Fernando Hilbeck(1933-2009)

Thin and gaunt-faced character actor Fernando Jose Hilbeck Gavalda was born on July 7, 1933 in Madrid, Spain. His father was English. Hilbeck studied in Peru, where he earned a degree in Humanities from the University of Lima. He started acting on stage and was a member of the Prandello y De Servi theatre for two years. Fernando moved to Rome, Italy and began acting in movies. He made his film debut in Michael Curtiz's "Francis of Assisi" in 1961. Hilbeck returned to Spain and embarked on a long, diverse and distinguished thirty-plus year cinematic career which encompassed everything from Westerns to dramas to thrillers to comedies to horror features to even Orson Welles' "Chimes at Midnight." Fernando was a favorite of writer/director Sidney W. Pink; he acted in such Pink productions as "Pyro," "The Tall Woman," "The Christmas Kid," and "Madigan's Millions." Hilbeck's most memorable roles include creepy zombie Guthrie in the supremely eerie and unnerving "The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue," twitchy nuclear holocaust survivor Arthur in the cruddy end-of-the-world sci-fi stinker "Refuge of Fear," and hypocritical priest Father Damian in the enjoyable Paul Naschy horror vehicle "Howl of the Devil." Fernando Hilbeck died from natural causes at age 75 on April 25, 2009 in Madrid, Spain.