Post Office Honors Oscar Winner, Longtime Ossining Resident
The United States Postal Service bestowed one of its highest honors on Academy Award-winning actor Jose Ferrer last week, honoring the Puerto Rican icon and longtime Ossining resident with his own commemorative stamp.
Ferrer, who lived in the Village of Ossining from the 1940s until his death in 1992, was the first Hispanic actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, securing film’s top prize for his role in “Cyrano de Bergerac” in 1950. He was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for 1948’s “Joan of Arc” and for Best Actor again in 1952 for his role as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in “Moulin Rouge.”
The post office in downtown Ossining honored Ferrer with a small ceremony Thursday in advance of the larger national commemoration at the historic Players’ Club in Manhattan. The event featured several post office officials, Ossining village historian William Reynolds, Ossining Mayor Bill Hanauer, Westchester County Legislator Catherine Borgia and Dana Levenberg, the chief of staff for Assemblywoman Sandy Galef and a member of the Ossining Union Free School District Board of Education.
At the event, Levenberg read a proclamation issued by Galef that heralded Ferrer, who also won three Tony Awards in addition to his Oscar, as a “truly exceptional individual and one deserving of admiration both in this community and in the great state of New York.”
Ferrer died in Coral Gables, Fla., in 1992 after a brief battle with colon cancer. He was buried in Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
Though there was the larger national celebration announcing the new stamp’s arrival later that day in Manhattan, Levenberg said a local commemoration was in order, too.
“We just wanted to celebrate him directly,” she said.
Though she was unable to attend the Ossining celebration, Ferrer’s widow Stella Magee Ferrer was touched and honored by the Westchester event, Reynolds said.
Before marrying Magee Ferrer in 1977, the actor has previously wedded Uta Hagen, Phyllis Hill and, twice, Rosemary Clooney.
The event Thursday drew a small crowd, but among the half-dozen village residents who came to the post office to celebrate Ferrer were some committed fans.
Catherine Trocheck said she’s enjoyed Ferrer since his “Cyrano de Bergerac” performance and was happy to wait in line to buy his commemorative stamp on the first day it became available.
“Jose Ferrer was one of my favorite actors … and I’ve always liked him,” she said, holding a sheet of the stamps honoring the actor. “Knowing that we had such a wonderful person and such a wonderful actor living in our town, it makes us special.”
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
