Frederick Stafford (11 March 1928 – 28 July 1979) was a Czechoslovak-born actor. Born Friedrich Strobel von Stein, he spoke fluent Czech, German, English, French and Italian, and was a leading man in European spy-movies. Biography Early life By some accounts, Stafford claimed to have played water polo at the 1948 Summer Olympics. He was the son of a Slovak factory owner. He studied chemistry and spent time in Switzerland. He was worried about the Russians taking over Czechoslovakia and in 1948 decided to leave. It would take too long to move to the US or Canada so he went to Australia in 1949. While there he changed his name to "Frederick Stafford". "I always liked the name," he later said. He became a taxi driver, a lumberjack and a businessman. He qualified as a doctor of chemistry after university in Sydney and Perth. Fluent in five languages, in the 1950s he held a series of positions in the pharmaceutical industry. By 1962 he was a regional manager for Bristol Meyers headquartered in Hong Kong. He travelled for them in the Middle East and Far East. Two years later in Bangkok he met a German actress Marianne Hold and married her seven days later. Film career In 1964 French director André Hunebelle discovered Stafford on holiday at a hotel in Bangkok and asked him "How would you like to make movies with me?" Stafford replied, "Why not?" According to another account "I married an Austrian girl in Bangkok in 1964 and among the bouquets at the wedding was one from a French film producer. He said he wanted me to star in his films. That's how it all began. I was rushed off to Brazil to make my first film in Rio de Janeiro, and have been busy ever since." He played a starring role in his first film, replacing Kerwin Mathews as an agent code-named OSS 117 in OSS 117 Mission for a Killer (1965) with Mylène Demongeot. The film was the eleventh biggest movie of the year in France. "Getting into a different industry didn't have a big effect on me," said Stafford later. "I don't think it made a difference because I didn't get into business at an early age when a man is still being formed... I don't know if there is such a thing as luck... Maybe in a lottery but you have to get