John van Dreelen
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John van Dreelen (5 May, 1922 – 4 September, 1992) was a frequent performer on American television during the guest-star heyday of the 1960s and 70s. He was born Jacques van Drielen Gimberg in Amsterdam.
The son of Dutch actor Louis Gimberg and the French baroness Labouchere, van Dreelen may have developed his debonair countenance with help from his continental pedigree. Fluent in several languages, he escaped Papanburg concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Holland by disguising himself as one of the German officers he would later play so often on both big and small screens. Though he appeared in many European films, van Dreelen is best remembered as an A-list guest star in dozens of American television shows from the early sixties to the mid-eighties.
Never a major player in American theatrical films, he nonetheless scored a few choice roles, including the Danish concert pianist who rescues and woos Lana Turner during an extended sequence in Madame X (1966). Van Dreelen also enjoyed an international stage career and starred in the original American touring production of The Sound of Music. (According to the actor, Richard Rodgers wanted van Dreelen and Audrey Hepburn to play the film's leads.)
Until 1950, his stage name was Jack Gimberg, at which time he changed it to John van Dreelen.
He died 4 September, 1992.
