Friedrich von Ledebur explained

Friedrich von Ledebur
Birth Name:Friedrich Anton Maria Hubertus Bonifacius Graf von Ledebur-Wicheln
Birth Date:3 June 1900
Birth Place:Nisko, Austro-Hungarian Empire
Death Place:Linz, Austria
Known For:Actor in Moby Dick, Alexander the Great (1955) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
Spouse:
    Children:2
    Yearsactive:1945–1982
    Height:6 ft 7 in [1]

    Friedrich Anton Maria Hubertus Bonifacius Graf von Ledebur-Wicheln (3 June 1900 –) was an Austrian actor who was known for Moby Dick (1956), Alexander the Great (1955) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1972).

    Early life

    Ledebur was born in Nisko, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Poland) in 1900. Friedrich enlisted in the Austro-Hungarian Army in 1916, and was an officer in the Austrian Cavalry Division during the last years of World War I.

    Interwar period

    In the 1930s Ledebur became a close friend of Charles Bedaux, with whom he traveled extensively in Africa and Canada.[2] After the war, Ledebur spent the next two decades travelling the world, working all manner of odd jobs from gold mining to deep sea diving, to riding and winning prize money at rodeos. Ledebur settled in the United States in 1939 and anglicised his name to 'Frederick'. A close friendship with fellow adventurer and director John Huston, gave Ledebur his entrée to character acting.[3]

    Acting career

    In 1945, von Ledebur made his film debut. He later appeared in Alexander the Great (1955), and played chief harpooneer Queequeg, a South Sea chieftain, in the film Moby Dick (1956). "Better a sober cannibal than a drunken Christian", Herman Melville's Ishmael famously says of Queequeg in the book and the film. He appeared as Brother Christophorus in The Twilight Zone episode "The Howling Man".

    Selected filmography

    References

    1. For his height, e. g. see photos in The Man Who Turned to Stone
    2. 'The Champagne Safari (1995) on IMDb entry
    3. Web site: Mowis . I. S. . Friedrich von Ledebur . IMDb . 12 July 2021.