In 1936, listed as Joseph Alexandre Fabre – artist, aged 27, race French, nationality Egyptian – he sailed to New York as a first class passenger on the SS Île de France.

He eventually left New York for Hollywood where he started by playing supporting roles in several films in the late 1930s, including The Prisoner of Zenda, Stolen Holiday, and The Awful Truth (all 1937).

In 1953, he was one of the suitors of Marilyn Monroe's character in How to Marry a Millionaire and featured in Abdulla the Great and Soldier of Fortune in 1955.

Evidently a favorite of such cult directors as Roger Corman, Russ Meyer and Sam Fuller, D'Arcy was seen in Corman's The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), Meyer's The Seven Minutes (1971) and Fuller's Dead Pigeon on Beethoven Street (1972[1] or 1974[2] TV movie).

Throughout his life, D’Arcy split his time between his homes in the United States and Europe.