Gordon Sterne

Acting

Gordon Sterne

Born 1923-01-16 · Essen, Germany

Gordon Sterne was a German-born English actor with a prolific career spanning over five decades in film, television, and theater. He is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as Mr. Kessler in the horror-comedy classic An American Werewolf in London (1981), where his character famously meets a gruesome end while watching The Muppet Show in a dream sequence. He left his native Nazi-dominated birth country in 1941 and became a native of Windsor, Ontario with a father who worked in the tobacco business and mother, who was supportive of his theatre aspirations. Sterne studied economics at the University of Western Ontario before volunteering for the Canadian Army in 1944, serving in the infantry as a sergeant. Heading to New York in 1945, he trained and graduated from the Dramatic Workshop under the tutelage of its founder Erwin Piscator, at the same time as Rod Steiger, Bea Arthur, Walter Matthau, Tony Curtis and Harry Belafonte. Sterne then began his acting career in America, working on radio and TV, in summer stock and off-Broadway. After a career on stage, playing the leading man in various plays in New Jersey during the 1940s, as well as Benvenuto Cellini in The Firebrand at Washington's Arena Stage and Joseph K in The Trial at New York's Provincetown Playhouse during the early 1950s, Sterne moved to Britain in 1956 where he had over 50 years working in theatre, TV and film. Being able to speak German (and French) enabled Sterne to perform in Drop Dead Darling on tour in Germany as well as a spell with the English Theatre in Vienna.

Acting credits

An American Werewolf in London poster
7.4

American tourists David and Jack are savagely attacked by an unidentified animal while hiking on the Yorkshire Moors. After retiring to the home of a beautiful nurse to recuperate, David soon begins experiencing disturbing changes to his body and mind.

An American Werewolf in London

1981

Highlander poster
6.9

He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal.

Highlander

1986

The Razor's Edge poster
6.4

An American WWI veteran undertakes a spiritual quest that takes him from Paris to Nepal to the Himalayas and back to his hometown. Upon his return, he discovers he is not the only one who has changed.

The Razor's Edge

1984

The Assassination Bureau poster
6.7

In 1908 London, a women's rights campaigner discovers the Assassination Bureau Limited, an organization that kills for justice. When its motives are called into question, she commissions the assassination of its chairman. Knowing that his colleagues have recently become more motivated by greed than morality, he turns the situation into a challenge for his board members: kill him or be killed.

The Assassination Bureau

1969

Laws of Attraction poster
5.8

Amidst a sea of litigation, two New York City divorce lawyers find love.

Laws of Attraction

2004

Taste of Fear poster
7.1

A wheelchair-bound young girl returns to her father's estate after ten years, and although she's told he's away, she keeps seeing his dead body on the estate.

Taste of Fear

1961

The Millionairess poster
5.3

When her father dies, Epifania Parerga, an Italian in London, becomes the world's richest woman. She feels incomplete without a husband and falls in love with a humble, Indian physician, Ahmed el Kabir, much loved by his indigent English patients.

The Millionairess

1960

John and Yoko: A Love Story poster
6.8

Details the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, from before their first meeting to their rise to stardom.

John and Yoko: A Love Story

1985

Sex Play poster
4.0

Young daughter of High ranking political figure gets into trouble when she and her friends compete at bedding the foreign diplomats.

Sex Play

1974

Four Play poster
4.2

A romantic comedy about the fleeting attractions between men and women on the set of a popular British sitcom.

Four Play

2001

Merlin poster
6.2

A modern-day retelling of the Arthurian legend with the Lady of the Lake as a reporter and Pendragon as an evil businessman. Merlin's immortal apprentice is trying to protect a powerful sword forged by Merin from the clutches of Pendragon.

Merlin

1992

Libel poster
6.8

A California commercial pilot sees a telecast in London of an interview with Sir Mark Lodden at his home. The Canadian is convinced that the baronet is a fraud, and he is actually a look-alike actor named Frank Welney.

Libel

1959

The Adding Machine poster
6.7

An accountant whose job is about to be taken over by a computer starts to re-examine his life and his priorities.

The Adding Machine

1969

Battle of the V-1 poster
5.2

1943: A schoolmaster called Stefan Novak and his watchmaker friend Tadek are working for the Polish resistance lead by Stanislav Muski and allow themselves to be captured by the Nazis and taken to a labour camp on the Baltic coast so that they can spy on the operations there. Stefan and Tadek discover that the camp houses a huge production unit where the V1 rocket is being built, which Hitler intends to use to destroy London. The pair succeed in informing the resistance of what is happening who in turn tip off the allies who launch a full scale raid on the plant and destroy it therefore setting back the Nazis' plan by months. However, the fight is far from over as Hitler's generals proceed with plans to build yet another plant and Stefan and Tadek are faced with a dangerous challenge, they must capture a complete V1 rocket and help in smuggling it back to Britain so that the allies can prepare themselves for Hitler's proposed invasion...

Battle of the V-1

1958

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death poster
7.2

Astronauts rescued from a mission to mars are kidnapped when they arrive back on earth. They seem to have been irradiated, and can now kill people merely by touching them. But the Doctor discovers the astronauts have been replaced with Alien ambassadors who are being forced to behave in a hostile manner. With The Doctor traveling to the alien mother ship, and Liz kidnapped, The Brigadier is left wondering who to trust.

Doctor Who: The Ambassadors of Death

1970

The Great Van Robbery poster
5.2

Interpol detective Caesar Smith tracks robbers of the Royal Mint van. He travels to Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Paris and establishes the guilt of a London coffee importer.

The Great Van Robbery

1959

A Promise of Bed poster
2.8

Three part comedy. A fading sex symbol attempts to win the lead in a movie by seducing the son of a film producer. A depressed middle aged loner whose suicide attempt is interrupted by the arrival of a hippy girl.An avid sex film fan and taxi driver, crashes his cab after being distracted by the leggy charms of his latest passenger.

A Promise of Bed

1969

No artwork available
7.0

A BAFTA award nominated drama about a British POW's collaboration with the Nazis during WWII.

Rating Notman

1982

The Vulture poster
5.0

A mad scientist turns himself into a half-man, half-bird monster to avenge the death of his ancestor.

The Vulture

1966

The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui poster
NR

The rise to underworld eminence of the notorious Chicago gangster Artuto Ui - who bears a striking resemblance to Adolf Hitler.

The Gangster Show: The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui

1972

Screaming Blue Murder poster
8.0

Veteran director Jack Rammer stages a comeback only to find himself confronted by characters of his own creation.

Screaming Blue Murder

2006

The Child and the Killer poster
7.0

Joe Marsh (Robert Arden) is a U.S. Army captain who goes on the run in Britain after committing murder. He breaks into a family's home and forces 7-year-old Tommy Martin (Richard Williams) to guide his escape through the surrounding rural territory. A bond begins to form between the child and the desperate fugitive, but Marsh's criminal nature cannot help but show itself again before the chase comes to an end.

The Child and the Killer

1959

No artwork available
7.0

A reporter feigns death, in order to trap a fugitive and uncover a spy ring.

The Fur Collar

1962