Barbara Frey(I)

Berlin-born actress Barbara Freyde first trained as a tailor's apprentice. The director Georg Tressler spotted the sixteen year old at a clothing store and, despite her lack of acting experience, promptly cast her as the female lead opposite Horst Buchholz in his romantic drama Endstation Liebe (1958). However, Barbara's voice ended up being dubbed in post-editing by Johanna von Koczian. Her surname was also shortened -- courtesy of screenwriter Will Tremper -- from Freyde to Frey. With acting tuition from Marlise Ludwig under her belt, Barbara was again employed by Tressler to play troubled teens in social milieu dramas. In a similar vein, she also appeared in the Marcel Ophüls-directed segment of the omnibus picture L'amour à vingt ans (1962), as a single mother trying to locate the father of her child. Her later roles, however, tended to be in lightweight fare, consisting of crime dramas (Un homme dans l'ombre (1961), Le hibou chasse la nuit (1964)), comedies (Brave Diebe (1965)) and spaghetti westerns (Je te tuerai (1965), Cinq mille dollars sur l'as (1965)).

While filming the Italian-Spanish-German period adventure Les cent cavaliers (1964), Barbara struck up a relationship with the film's American star Mark Damon. They became a couple and eventually married in 1971, though the union was only to last for two years. Damon and Barbara appeared together again in Carlo Lizzani's western Tue et fais ta prière (1967), which had the former cast as an unhinged ex-Confederate officer and Barbara as a girl forced into prostitution, but in the end rescued by the titular gunslinger-hero (played by Lou Castel). Perhaps due to a dearth of worthwhile roles on offer, Barbara abruptly left the acting profession in 1972. Her final appearance was an uncredited bit as a nurse in George Roy Hill's Abattoir 5 (1972).