Person
Gordon Sterne
Essen, Germany
Gordon Sterne was a German-born English actor with a prolific career spanning over five decades in film, television, and theater. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his role…
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Gordon Sterne was a German-born English actor with a prolific career spanning over five decades in film, television, and theater. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as Mr. Kessler in the horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), where his character famously meets a gruesome end while watching The Muppet Show in a dream sequence. He left his native Nazi-dominated birth country in 1941 and became a native of Windsor, Ontario with a father who worked in the tobacco business and mother, who was supportive of his theatre aspirations. Sterne studied economics at the University of Western Ontario before volunteering for the Canadian Army in 1944, serving in the infantry as a sergeant. Heading to New York in 1945, he trained and graduated from the Dramatic Workshop under the tutelage of its founder Erwin Piscator, at the same time as Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis and Harry Belafonte. Sterne then began his acting career in America, working on radio and TV, in summer stock and off-Broadway. After a career on stage, playing the leading man in various plays in New Jersey during the 1940s, as well as Benvenuto Cellini in The Firebrand at Washington's Arena Stage and Joseph K in The Trial at New York's Provincetown Playhouse during the early 1950s, Sterne moved to Britain in 1956 where he had over 50 years working in theatre, TV and film. Being able to speak German (and French) enabled Sterne to perform in Drop Dead Darling on tour in Germany as well as a spell with the English Theatre in Vienna.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
-
2007
The Tudors
TV show Bishop Tunstall
-
2006
Screaming Blue Murder
Movie Jack Rammer
-
2004
Laws of Attraction
Movie Judge Baker
-
2001
Four Play
Movie Actor in Color of My Life
-
1997
Melissa
TV show Davy Crockett
-
1992
Merlin
Movie
-
1990
Jeeves and Wooster
TV show Diner
-
1986
Highlander
Movie Dr Willis Kenderly
-
1985
John and Yoko: A Love Story
Movie New York Critic
-
1984
The Razor's Edge
Movie Doctor
-
1983
Reilly: Ace of Spies
TV show Ford
-
1982
Rating Notman
Movie
-
1982
American Playhouse
TV show Louis Lefkowitz
-
1981
An American Werewolf in London
Movie Mr. Kessler
-
1976
The New Avengers
TV show Professor Vasil
-
1976
Second Verdict
TV show Dr Dolan
More credits
-
1974
Sex Play
Movie Randolph O'Hara
-
1972
The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
Movie Grocer
-
1972
The Protectors
TV show Barman
-
1970
UFO
TV show German Delegate
-
1970
Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death
Movie Heldorf
-
1969
A Promise of Bed
Movie Producer
-
1969
The Adding Machine
Movie Yard guard
-
1969
The Assassination Bureau
Movie Corporal
-
1967
The Prisoner
TV show Bystander
-
1966
The Vulture
Movie Edward Stroud
-
1963
Doctor Who
TV show Heldorf
-
1963
Espionage
TV show Aide to US Ambassador
-
1962
The Fur Collar
Movie Duclos
-
1962
The Saint
TV show Vopos
-
1962
Out of This World
TV show Journalist
-
1961
Taste of Fear
Movie Policeman (uncredited)
-
1960
The Millionairess
Movie Second Secretary
-
1959
Libel
Movie Maddox
-
1959
The Child and the Killer
Movie Sergeant
-
1959
The Great Van Robbery
Movie Robledo
-
1958
Battle of the V-1
Movie Margraaf
-
1956
Armchair Theatre
TV show Harry
-
1956
Hancock's Half Hour
TV show
