Marcel Hillaire

Marcel was another scene-stealing character actor who came to the fore during the early years of television. He built a 40-year long career in Hollywood playing the archetypal French gendarme, maître d' or small time crook. In fact, the balding, steely-eyed little actor was born in Cologne (Germany) as Erwin Ottmar Hiller, the son of music journalist and opera singer Paul Hiller. He appeared first on stage under the name Harry Furster in order to disguise his Jewish ancestry but was eventually put in jail by the Nazis, somehow escaped, then made his way to America. He began to act in television from 1952, subsequently appearing on the Broadway stage in "The Heavenly Twins", followed by "Silk Stockings" three years later. From then on, he quickly settled on his French impersonations which would become his stock-in-trade.