HORST BUCHHOLZ:
FROM
REFUGEE
TO RICHES
By PEER J. OPPENHEIMER
all
Wife Myriam and Horst, here with eon Chris, met
while working in a German-Italian film. Horst
made his V. S. debut in "The Magnificent Seven."
1&7
Horst, who earns some $100,000 a movie now, plays Gandhi's assassin in new film,"Nine Hours to Rama.'
THE voice on the other end of
the line was unmistakably that
of a British gentleman's gentle
man : "Mr. Buchholz will have his
chauffeur pick you up at 6 :30, Sir.
He would like you to have drinks
with him at his flat and then din
ner at Cunningham's."
Two hours later, a $30,000 Rolls-Royce
whisked me through London to Horst
Buchholz' town house. There I was in
troduced to several members of England's
nobility, who had stopped by for a drink.
Horst was in London for his starring
part in the 20th Century-Fox film, "Nine
Hours to Rama." But had he been in Paris,
he could have lived equally well, for he
keeps an exquisitely furnished apartment
in the most fashionable section of that
city. And if the film's location had been
California or Switzerland, he would have
been able to live in the huge houses he
maintains in those places.
Yet I doubt if Horst is even conscious
of the energy he devotes to creating a way
of life that outdoes even the Hollywood
standards of the extravagant 1930s. He
is not a show-off; his manner is friendly,
unaffected, sincere. This apparent contra
diction can only be explained by taking
into account his tension-filled, hand-to-mouth
childhood in war-torn Europe.
Horst was born in Berlin 29 years ago.
During World War II, his family was
bombed out of its home, and Horst was
evacuated to the first of a series of chil
dren's camps.
Riding in a cattle car as he fled the ad
vancing Russians, Horst survived a bom
bardment that destroyed the train, and he
spent the entire summer of 1945 walking
home to Berlin while dodging the still
trigger-happy Russian patrols. He existed
on begged and stolen food.
He remembers that period of his life
with little outward show of bitterness:
"My father was captured by the Rus
sians and was not released until three
14 Family Weekly, March 17, J IX J