The Tudors
2007 · TV Show
as Bishop Tunstall
Gordon Sterne
1923-01-16
•
Essen, Germany
Gordon Sterne was a German-born English actor with a prolific career spanning over five decades in film, television, and theater. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as Mr. Kessler in the horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), where his character famously meets a gruesome end while watching The Muppet Show in a dream sequence. He left his native Nazi-dominated birth country in 1941 and became a native of Windsor, Ontario with a father who worked in the tobacco business and mother, who was supportive of his theatre aspirations. Sterne studied economics at the University of Western Ontario before volunteering for the Canadian Army in 1944, serving in the infantry as a sergeant. Heading to New York in 1945, he trained and graduated from the Dramatic Workshop under the tutelage of its founder Erwin Piscator, at the same time as Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis and Harry Belafonte. Sterne then began his acting career in America, working on radio and TV, in summer stock and off-Broadway. After a career on stage, playing the leading man in various plays in New Jersey during the 1940s, as well as Benvenuto Cellini in The Firebrand at Washington's Arena Stage and Joseph K in The Trial at New York's Provincetown Playhouse during the early 1950s, Sterne moved to Britain in 1956 where he had over 50 years working in theatre, TV and film. Being able to speak German (and French) enabled Sterne to perform in Drop Dead Darling on tour in Germany as well as a spell with the English Theatre in Vienna.
Filmography
Screaming Blue Murder
2006 · Movie
as Jack Rammer
Laws of Attraction
2004 · Movie
as Judge Baker
Four Play
2001 · Movie
as Actor in Color of My Life
Melissa
1997 · TV Show
as Davy Crockett
Merlin
1992 · Movie
Jeeves and Wooster
1990 · TV Show
as Diner
Highlander
1986 · Movie
as Dr Willis Kenderly
John and Yoko: A Love Story
1985 · Movie
as New York Critic
The Razor's Edge
1984 · Movie
as Doctor
Reilly: Ace of Spies
1983 · TV Show
as Ford
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Rating Notman
1982 · Movie
American Playhouse
1982 · TV Show
as Louis Lefkowitz
An American Werewolf in London
1981 · Movie
as Mr. Kessler
The New Avengers
1976 · TV Show
as Professor Vasil
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Second Verdict
1976 · TV Show
as Dr Dolan
Sex Play
1974 · Movie
as Randolph O'Hara
The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui
1972 · Movie
as Grocer
The Protectors
1972 · TV Show
as Barman
Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death
1970 · Movie
as Heldorf
UFO
1970 · TV Show
as German Delegate, Helmsman Ellis
The Assassination Bureau
1969 · Movie
as Corporal
The Adding Machine
1969 · Movie
as Yard guard
A Promise of Bed
1969 · Movie
as Producer
The Prisoner
1967 · TV Show
as Bystander
The Vulture
1966 · Movie
as Edward Stroud
Doctor Who
1963 · TV Show
as Heldorf
Espionage
1963 · TV Show
as Aide to US Ambassador
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The Fur Collar
1962 · Movie
as Duclos
The Saint
1962 · TV Show
as Vopos, Fritz Kapel
Out of This World
1962 · TV Show
as Journalist
Taste of Fear
1961 · Movie
as Policeman (uncredited)
The Millionairess
1960 · Movie
as Second Secretary
The Great Van Robbery
1959 · Movie
as Robledo
The Child and the Killer
1959 · Movie
as Sergeant
Libel
1959 · Movie
as Maddox
Battle of the V-1
1958 · Movie
as Margraaf
Hancock's Half Hour
1956 · TV Show
Armchair Theatre
1956 · TV Show
as Harry
