Marcel Hillaire

Marcel Hillaire , born Erwin Ottmar Hiller, was a Germanborn character actor who had a lengthy career, appearing on stage, in films and on television. Hillaire was recognizable by his gaunt appearance and his accent, which seemed to be a combination of French and German. Of Jewish descent, Hillaire first evaded the Holocaust in Nazi Germany by adopting a stage name and moving around constantly in traveling theater troupes later he brazenly entered the bureaucracy of the Todt under his birth name, narrowly avoiding execution after capture. After World War II, Hillaire emigrated to America, again changed his name, and adopted a French persona, even touring the United States in a oneman stage show dedicated to celebrating French culture. In the early days of American television Hillaire guest starred in over a hundred episodes of various series, usually playing a Frenchman. In American films, Hillaire played the French chef training Audrey Hepburns eponymous Sabrina and was featured as Fr

Erwin Hiller was born to Paul Hiller and his wife Sophie Lion in Cologne in 1908 the son was partly Jewish on both fathers and mothers sides. Paul Hiller wrote foryears as the music critic of Colognes Rheinische Zeitung, reviewing over the course of a quarter century virtually every operatic and orchestral performance scheduled throughout the lower Rheinland. Erwin and his brothers were exposed to music and the arts from their earliest days, and by the fathers death in 1934, Erwin was wellestablished as an actor and lothario.

Source: Wikipedia