Ben Dova

Ben Dova, born Joseph Anthony Späh on March 14, 1905, was a German-American acrobat and actor who performed under a stage name derived from the English phrase "bend over." He died on September 30, 1986.

Späh left Germany for the United States in 1922 and established himself in vaudeville as a contortionist. His signature act featured him portraying a drunk man balancing on a street lamp, a routine that brought him considerable recognition. In 1933, he took that act to an extreme, performing it atop the 56-story Chanin Building in New York City without safety equipment, capturing the stunt on newsreel footage. His Broadway career spanned from 1928 to 1939 and included appearances in The Greenwich Village Follies, the revue dating to 1923, and Streets of Paris.

Beyond the stage, Dova pursued work in film and television. His screen credits include the 1930 short A Chinatown Fantasy, the 1933 Broadway Brevity short The Way of All Freshmen, in which he appeared as an acrobatic dancer, and a 1952 episode of the television variety program Toast of the Town. He appeared in a 1962 episode of the television series Naked City, playing a tailor, and took a role in the 1976 film Marathon Man as Klaus Szell, the brother of the film's principal antagonist. Later film appearances include the West German productions Der Preis fürs Überleben in 1980 and Dear Mr. Wonderful in 1982.

Dova was a passenger aboard the LZ 129 Hindenburg during the Hindenburg disaster and survived by drawing on his acrobatic abilities. The FBI subsequently investigated him as a possible saboteur but found no evidence of wrongdoing and cleared him. His connection to the disaster extended into popular culture when Robert Clary portrayed him in the 1975 motion picture The Hindenburg. Dova also appeared as himself in two later German productions revisiting the event, a 2000 television episode and a 2011 documentary.