Mel Ferrer Dies at 90

Strikingly handsome actor-director Mel Ferrer has died at age 90 in California after a long illness.

Married five times to four women (twice to his first wife), he was most famously wed to Audrey Hepburn in 1954 afer they starrred together in a Broadway play, Ondine. They shared the screen in War and Peace, and he directed or produced for Hepburn in many of her most famous roles, including her amazing turn as a blind woman menaced by drug smugglers in Wait Until Dark, which Ferrer produced. They divorced in 1968.

The late actor was praised for his role as a crippled carnival puppeteer in Lili, and was also seen in The Sun Also Rises, The Longest Day, Scaramouche, and The Fall of the Roman Empire. Despite his stage and screen triumphs, Hepburn has been quoted as saying his great love was directing.

The AP reports he is survived by his fourth wife, Elizabeth Soukhotine, three sons, two daughters and several grandchildren.