Sandor Eles: from Hammer Horror to Crossroads

A face many of us knew from his stage, TV and film work, Sandor Eles, was born in Tatabánya, 60km west of Budapest, in June 1936. He became a British citizen on 10 January 1977. After a long and successful career, he died of a heart attack on 10 September 2002.

Sandor Eles, 1964

While doing some research on the Internet Movie Database (IMDB), I was surprised to find that he died in his flat in Morland House, 17 Brondesbury Road Kilburn. At the time of his death Sandor did not have any heirs, and his name appeared on the Government Bona Vacantia list of unclaimed estates.

Sandor was orphaned and aged 20, fled during the Hungarian Revolution of October and November 1956 when Soviet tanks entered Budapest. After receiving help from the Red Cross in Vienna, he travelled to England, unable to speak the language. Nonetheless, having trained at a student theatre in Hungary, he attended the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and began his professional stage career in 1958.

His TV appearances included many popular series such as: Danger Man, The Baron, The Saint, Timeslip, Jason King, and The Avengers. He appeared as a storyteller on the BBC children’s programme Jackanory in 10 episodes between 1970 and 1972.

In an early film role, Sandor appeared as a young artist in The Rebel (1961), the story of a would-be sculptor played by Tony Hancock. The location team turned up at Marianne Colloms’ home in West Hampstead. They hired a room from her mother where Tony could rest between filming a scene next door. Marianne remembers lots of takes as he tried to rent space for himself and his enormous, grotesque statue from the landlady Irene Handl. ‘Aphrodite at the Water Hole’ was left on the back of a lorry parked in the road and caused a lot of local interest as spectators came to watch the filming. However, these scenes did not appear in the final cut.

Tony Hancock in The Rebel (1961)

One of Sandor's most memorable film roles was in ‘And Soon the Darkness’ (1970). The Avengers production team had just finished a series. The writers Brian Clemens and Terry Nation gave director Robert Fuest a script and he took a small crew and cast to film in France. The plot involved two nurses, Jane played by Pamela Franklin and Cathy played by Michele Dotrice, who have different ideas about how to spend the cycling holiday. Jane wants to push on and see the country, Cathy fancies something more leisurely, with a spot of sunbathing thrown in as they travel across rural France. They split up and Jane disappears.

Sandor plays the handsome mysterious character Paul, who wears dark glasses and rides a Lambretta scooter.

The trailer for the film is on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmEOl29iy8c

Sandor had major roles in the Hammer Horror movies ‘The Evil of Frankenstein’ (1964) starring Peter Cushing, and ‘Countess Dracula’ (1971) with Ingrid Pitt.

He was a versatile stage actor in John Osbourne plays, Feydeau farces and he sang and danced for two years in the musical Fidler on the Roof. He appeared from 1982 to 1985 as the scheming restaurant manager, Paul Ross, in the TV soap opera Crossroads. His last film role was a party guest in the Merchant/Ivory production ‘Surviving Picasso’ in 1996.

Having a great love of classical music and the culture of his Hungarian homeland, Sandor appeared in Ken Russell’s film Bartok for BBC Monitor in 1964. Sandor was a private man, and little is known about his personal life.

A list of some of his many performances is given in IMDB

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0255973/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

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History of Kilburn and West Hampstead

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