Fritz Feld

Fritz Feld
Fritz Feld, with his wife, Virginia Christine (1979)
Born	Fritz Feilchenfeld (1900-10-15)October 15, 1900 Berlin, Germany
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Resting place	Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1917–1989
Spouse(s)	Virginia Christine (m. 1940–93) his death
Children	Danny and Steve

Fritz Feld (October 15, 1900 – November 18, 1993) was a German-American film character actor who appeared in over 140 films in 72 years, both silent and sound. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a pop sound.

Early life and career

Born Fritz Feilchenfeld in Berlin, Germany, Feld began his acting career in Germany in 1917, making his screen debut in Der Golem und die Tänzerin (The Golem and the Dancing Girl). Feld filmed the sound sequences of the Cecil B. DeMille film The Godless Girl (1929), released by Pathé, without DeMille's supervision since DeMille had already broken his contract with Pathé, and signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

He developed a characterization that came to define him. His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a "pop!" sound that indicated both his superiority and his annoyance. The first use of the "pop" sound was in If You Knew Susie (1947).

Feld often played the part of a maître d', but also a variety of aristocrats and eccentrics; his characters were indeterminately European, sometimes French and sometimes Belgian but always with his particular mannerisms. In the 1938 screwball comedy Bringing Up Baby he played the role of Dr. Lehman. In 1939 He appeared with the Marx Brothers in At The Circus in the small but memorable role of orchestra conductor Jardinet. In one 1963 episode of NBC's The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Napoleon's Tomb Affair", Feld played a banker, a beatnik, a diplomat and a waiter. The episode also featured Ted Cassidy from ABC's The Addams Family. In his later years, Feld appeared in several Walt Disney films and also played an uncharacteristically dramatic role in Barfly. In addition to films, he acted in numerous television series in guest roles, including the recurring role of "Zumdish", the manager of the intergalactic Celestial Department Store on CBS's Lost In Space, in two Season 2 episodes, The Android Machine and The Toymaker. Zumdish returned in the Season 3 episode Two Weeks In Space, where he has been brainwashed by bank robbers into believing he is a tour director taking the robbers on holiday. He also portrayed one of the Harmonia Gardens waiters in the movie Hello Dolly!

Feld made his final film appearance in 1989.

Personal life

Feld was married to Virginia Christine who was twenty years his junior, from 1940 until his death in 1993 in a convalescent home in Los Angeles, California; Christine died in 1996. The couple are interred at the Jewish Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles.

He was the younger brother of the art director Rudi Feld.

Feld was a strong enough amateur chess player that 1948 U.S. champion Herman Steiner and international master George Koltanowski would come to his home some evenings in the 1940s, with the three of them playing chess until 6 o'clock the following morning, as mentioned in The Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories (Denker & Parr, 1995).

Partial filmography

• The Golem and the Dancing Girl (1917)
• A Ship Comes In (1928)
• Black Magic (1929)
• One Hysterical Night (1929)
• Bringing Up Baby (1938)
• Campus Confessions (1938)
• The Affairs of Annabel (1938)
• Annabel Takes a Tour (1938)
• Swingtime in the Movies (1938)
• At the Circus (1939)
• Idiot's Delight (1939)
• Everything Happens at Night (1939)
• Phantom of the Opera (1943)
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947)           
• Mexican Hayride (1948)
• Julia Misbehaves (1948)
• The Lovable Cheat (1949)
• Belle of Old Mexico (1950)
• Paris Playboys (1953)
• Riding Shotgun (1955)

• Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
• Who's Minding the Store? (1963)
• The Patsy (1964)
• Barefoot in the Park (1967)
• Hello, Dolly! (1969)
• The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
• The Phynx (1970)
• The Sunshine Boys (1975)
• Herbie Rides Again (1974)
• The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
• Won Ton Ton, the Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
• Silent Movie (1976)
• Freaky Friday (1976)
• The World's Greatest Lover (1977)
• Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
• History of the World, Part I (1981)
• Heidi's Song (1982)
• Barfly (1987)
• Homer and Eddie (1989)

References

Notes

External links

• Fritz Feld at the Internet Movie Database
• Fritz Feld at the Internet Broadway Database
• Fritz Feld at Find a Grave