EX-BUSINESSMAN PLAYS A SPY FOR HITCHCOCK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200660009-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: May 17, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

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zier for not firing me after the
first clay.
"But the picture turned out
to be a great commercial suc-
cess and nobody complained
about my performance. There
was a second film opposite
Joan Seberg - another 'Agent.
117' - and then four other
films. Suddenly I began to real-
ize that I was in demand, that
my agents were turning clown:
many offers - and that I'
wouldn't be going.back to my
desk as a business executive."
He Read The Book
How did Alfred Hitchcock,
who prefers big names, come
to sign him for "Topaz"?
. "I read the Uris book when
It was published hi Europe and'
I liked it enormously. A
thought that it would be won-
derful to play Andre Dever-
eaux never even crossed my
mind. A few months later my
agent said Hitchcock wanted
to talk to me about the part.
By HAROLD 11EFFERNA\T
North American Newspaper Alliance
HOLLYWOOD-It's no longer
top news in Hollywood when
stars of the stripe of Cary
Grant, Bing Crosby, James
,Stewart and Fred MacMurray
make million-dollar business
deals in real estate, gas wells
and corporate transactions.
But it's a switch when a suc-
cessful businessman becomes a
movie star-one who's hand-
some and a born heart-flutterer,
at that! .
Four years ago, tall, suave
Frederick Stafford was a king-
pin in the pharmaceutical indus-
try in Europe, had never seen
the inside of a motion-picture
studio, and "would have cut my
throat if anybody had told me I
was going to end up as a movie
actor. I was completely oriented
'.to the business world, and I did
a lot of daring, unorthodox
things that turned out success-
fully in my line."
Today he's starring as the
French intelligence agent in
Alfred Hitchcock's "Topaz," and
there hasn't been so much ex-
citement among stenographers,
waitresses and messenger girls
on the Universal lot since Cary
Grant - first drove through the
gates.
He's Still Dazed
And although he has already
starred in seven European pic-
tures and is rated the hottest
new face on the Continent, he's
still dazed about ending up in
Hitchcock's suspense drama,
based on Leon Uris' novel, and
signing a contract with Univer-
sal.
"It's unbelievable," says Staf-
ford, whose English is overlaid
with a faint European accent.
"Becoming an actor in the first
place! I didn't know the front of
the camera from the back. My
first picture was 'Mission for a
Killer,' in which I played a se-
cret agent known as "117." 1
thought Andre Hunebelle (the di-
rector) was out of his mind for
trying to talk me into trying my
hand _as- .an-actor,, and even era- eight days later.
"I was in Rome completing
'The Battle of El Alamein'
when Mr. Hitchcock tele-
phoned from Paris. I managed
to stammer that I couldn't
meet him there because I was
In every scene of the Picture I
was doing. So he came to
rome to see me.
. "I had workea on a night
scene until 6:30 in the morning
on the day I did an interview-
- test for him. I thought I was
giving the wrong answers, but
when it was all over, he said,
'Congratulations,' and told me
he had seen all of my pic-
tures."
Stafford, who fled his native
Czechoslovakia as a student
and found refuge in Australia,
is convinced that he still
would be regional manager of
Bristol-Myers, with headciuar- .
ters in Hong Kong and the
entire orient as his territory,
but for a blonde beauty who
was vacationing In Bangkok.
He wangled . an introduction
P - Lc . . 5 , t, a r.
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200660009-3