After the war, he began a career on the London stage. Among other roles he played "Peachum" in
Bertolt Brecht and
Kurt Weill's
The Threepenny Opera. From the end of the 1940s, Pohlmann was often present in film and television productions, taking supporting roles in various adventure and crime films, and appearing occasionally in comedies. His large frame and massive features typecast him in roles as master criminals and spies, or conversely as police officers or detectives, as well as other figures of authority. He was frequently cast in "foreign" roles, portraying Turks, Italians, Arabs, Greeks or Asians; he also played
King George II in Disney's
Rob Roy, the Highland Rogue and
King George III twice. One of his earliest film appearances was in
Carol Reed's classic
The Third Man (1949). He also played supporting roles in such British films as
They Who Dare (1954),
Chance of a Lifetime (1950),
Reach for the Sky (1956), and
Expresso Bongo (1960). He also appeared in US productions, notably
Moulin Rouge (1952),
Mogambo (1953),
Lust For Life (1956) and
55 Days at Peking (1963). Twice he appeared in films directed by
Richard Thorpe and starring
Robert Taylor –
The Adventures of Quentin Durward (1955) and
The House of the Seven Hawks (1959). He displayed his comedic talents in films like
Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955) with
Jane Russell, as a lecherous Arab sheikh in ''
The Belles of St. Trinian's (1954), as "The Fat Man" in Carry On Spying (1964) and in The Return of the Pink Panther'' (1975). Pohlmann (uncredited) also provided the voice of the unseen head of
SPECTRE,
Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the
James Bond films
From Russia with Love (1963) and
Thunderball (1965). In the 1960s and 1970s, Pohlmann relaunched his German-speaking career in West German and Austrian film and television productions. He had guest roles in the popular crime series
Der Kommissar and
Derrick, and also appeared in television plays for
ORF and
Bayerischer Rundfunk, often under the direction of . In addition to
The Defence Counsel (1961) with
Barbara Rütting and
Carl Heinz Schroth, he appeared in ''
(1962) with Albrecht Schoenhals and Michael Ande, as well as The Dreyfus Affair
(1968) with Karl Michael Vogler and Bernhard Wicki. In 1962, Pohlmann also appeared in The Puzzle of the Red Orchid'' starring
Marisa Mell,
Christopher Lee and
Klaus Kinski, a West German
film adaptation of an
Edgar Wallace novel. His many roles in Austrian TV's acclaimed production of Friedrich Torberg's 'Tante Jolesch' established Pohlmann as a major star in his home country. Pohlmann's greatest success in German TV drama came in 1970 with an adaptation of
Wilkie Collins' novel
The Woman in White, one of the most successful television productions of the year which gained over 9 million viewers. Under the direction of William Semmelroth, Pohlmann appeared in the role of the
villainous Count Fosco, alongside
Heidelinde Weis,
Christoph Bantzer,
Pinkas Braun and
Helmut Käutner. The mini-series has a cult following to this day. Pohlmann was a regular on British television, taking the role of "Inspector Goron" in the 1954-1955 TV series
Colonel March of Scotland Yard with
Boris Karloff, and appearing as a guest star in such series as
The Saint,
The Champions,
The Avengers,
Danger Man,
Department S,
Jason King and
Paul Temple. In 1978, he worked with the actor-director
Maximilian Schell in an Austro/West German film production of
Ödön von Horváth's play
Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (
Tales from the Vienna Woods). The film was shown at the 1979
London Film Festival. In that year, during final rehearsals for his second appearance at the
Salzburg Festival, Pohlmann suffered a heart attack, and died the same day in a hotel in
Bad Reichenhall. He was 66. He was survived by his children and his second wife, Lili Stern-Pohlman, a Polish-born
Holocaust survivor. In 2006, the
Turner Classic Movies "
31 Days of Oscar" festival was based on the theme of "360 Degrees of Oscar" (based on the game of "
Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon") in which TCM chooses an actor who has played a significant role in Oscar history, and builds its entire schedule around him. They chose Eric Pohlmann. He also appeared on stage in, amongst other productions, Henry Cecil's
Settled Out of Court and Jean Anouilh's 'Point of Departure'. == Filmography ==