Fritz Feld | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Feld in 1979 | |
| Born | Fritz Feilchenfeld [1] October 15, 1900 |
| Died | November 18, 1993 (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Resting place | Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery, Los Angeles |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1917–1989 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Relatives | Rudi Feld (brother) |
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.[2] His trademark was to slap his mouth with the palm of his hand to create a "pop" sound.[3][4]
Born 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). His early career in the United States included touring with Morris Gest's production of The Miracle in the mid-1902s. 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.[5]
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 (1948).[3]
Feld often played the part of a maître d', but also a variety of aristocrats and eccentrics. 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 role of French orchestra conductor Jardinet. In his later years, Feld appeared in several Walt Disney films and also played an uncharacteristically dramatic role in Barfly. He also portrayed one of the Harmonia Gardens waiters in the movie Hello Dolly! (1969). 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 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". In one 1967 episode of The Man from U.N.C.L.E., "The Napoleon's Tomb Affair", Feld played a banker, a beatnik, a diplomat and a waiter.
Feld made his final film appearance in 1989.
Feld was married to Virginia Christine who was twenty years his junior and famous for her role as "Mrs. Olson" in television commercials for Folgers Coffee, from 1940 until his death in 1993 in a convalescent home in Los Angeles, California; Christine died in 1996.[2][6] The couple are interred at the Jewish Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles.[4]
He was the younger brother of the art director Rudi Feld.[citation needed]
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).
