Collector discovers actor`s special Bond to Battle Creek

When Tom Pennock was 10 years old, his brother Steve took him to the Michigan Theater to see the rerelease double feature of "From Russia With Love" and "Dr. No."

"I remember Steve coming home after he saw `Goldfinger' and telling me about how a man in the movie had a blade in the brim of his hat. That interested me so much, I wanted to see those other Bond movies," said Pennock, a 49-year-old Battle Creek (Michigan, USA) resident. "So you can say that this obsession is my brother's fault."

The obsession is collecting movie posters, action figures, trading cards and researching anything that has to do with Bond films.

"I think my collection may be a little excessive. Don't you think this is a little odd?" he asked while walking among the memorabilia.

It was through Pennock's movie research that he found that a Bond link was closer to him than he realized. In a magazine, he noticed that the name John Kitzmiller got top billing on a foreign movie poster - reports the Chicago Tribune.

"I knew that he played Quarrel in `Dr. No,' but I didn't know that he had other film roles," Pennock said. Quarrel was James Bond's sidekick in "Dr. No."

Pennock decided to look into Kitzmiller's film roles. He found out that in 1957, Kitzmiller became the first black to earn a best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for the Yugoslavian film "Dolina Mira," which is about an American pilot who helps a group of children find safety from the Nazis during World War II.

He found out that Kitzmiller was a film sensation -- he made more than 40 films -- in Europe.

And he learned that Kitzmiller was from Battle Creek.

"I thought I was going to fall out of my chair when I found out that he was from Battle Creek," Pennock said. "I remember going downtown when I was a kid and talking to my friends about Bond movies. I had no idea that someone from here was actually in one."

Kitzmiller graduated from Battle Creek High School in 1932. "My dad did real estate and he has all of the old city directories. I found [Kitzmiller's] parents' address in there," he said. "I drove past the house to see where it was, but it must have been torn down. There was nothing there but an overgrown empty lot."

Pennock said when he looked around Kitzmiller's old neighborhood, he bet that no one knew that an international film star grew up right next door. He asked several people, including some historians, about Kitzmiller. But he said no one knew very much.

But the Battle Creek Enquirer's archive, Willard Public Library's Martich Black History archive and the 1932 yearbook answered some questions.

When Kitzmiller walked the halls of Battle Creek Central, he was in the Chem Club, according the yearbook, which also stated that his goal in life was to be a chemical engineer.

Kitzmiller left Battle Creek to serve in World War II and was an Army engineer captain. When he was in the service, both his parents -- John and Mary -- died.

Kitzmiller no longer has family in the area. His sister, Iola Sue Johnson, who once was an assistant director at Hamblin Community Center, moved to Detroit in the mid-1960s to work at a Baptist church.

"I am not sure what has happened to her," said Dorothy Martich, who researches Battle Creek black history.

Martich also has an explanation as to why Kitzmiller isn't a household name in his hometown.

"A lot of people don't know him because he spent so much of his life in Europe," Martich said. "So unless you knew him or you knew who the family was, you didn't really know anything about this. It was such a quiet thing here."

A Ponti protege

According to Enquirer articles, Kitzmiller was discovered by Italian director Carlo Ponti at a poker game with his Army buddies in 1947. Ponti was Sophia Loren's husband.

When Ponti suggested that Kitzmiller play a part in a movie, Kitzmiller just laughed, according to an interview done by a German newspaper that was reprinted in the January 1960 Enquirer and News.

"I had never acted before or even thought about it. The director said, `That's just the laugh I need,' and I got the part," Kitzmiller said.

Also in the interview, Kitzmiller said he stayed in Italy because he already had achieved stardom there. "I've got it made here. They keep writing roles for a Negro actor, and since I am the only one here, I get them all," said the actor.

Kitzmiller died in Rome on Feb. 23, 1965, at age 51 of liver cirrhosis.

"Everybody here knows me," Kitzmiller had said. "Wherever I go, they stop and point. Of course, sometimes they say, `Look, it's Louis Armstrong!' or, `Look, it's Joe Louis!' But they do usually know me."

A November 1951 edition of Ebony magazine said of Kitzmiller: "In Italy his face is as familiar to moviegoers as Gregory Peck in this country."

This is why Pennock, a lifelong Battle Creek resident and movie historian, said he was so surprised that he didn't know who Kitzmiller was and what he had done.

"I have been into James Bond movies for 40 years and I didn't know that [Kitzmiller] was from Battle Creek," he said. "He was an international film star. People in Italy and all over Europe know him. But he is relatively unknown in his own back yard. We should change that."

Thanks to `JP` for the alert.

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