His other notable film roles include Charles VII in Joan of Arc (1948), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in Moulin Rouge (1952), defense attorney Barney Greenwald in The Caine Mutiny (1954), Alfred Dreyfus in I Accuse!

(1958), which he also directed; the Turkish Bey in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Siegfried Rieber in Ship of Fools (1965), and Emperor Shaddam IV in Dune (1984).

In 1933, Ferrer completed his bachelor's degree in architecture at Princeton University, where he wrote his senior thesis on "French Naturalism and Pardo Bazán".

Ferrer had a huge personal success in the title role of Charley's Aunt (1940–41), partly in drag, under the direction of Joshua Logan.

At the City Center, he acted in revivals of Angel Street (1948) and The Alchemist (1948) and directed S. S. Glencairn (1948) and The Insect Comedy (1948) (also appearing in the latter).

Ferrer returned to Hollywood to appear in Otto Preminger's Whirlpool (1950), supporting Gene Tierney, and Richard Brooks' Crisis (1950), opposite Cary Grant.

Ferrer then played the title role in Cyrano de Bergerac (1950), directed by Michael Gordon and produced by Stanley Kramer.

[13] Ferrer returned to Broadway for a revival of Twentieth Century (1950–51) which he directed and starred in, opposite Gloria Swanson; it went for 233 performances.

[18] Ferrer briefly revived some of his shows at the City Centre in 1953: Cyrano, The Shrike, Richard III, Charley's Aunt.

[21] Ferrer made his debut as film director at Universal with an adaptation of The Shrike (1955), in which he also starred opposite June Allyson.

He went to England to star in and direct a war film for Warwick Productions, The Cockleshell Heroes (1955), alongside Trevor Howard; it was a success at the British box office.

The show, which starred Shirley Booth, folded after 16 performances and mixed to extremely negative critical reaction.

Around this time, Ferrer also appeared in television in episodes of General Electric Theater and The United States Steel Hour.

Back in Hollywood, Ferrer played Herod Antipas in The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) and was in Ship of Fools (1965) for Stanley Kramer.

A notable performance of his later stage career was as Miguel de Cervantes and his fictional creation Don Quixote in the hit musical Man of La Mancha.

[29] Ferrer directed The Web and the Rock (1972) on stage in New York and appeared in The Marcus-Nelson Murders (1973), Orson Welles Great Mysteries (1973), and Columbo.

Around 1973, he narrated A Touch of Royalty, a documentary on the life and death of Puerto Rico's baseball star Roberto Clemente.

Ferrer voiced a highly truncated cartoon version of Cyrano for an episode of The ABC Afterschool Special in 1974.

(1976), The Sentinel (1977), Zoltan, Hound of Dracula (1977), Exo-Man (1977), Who Has Seen the Wind (1977), The Rhinemann Exchange, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover (1977), Fedora (1978) from Billy Wilder, The Amazing Captain Nemo (1978) (in the title role), and The Swarm.

He was in The Fifth Musketeer (1979), The Concorde ... Airport '79 (1979), Natural Enemies (1979), The French Atlantic Affair (1979), A Life of Sin, a 1979 film by Puerto Rican director Efraín López Neris which also starred Raul Julia, Míriam Colón and Henry Darrow, and Battles: The Murder That Wouldn't Die (1980).

He also appeared in Battle Creek Brawl (1980), Pleasure Palace (1980), The Dream Merchants (1980), Magnum, P.I., Evita Peron (1981), Berlin Tunnel 21 (1981), Peter and Paul (1981) with Anthony Hopkins, Bloody Birthday (1981), Woody Allen's A Midsummer Night's Sex Comedy (1982) (a classy yet somewhat antagonistic university professor/author whose booming voice both begins and ends the film), Blood Tide (1982), Blood Feud (1982), This Girl for Hire (1983), The Being (1983) and Mel Brooks's version of To Be or Not to Be (1983).

[31] He guest-starred on Quincy, M.E., Another World, Fantasy Island, Hotel, The Love Boat, Bridges to Cross, and Murder, She Wrote.

He was the Emperor in Dune (1984) and was in Hitler's SS: Portrait in Evil (1985), Seduced (1985), Covenant (1985), Blood & Orchids (1986), Young Harry Houdini, and The Wind in the Willows (1987).

Although not the original actor to play the character, Ferrer, beginning in the third season, had a recurring role as Julia Duffy's WASPy father in the long-running television series Newhart in the 1980s.

Ferrer's final performances include The Sun and the Moon (1987), American Playhouse ("Strange Interlude" with Kenneth Branagh), Mother's Day (1989), Matlock, Hired to Kill (1990), Old Explorers (1990) and The Perfect Tribute.

Ferrer died of colorectal cancer in Coral Gables, Florida, on January 26, 1992, 18 days after his 80th birthday, and was interred in Santa María Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in Old San Juan in his native Puerto Rico.