900 --> 12:01.400 The Australians weren't well informed whom to receive and they thought they were Italian 12:01.400 --> 12:10.040 prisoners of war so they put signs out in Sydney, Bienvenido a Australia, and then they 12:10.040 --> 12:13.680 discovered they were all German speaking Jews. 12:13.680 --> 12:20.160 And in fact the Denera itself was guarded by German U-Boats to Sydney. 12:20.160 --> 12:25.520 People thought they might sink it but they thought they were German prisoners of war 12:25.520 --> 12:29.280 and they actually protected the Denera. 12:29.280 --> 12:35.720 I played the part of a German Jewish baron who was a captain in the First World War and 12:35.720 --> 12:42.120 was more Prussian than the Prussians and stuck in spite of the terrible conditions on board 12:42.120 --> 12:54.920 ship and in the camp in Hays, stuck to his tradition and lived out his days in Australia 12:54.920 --> 12:56.880 in very good positions and all. 12:56.880 --> 13:04.400 In fact there was a reunion in Melbourne of those survivors and it was fantastic to meet 13:04.400 --> 13:11.560 up with them and it was very pleasing to learn that the character I played, they knew of 13:11.560 --> 13:16.200 him and they thought I got him right. 13:16.200 --> 13:23.520 So looking back over your huge career over the past 50 years, what kind of feelings do 13:23.520 --> 13:28.480 you have looking back over what you've accomplished in that time? 13:28.480 --> 13:37.000 So very often at the end of any career people have to assess was it worth it? 13:37.000 --> 13:42.200 Did I achieve what I set out to achieve? 13:42.200 --> 13:46.040 And as always in life it's not always 100%. 13:46.040 --> 13:53.840 There are probably things I might have done better, successes could have been bigger, 13:53.840 --> 14:05.640 but on the whole I must say I am very satisfied over the decades and having had such a wide 14:05.640 --> 14:11.920 variety of challenges as far as parts were concerned or directing or writing. 14:11.920 --> 14:17.960 So at the end of my term now it was worth it. 14:17.960 --> 14:19.680 Joseph Furst, thank you very much. 14:19.680 --> 14:42.240 My pleasure.