WASHINGTON (AFP) — The American actor, film director and producer Mel Ferrer, who was once married to the cult actress Audrey Hepburn, has died in California at age 90, a family spokesman said Tuesday.
"Mel Ferrer passed away yesterday morning (Monday) at the family ranch in Carpinteria," in California's Santa Barbara region 94 miles (150 kilometers) north of Los Angeles, family spokesman Mike Mena said.
Media reports suggested later however, citing Ferrer's son Mark, that he had died at a convalescent home nearby.
Apart from his marriage to Hepburn, whom he met in 1954 when they both performed in a play in New York, Ferrer was best known for his roles in "Brave Bulls," a 1951 film on the life of a bullfighter, and in "Lili," a 1953 romance in which he played a lame puppeteer opposite Leslie Caron.
He also had a starring role in the 1956 epic "War and Peace," in which he played prince Andrei Bolkonsky opposite Henry Fonda and Hepburn, and he produced one of Hepburn's many hit films, the 1967 thriller "Wait Until Dark."
Melchior Ferrer was born in 1917 into an affluent family in New Jersey; his father was a surgeon of Cuban origin and his mother a prominent figure in New York society.
After a private schooling he attended Princeton University, and at first sought to be a writer, producing a children's book and also editing a newspaper in Vermont.
He rose to become a producer and director in radio and television before his acting debut on screen in "Lost Boundaries" in 1949.
After serving as an assistant to director John Ford on the film "The Fugitive," he directed several movies, including "Green Mansions" in 1959 with Anthony Perkins and Hepburn.
He was married to Hepburn -- best remembered today for her roles in the 1960's classics "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "My Fair Lady" -- from 1954 to 1968, when they divorced.
Ferrer was married five times in all, Hepburn being his fourth wife. They had one child, Sean, born in 1960.
He is survived by his wife Elizabeth and by four sons and two daughters.
Hepburn died of cancer in 1993, at the age of 63.
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