Stephen Bekassy

Stephen Bekassy, born István Békássy on February 10, 1907, in Nyíregyháza, Hungary, was a Hungarian-born American actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television. He died on October 30, 1995.

Bekassy made his American stage debut in Errand for Berenice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1944. He subsequently appeared on Broadway in 1947 in The Whole World Over. His American film debut came in A Song to Remember in 1945, and he later appeared in both Hell and High Water and Prisoner of War, both released in 1954.

His television work included two guest appearances on Perry Mason. In 1958 he portrayed art expert Laslo Kovac in the episode "The Case of the Purple Woman," and the following year he appeared as murder victim Rick Stassi in "The Case of the Bartered Bikini." Also in 1958, he guest-starred as Count Razil in the CBS situation comedy Mr. Adams and Eve, in the episode titled "Command Performance." In 1961, he played Monsieur Brissard, an attendant to the title character in season four, episode fifteen of The Rifleman, which aired on July 13, 1961.

During World War II, Bekassy rescued Jewish escapees. He later worked with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. During the Red Scare, Ronald Reagan accused him of being a Communist on account of his Hungarian origins.

Bekassy married Teri Fejes in 1931, divorcing in 1933. His second marriage, to Lívia Neufeld in 1936, also ended in divorce in 1938. After emigrating to the United States, he married Beverly Violet Bidwell, who wrote under the name Hagar Wilde, on October 8, 1941, in Carson City, Nevada; that marriage also ended in divorce. In 1969 he married Erika Beregi. He subsequently married Hanna Hertelendy, born in 1919 and died in 2008, who had previously been the wife of actor Robert Walker.