Gérard Tichy

One of the most familiar character actors of Spanish genre, horror, and exploitation cinema; 'Gérard Tichy' (qv) was actually born Gerhard Johannes Alexander Tichy Wondzinski in Weißenfels, Germany, in 1920. A Lieutenant in the German Army during World War II, he was captured and imprisoned in a POW camp in Allied-occupied France, but escaped and fled to neutral Spain, where he decided to remain after the war ended. There he started his film career in the war epic _Mit leeren Händen (1951)_ (qv) and quickly became a prominent character actor in Spanish cinema, ultimately appearing in over 100 films over the course of his career. He appeared in numerous spaghetti Westerns, notably 'Sergio Corbucci' (qv)'s _Companeros (1970)_ (qv). A capable (if not fluent) English speaker, Tichy also appeared in several international productions that were filmed in Spain, most notably _King of Kings (1961)_ (qv) as Joseph, _El Cid (1961)_ (qv) playing King Ramirez, and _Doctor Zhivago (1965)_ (qv) as partisan commander Liberius. He passed away in 1992, at the age of 72.::Troy Schulz