The Ultimate 'Screen Nazi' - Where Eagles Dare Star's Forgotten Essex Grave

Mark Felton Productions ^ | 2/15/26 | Mark Felton

[MAGA2017]

When I was growing up in the 1980s, I often saw old war movies on TV, and in many appeared a certain German actor usually playing a Nazi villain, from 'Where Eagles Dare' to 'Escape to Victory'. I recently discovered that this star, Anton Diffring, is buried only 9 miles from my childhood home, so I decided to make a pilgrimage and find his largely forgotten last resting place and thank him for so many great performances.

[MAGA2017]

Mark Felton is a treasure. I knew right away from the screen cap of this video and from the title what he was talking about. I had seen this actor in many war films playing a German officer but never knew his name until now.

[AppyPappy]

Felton does some amazing WW2 work.

[gibsonguy]

Diffring was amazing. Just perfect for his most famous roles.

[Who is John Galt?]

Anton Diffring:

[Tijeras_Slim]

He was also the main German protagonist in The Rat Patrol.

[alexander_busek]

I know everyone here will already have known how Diffring looked, but:

Regards,

[Steely Tom]

Last movie my father ever took me to.

The first was Mutiny on the Bounty,, when I was seven and it first came out.

[sjmjax]

Yes, recognize the actor and his work.

Curious to know how he felt playing the “bad guy” character so often?
Many actors seem type cast to a particular role.

[MotorCityBuck]

Mark Felton is excellent.

Anton Diffring, born Alfred Pollack on 20 October 1916 in Koblenz, Germany, came from a mixed religious background; his father, Solomon Pollack, was Jewish, and his mother, Bertha Diffring, was Christian. He studied acting in Berlin and Vienna before leaving Germany, reportedly to escape persecution due to his homosexuality and the rise of the Nazi regime. He initially settled in Canada, where he began his acting career, and later moved to the United Kingdom in 1950, quickly becoming fluent in English.

[DFG]

Anton Diffring is also in the following:

The Winds of War
The Blue Max
Operation Crossbow
The Heroes of Telemark
Counterpoint

[dfwgator]

Played Heydrich in Operation Daybreak, and Von Ribbentrop in “The Winds Of War”

[Rummyfan]

Being homosexual and Jewish, yeah, get the heck out of Nazi Germany!

[dfwgator]

Thomas Kretschmann took his place, he’s pretty much in every movie involving Nazis.

[EvilCapitalist]

I knew I recognized him from somewhere. I looked up his credits, and he played Ribbentrop from “The Winds of War.”

[Tijeras_Slim]

Sorry I was thinking of Eric Braden.

[Rummyfan]

Lotta German character actors made good livings playing German military in all those war movies. But ironically, IMHO, the best was an Englishman, James Mason, playing Erwin Rommel in The Desert Fox.

[dfwgator]

David Warner was so good playing Heydrich in “Holocaust” he played him again in Hitler’s SS: Portrait in Evil.

[x]

Maximilian Schell and Armin Mueller-Stahl went on to become Hollywood’s go to actors for European Jews. Conversely, the German officers in “Hogan’s Heroes” were all Jewish.

[Pontiac]

Curious to know how he felt playing the “bad guy” character so often?

I think that it is the villain that has the most interesting roll in a well written drama.

The villain has the most interesting a complex character.

[dfwgator]

Leon Askin lived to the age of 97.

He was great in the movie ‘One, Two, Three’. Also made a small cameo appearance in Airplane II, as the Russian news anchor with the gun pointed to his head.