Clement von Franckenstein | |
|---|---|
| Born | 28 May 1944[1][2] Sunninghill, Berkshire, England |
| Died | 9 May 2019 (aged 74) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1971–2019 |
Clement George Freiherr von und zu Franckenstein[2] (28 May 1944 – 9 May 2019) was an English actor. He was best known for portraying President D'Astier in The American President (1995), the English Investor in Lionheart (1990), the Opening Man in Death Becomes Her (1992), Pascal Ferney in The Evening Star (1996), Frances Triebverbrecher in Take Me Home Tonight (2011), Sen. Sestimus Amydias in Hail, Caesar! (2016), and Boss Cass in the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger video game series (2002–2005).
Born in Sunninghill, then in Buckinghamshire, on 28 May 1944,[1][2] Franckenstein was the only child of Editha and Georg von und zu Franckenstein; his father was an Austrian Reichsfreiherr and diplomat who stayed in England after the Anschluss and received a British knighthood and British nationality. Franckenstein's parents died in an aircraft crash in Germany on 14 October 1953, and from the age of nine he was brought up by his parents' British friends. He was educated at Sunningdale School and Eton College.[3][4]
He became an actor, initially going to castings as Clement St George as he thought "his real name might scare people". He moved to California in 1972 and joined the gentleman-playboy expat Brits like David Niven. Playing with Hugh Grant and Mick Jagger, he was a long-standing member of the Beverly Hills Cricket Club.[4] He never married, and was devoted to his beloved cat Tallulah.
Franckenstein appeared in some eighty films; sometimes as the debonair escort for the leading lady or just wearing a leather thong. He was in Young Frankenstein, Robin Hood: Men in Tights and The American President, but was often low down the cast list or uncredited. He appeared as a corpse in Murder She Wrote.[4]
He said that California changed between the 1970s and the 1990s, as he told the Daily Telegraph in 1994: "In the 1970s, life was easy, everyone was laid-back, everyone had a good time ... Now it has become oppressive, charmless. You can't smoke in restaurants, everyone is carrying around boxes of condoms, and at parties now there's this thing called the "no host bar" - you have to pay for your own bloody drinks. I mean it's just not on".
Mr von Franckenstein told stories from his life for the Joe Frank radio show, 'Clement at Christmas', from his childhood though his early days in Hollywood, the first half of the show.
Von Franckenstein died from hypoxia at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, on 9 May 2019 at the age of 74.[4] He had been in an induced coma for ten days.[5]