His father was the Judge of Mayence and his mother, who was half-English, was a singing teacher. Since the family was Jewish, the teenage Ferdinand was sent to England to stay with his aunt Lee Hutchinson, a noted photographer and sculptress. His parents were briefly interned in Buchenwald, but his mother's English connections enabled them also to get to England before war broke out.
Father of actress Belinda Mayne and Fernanda Mayne.
Lean, sardonic-looking German-born character actor, who lent a silky, urbane quality to numerous menacing roles in British films of the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Of Jewish background, he left Germany for England in 1932 to stay with his sculptress aunt. After training for acting at RADA and the Old Vic school, he first appeared on stage as the White Knight in "Alice Through the Looking Glass" with the West Croydon Repertory Company. He became a much sought-after radio actor and his voice was also used in wartime propaganda broadcasts. Among his numerous roles on screen, including a fair share of Nazi officers, he is best remembered as Count von Krolock in Roman Polanskis Dracula parody Dance of the Vampires . He also played the Count in the German horror comedy Gebissen wird nur nachts - das Happening der Vampire .
