"Exotic" is the epithet most frequently used to describe the series of Technicolored escapist movies produced by Universal Pictures in the 1940s. These profitable films, often set in a North African or Arabian desert recreated on the studio backlot, featured the Dominican actor Maria Montez; Sabu, the Indian teenage boy; Jon Hall (son of a Swiss actor and a Tahitian princess); and Turhan Bey, who has died aged 90. Bey was often cast as wily, "foreign" villains, or romantic leads in thrillers and Arabian Nights fantasies, for which he was dubbed by fan magazines "the Turkish Delight". ...
Bey's first principal role came in The Mummy's Tomb (1942), in which he played an Egyptian high priest called Mehemet Bey, who brings Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr), the 3,000-year-old "living" mummy, to America to avenge the desecration of a holy tomb. In this low-budget sequel to The Mummy's Hand, Bey gave a subtle performance, at least in comparison to the eye-rolling of the rest of the cast. In another horror movie, The Mad Ghoul (1943), Bey had his first "straight" role, as the accompanist of a concert singer threatened by the brainwashed character of the title.
He was lent to MGM for Dragon Seed (1944), based on Pearl Buck's novel about Chinese peasants fighting against the Japanese occupation â€" with a mostly Caucasian cast, including Katharine Hepburn as his wife. ...
More (w/photo):
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/10/turhan-bey
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