Born in Vienna to a Turkish father and Czech mother, Turhan Bey studied acting in California. After a couple of fleeting bit parts at Warner Bros., Bey was given more substantial supporting assignments at RKO. He hit his stride at Universal, home of the lavish Jon Hall/Maria Montez vehicles. Fitting right in with the escapist proceedings, Bey supported Hall and Montez in such Technicolor confections as Arabian Nights (1942), White Savage (1943) and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves (1944). He also added a touch of exotica to the Universal horror flicks The Mad Ghoul (1943), The Mummy's Tomb (1943) and The Climax (1944). According to many historians, Bey faded away when the real stars came marching back from World War II; in truth, he retained his popularity well into the late 1940s, starring as Aesop in A Night in Paradise (1946) and the title character in The Amazing Mr. X (1947), among other films. What killed Bey's Hollywood career was the fact that the sort of Arabian Nights nonsense in which he excelled had been consigned to the lower half of double bills; in addition, he spent three crucial years off the screen while serving in the military. After producing the 1953 programmer Stolen Identity, Bey returned to Europe, where he began a whole new career as a successful commercial photographer; he also briefly served as director of the Marionette Theater in Salzburg. Then, in 1993, Turhan Bey made an unexpected return before the cameras, appearing in the independently produced features The Healer (1993) and Possessed by the Night (1994) and guesting on the NBC TV series Seaquest DSV. When asked why he came back after so long an absence, Turhan Bey replied in his soft, cultured Viennese tones that, for the first time in forty years, someone had asked him to come back.