Perschy started her career in bit parts and on early German TV productions. Her breakthrough came in Nassser Asphalt/Wet Asphalt (1958) next to then heartthrob Horst Buchholz and Gert Fröbe in a plot about fake journalism and war criminals in post-war Germany.
She followed this up in a series of light hearted German comedies and had her first international role in Giorgio Bianchi’s Il moralista/The Moralist (1959).
Her first English language film was the war drama The Password Is Courage (1962) next to Dirk Bogarde.
In the 1960s Hollywood came calling and for fans of Classic Hollywood Perschy is probably best known acting side-by-side with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss in the Howard Hawks directed comedy Man’s Favorite Sport? (1964) in which Hudson’s tie gets entangled in Perschy’s zip. She also had a small role in John Huston’s Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) with Montgomery Clift but ultimately never hit the big time in US productions.
Instead Perschy focused on bigger parts in smaller European movies aided by her faible for speaking foreign languages. At the time she predominantly appeared in a mix of action/adventure, war (633 Squadron (1964)) and Euro western (Die Banditen vom Rio Grande (1965)). Over the years she also on occasion featured in some popular TV dramas of the time such as “General Hospital”, “Paul Temple” and “Hawaii Five-O”.
Der Henker von London/The Mad Executioners (1963) is a Bryan Edgar Wallace film that switches from being a typical Krimi to a Frankensteinan shlock fest with Maria Perschy as the token blonde love interest and decoy to help catch the decapitating mad scientist.
She spends most of her time in the first Kommissar X movie Jagd auf Unbekannt/Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill (1966) wearing a lavender wig and quickly changes allegiances from being one of the henchman’s assistants to being instrumental in saving a private army of Amazon warriors from his influence.
Prior to Kiss Kiss, Kill Kill she had already starred alongside Brad Harris in Weiße Fracht für Hongkong/Mystery of the Red Jungle (1964), about combatting a drug ring in modern day Hong Kong. Harris would subsequently also be involved in her film Mister Dynamit - Morgen küßt euch der Tod/Spy Today, Die Tomorrow (1967), a somewhat lame German Eurospy production with Lex Barker.
Right after the Kommissar X movie Perschy starred in Las 7 magnificas/The Tall Women (1966), a Spanish filmed Eurowestern that may or may not have also been directed by Gianfranco Parolini. According to some sources it is likely that though nominally credited to Rudolf Zehetgruber, it may indeed have instead been filmed by Sidney W. Pink with Parolini also being mentioned in order to satisfy legal requirements by Italian financiers.
Perschy is one of many familiar faces in Five Golden Dragons (1967), a British-German co-production loosely based on Edgar Wallace “Sanders” stories. One of her co-stars there was Christopher Lee with whom she also appeared in the final Dr Fu Manchu film of the 1960s, The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969, directed by Jess Franco).
During the 1960s Perschy lived in Spain.
In 1971 while shooting promotional photos in a petroleum field near Madrid disaster struck. Covered in oil she was cleaning herself up with petrol while a woman in the same room as her lit a gas oven causing an explosion. Perschy turned into a human torch but managed to extinguish the flames herself before being rushed into hospital with life threatening wounds. Despite the severity of her injuries, her wounds managed to heal and she was able to resume her career.
It appears that Maria Perschy was tested but did not make the cut for Los monstruos del terror/Assignment Terror (1970). In the subsequent years she did, however, appear in five other productions featuring Paul Naschy (Hunchback of the Morgue/El jorobado de la Morgue (1973), Los ojos azules de la muñeca rota/Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll (1974), Exorcismo (1975), La diosa salvaje/Kilma, Queen of the Jungle (1975), Último deseo/The People Who Own the Dark (1976)).
In 1974 she also starred in El buque maldito/The Ghost Galleon (1974), the third of Amando de Ossorio’s four Blind Dead movies.
Privately she was involved in an on again/off again relationship with fiancé Joachim Hansen (from Bryan Edgar Wallace Krimi Das Geheimnis der schwarzen Koffer/The Secret of the Black Trunk (1962)) with whom she had acted together in Lebensborn/Ordered to Love (1961), a German war time drama about Nazi breeding farms, before marrying Stanley Torchia, the Executive Producer of her film A Witch Without a Broom (1967). That marriage ended in a divorce.
The couple had a daughter together in 1967.
During the 1970s Maria Perschy briefly moved back to Austria when the Spanish government repeatedly demanded of her to take on the Spanish citizenship. She then moved to Hollywood where she got married for a second time, this time to screenwriter John Melson (Battle of the Bulge (1965), Cauldron of Blood (1970)). This marriage lasted until Melson’s suicide in 1983.
During her time in L.A. Perschy also worked as a translator and in the antiques business.
She returned back to Austria in the mid-1980s and acted on stage there while also appearing in German TV shows.
In the last five years of her life Maria Perschy had to undergo 15 cancer related operations. She passed away in 2004 at the age of 66.
Great entry! Such a sad ending of her life!
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