Felix Maurice Locher, known as Felix Locher (pronounced Lo-Shay) (July 16, 1882, Bern, Switzerland - March 13, 1969, California) was a Swiss actor and inventor and father of actor Jon Hall.

Career

Felix Locher was an inventor who held over 100

copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...

s and patents relating to a unique mapping system that he used when lecturing to insurance salesmen. Locher started acting late in life: when he began his career in 1955 (performing in an unsold TV show which became the 1957 film ''

Hell Ship Mutiny ''Hell Ship Mutiny'' is a 1957 American South Seas (genre), South Seas adventure film directed by Lee Sholem and Elmo Williams starring Jon Hall (actor), Jon Hall who also produced and narrated the film. It is a compilation of a 1955 unsold tel ...

'') he was 73 years old. The father of actor Jon Hall (born Charles Felix Locher), he visited his son on the set when he was discovered by director

Elmo Williams James Elmo Williams (April 30, 1913 – November 25, 2015) was an American film and television editor, producer, director and executive. His work on the film ''High Noon'' (1952) received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. In 2006, Williams ...

who convinced him to play the part of an elderly

Tahiti Tahiti (; Tahitian ; ; previously also known as Otaheite) is the largest island of the Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is located in the central part of the Pacific Ocean and the nearest major landmass is Austra ...

an Chief. From then on he appeared in numerous television productions throughout the 1950s and 1960s until his death in 1969 at age of 86. He also appeared in '' Star Trek'', ''

The Outlaw ''The Outlaw'' is a 1943 American Western film, directed by Howard Hughes and starring Jack Buetel, Jane Russell, Thomas Mitchell, and Walter Huston. Hughes also produced the film, while Howard Hawks served as an uncredited co-director. Th ...

'' (1966), '' Gunsmoke'' (1968) ''

The Man from U.N.C.L.E ''The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'' is an American spy fiction television series produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Television and first broadcast on NBC. The series follows secret agents, played by Robert Vaughn and David McCallum, who work for a secret ...

.,'' '' House of the Damned'' (1963), '' Mission: Impossible (''1967) with

Joseph Campanella Joseph Anthony Campanella (November 21, 1924 – May 16, 2018) was an American character actor. He appeared in more than 200 television and film roles from the early 1950s to 2009. Campanella was best remembered for his roles as Joe Turino on ' ...

, ''

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: The Silence'' (TV), ''

Thunder in the Sun ''Thunder in the Sun'' is a 1959 American Western film directed by Russell Rouse and starring Susan Hayward and Jeff Chandler. Plot The film shows a family of French Basque immigrants pioneering into the Wild West while carrying their ancestr ...

'', and ''Curse of the Faceless Man'' (1958). He is considered the oldest ''Star Trek'' actor of all time by birth year (the second-oldest is

Leonard Mudie Leonard Mudie (born Leonard Mudie Cheetham; April 11, 1883April 14, 1965) was an English character actor whose career lasted for nearly fifty years. After a successful start as a stage actor in England, he appeared regularly in the US, and mad ...

, born 1883). He was buried at the

Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills Cemetery Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills is one of the six Forest Lawn cemeteries in Southern California. It is located at 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles, California 90068, in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. Histor ...

in Los Angeles.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Locher, Felix Maurice 1882 births 1969 deaths American people of Swiss descent Swiss actors 20th-century Swiss inventors Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills)