ANTON WALBROOK

'Anton Walbrook' (November 19, 1896 - August 9, 1967) was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom.

Contents

Life

Selected films

In Austria and Germany

After leaving Germany

References

External links

Life

He was born 'Adolf Wohlbrück' in Vienna, Austria, descended from ten generations of actors. His father broke with tradition and was a circus clown. Walbrook studied with the director Max Reinhardt and built up a career in Austrian theatre and cinema.
In 1936 he went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the multinational ''The Soldier and the Lady'' (1937), in the process changing his name from Adolf to Anton. As a homosexual, his life in Austria was becoming intolerable under Nazi rule. Instead of returning he settled in England, and continued as working as a cinema actor. High points include the dashing, intense German officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff in ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943), the tyrannical impresario in ''The Red Shoes'' (1948) and the ringmaster in ''La Ronde'' (1950). One of his most unusual films is the 1948 ''Queen of Spades'', an odd, gothic thriller in which he co-starred with Edith Evans.
Co-star Moira Shearer said Walbrook was a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses and eating alone. He retired from films at the end of the 1950s, and in later years appeared on the European stage and television. He died of a heart attack in Garatshausen, Germany in 1967. His ashes were interred in the graveyard of St. John's Church, Hampstead, London, as he had wished in his testament.

Selected films

In Austria and Germany

★ ''Walzerkrieg'' (1933), aka ''Waltz Time in Vienna'' (1935)... as Johann Strauss.

★ ''Viktor und Viktoria'', aka ''Viktor and Viktoria'' (1933)

★ ''Die vertauschte Braut'' (1934)

★ ''Maskerade'', aka ''Masquerade in Vienna'' (1934)

★ ''Die englische Heirat'' (1934)

★ ''Der Student von Prag'', aka ''The Student of Prague'' (1935)

★ ''Ich war Jack Mortimer'' (1935)

★ ''Der Zigeunerbaron'' (1935)

★ ''Der Kurier des Zaren'' (1936)

★ ''Allotria'' (1936)

After leaving Germany

★ ''The Soldier and the Lady'' (1937)

★ ''Victoria the Great'' (1937)...as Prince Albert

★ ''Sixty Glorious Years'' (1938)...as Prince Albert

★ ''Gaslight'' (1940)

★ ''Dangerous Moonlight'' (1941)

★ ''Forty-Ninth Parallel'' (1941)

★ ''The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp'' (1943)

★ ''The Man from Morocco'' (1945)

★ ''The Red Shoes'' (1948)

★ ''The Queen of Spades'' (1949)

★ ''La Ronde'' (1950)

★ ''Le Plaisir'' (1952) narrator in German version

★ ''L'affaire Maurizius'' (1954)

★ ''Lola Montès'' (1955)...as King Ludwig I of Bavaria

★ ''Oh... Rosalinda!! (1955)

★ ''Saint Joan'' (1957)

★ ''I Accuse!'' (1958)...as Count Esterhazy

References

★ Moor, Andrew. 2001. Dangerous Limelight: Anton Walbrook and the Seduction of the English.

External links

★

★ . Biography & filmography

★ Anton Walbrook fan site

★ Photographs of Anton Walbrook