Biography

Trinidadian-born character actor of mixed Indian, German, African and Portuguese ancestry. Born Stephen Siegfried Behrendt, he grew up in Port-of-Spain, along with his cousin, the future filmmaker Horace Ové, and best friend, the playwright Mustapha Matura. In 1959, he moved to England and successfully auditioned for a spot at East 15 Acting School in Loughton, Essex. At this time, he decided to shed his birth name and adopt his grandfather's appellation 'Kalipha'. As Stefan Kalipha, he made his theatrical debut with the Oxford Playhouse Company in Antony and Cleopatra.

Because his ethnic origins may have been difficult to pinpoint, Kalipha has tended to be cast in an assortment of exotic roles. Beginning in 1970, his many guises on both the small and the big screen have most often been as Middle Easterners (The Curse of King Tut's Tomb (1980), The Crucifer of Blood (1991), Saracen (1989), The Sum of All Fears (2002), Arabian Nights (2000), Aladdin (2019)). Other roles have included an African revolutionary (Hine (1971)), Cubans (a cigar factory foreman in Cuba (1979), hitman Hector Gonzalez in For Your Eyes Only (1981)), a Turkish (Hatay) tank gunner (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)), Mowgli's Indian antagonist (Buldeo in The Jungle Book (1994)) and a Pole (in an episode of The Professionals (1977)). Kalipha said in a 2022 interview: "To me the great fun of being in films was the travelling and earning enough money to be able to scoot back to Trinidad and spend three or four months there whenever I finished filming."

Kalipha's last screen credit (to date) was in 2020. He is of the Japanese Nichiren Buddhist faith, said to be residing in a flat overlooking Primrose Hill in London.
- IMDb mini biography by: I.S.Mowis