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 F i l m P e o p l e A - L
Austrian, German and Swiss Film People in Hollywood (Part I - A-L)
Also see > An Introduction to how these people are selected
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Austrians, Germans and Swiss in Hollywood
A
Ken Adam (Klaus Hugo Adam, 1921- ) - German production designer who is responsible for the look of over 80 British and Hollywood films, particularly the first seven James Bond movies. Other films: Dr. Strangelove (1964), Funeral in Berlin (1966), and Barry Lyndon (1975). WEB > The Art of Ken Adam
Percy Adlon (1935- ) - German director
Mario Adorf (1930- ) - German actor
Paul Andor (Wolfgang Zilzer, 1901-1991) - German actor
Ursula Andress (1936- ) - Swiss-American actress
Sig Arno (Siegfried Aron, 1895-1975) - German actor
Leon Askin (Leon Aschkenasy, 1907-2005) - Austrian actor: One, Two, Three (1961), “Hogan's Heroes” (TV), The Perils of Pauline (1967), and Young Frankenstein (1974).
Fred Astaire (Frederick Austerlitz, 1899-1987) - Austrian-American actor most famous for his dancing roles.
Mary Astor (Lucille V. Langhanke, 1906- ) - American actress.
Thomas Kretschmann as Kapitän
Wilm Hosenfeld in THE PIANIST (2002)
See his info below under "K"!
PHOTO: Focus Films
B
Lauren Bacall (Betty Perske, 1924- ) - American actress of German-Jewish heritage.
Michael Ballhaus (1935- ) - German cameraman who has had great success in Hollywood.
Bambi (1926) - See Felix Salten for more about the Austrian author of the children's classic.
John Banner (1910-1973) - Austrian-American actor ("Hogan's Heroes").
Lex Barker (1919-1973) - One of 17 Tarzans, Barker later became best known in Germany for his Karl May western films in the 1960s.
Albert Bassermann (1867-1952) - German actor
Vicki Baum (Hedwig Baum, 1888-1960) - Austrian author of Grand Hotel (Menschen im Hotel), the basis for the play and 1932 film of the same title. She came to the US in 1933 and wrote in English after 1941.
Senta Berger (1941- ) - Austrian actress.
Theodore Bikel (1924- ) - Austrian actor
Betty Boop (1931-1939 ) was created by the Austrian-born cartoonist Max Fleischer (1883-1972).
Curt Bois (1901-1991) - German actor whose long career included Casablanca (1942) and Wings of Desire (1988).
Eric Braeden (Hans Gudegast, b. 3 April 1941 in Kiel) - German actor who came to the US in 1959. Although he has acted in movies (Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo, Titanic, Meet the Deedles), Braeden is best known for his TV roles, notably as Victor Newman in the long-running soap "The Young and the Restless."
John Brahm (Hans Julius Brahm, 1893-1982) - German director born in Hamburg. Brahms began his Hollywood career in 1940. After the collapse of the Hollywood studio system, he worked chiefly in TV. He was married to German actress Dolly Haas until their divorce in 1943. Some of his films: Escape to Glory (1940), The Locket (1946), The Brasher Doubloon (1947).
Klaus Maria Brandauer (1944- ) - Austrian actor.
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956) - German poet, playwright, screenwriter.
Felix Bressart (1890-1949) - German actor.
Louise Brooks (1906-1985) - American actress who had her biggest success in Germany (Pandora's Box).
Frederick (Fritz) Brunn (b. 23 July 1903 in Vienna) - Austrian cinematographer, actor. Played small roles in various Hollywood anti-Nazi films. Films: The Moon Is Down, The Cross of Lorraine, and Passage to Marseilles (all 1943). See WANTED for more information.
Horst Buchholz (1932-2003) - German actor. Magnificent Seven (1960), One Two Three (1961), Faraway So Close (1993). See photo of Buchholz on the Billy Wilder page.
Sandra Bullock (1964- ) - German-American actress. Films: Prince of Egypt (voice), Speed, Speed 2, The Net, While You Were Sleeping, and Miss Congeniality. Sandra Annette Bullock was born in Arlington, Virginia. Her father is originally from Alabama. Her mother, Helga Meyer, is an opera singer from Nuremberg, Germany. Bullock's childhood was spent between the US and Europe. She speaks German.
C
Bernt Capra (1934- ) - Austrian art director, set designer
Paul Christian (Paul Hubschmid, 1917-2001) - Swiss-born actor
Mady Christians (1900-1951) - Austrian actress
Harry Cohn (1891-1958) - German-American film mogul. Born to German-Jewish parents in New York City, Cohn, his brother Jack (1889-1956), and partner Joe Brandt founded C.B.C. Films in 1920, later Columbia Pictures.
Albert Conti (Albert de Conti Cedassamare, 1887-1967) - Austrian actor born in Trieste (now in Italy) who appeared in many silent and sound Hollywood films from 1923 to 1942, including Morocco (1930) with Marlene Dietrich.
Ricardo Cortez (Jacob Krantz, 1899-1977) - Austrian actor, director
Michael Curtiz (Mihaly Kertész, 1888-1962) - Hungarian director best known for his classic Casablanca (1942).
D
Helmut Dantine (Helmut Guttmann, 1917-1982) - Austrian actor who appeared in Mrs. Miniver, Casablanca and other Hollywood films.
Elfi von Dassanowsky (1924- ) - Austrian film studio founder, producer.
Doris Day (Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff, 1924- ; some bios claim she was born in 1922) - American film actress and TV personality born in the Cincinnati suburb of Evanston, Ohio in her family's house, "attended by a good German midwife." Both her parents were children of German immigrants. (Her maternal grandfather Welz came from Berlin.) Despite being Catholics, Doris' parents separated over William von Kappelhoff's extramarital affair when Doris was eleven, and later divorced. In the 1940s in California, the singer began to use the stage name Doris Day. She was a popular singer in the big band era. She made her first Hollywood film in 1948 (Michael Curtiz' Romance on the High Seas). She made her last film in 1968 and then turned to television. No longer active in show business, Day is now an animal advocate and founder of the Doris Day Animal League.
Lya De Putti (1901-1931) - Hungarian actress who worked in Germany and later in Hollywood.
Paul Dessau (1894-1979) - German film music composer born in Hamburg. Early work with music for silent films, later for sound. The Jewish composer left Germany in 1933 and six years later he arrived in New York after working with other German exiles in Paris. His Hollywood films include The Paradine Case (1947, uncredited), Ruthless (1948), and Joan of Arc (1948, uncredited). In 1949 he returned to Germany (East Berlin).
Leonardo DiCaprio - German-American actor (Gangs of New York, Titanic, What's Eating Gilbert Grape?)
William Dieterle (1893-1972) - German director
Marlene Dietrich (1902-1992) is the German-American actress famous for films such as Blue Angel, Destry Rides Again and Witness for the Prosecution.
Anton Diffring (Alfred Pollack, 1918-1989) - German actor typecast as nasty Nazis in many films, including Where Eagles Dare, The Heroes of Telemark and The Colditz Story. He also appeared in Fahrenheit 451.
George Dolenz (George Michael Dolentz, 1908-1963) - Austrian restauranteur and actor who appeared in films in the 1950s and '60s, including Sign of the Pagan, Vendetta, and the 1955 TV series "The Count of Monte Cristo." Dolenz was born in Trieste, Austria (now Italy) on Jan. 5, 1908. He came to the U.S. in the 1920s. Micky Dolenz of the Monkees is his son. WEB > George - Dolenz-Tribute.net
Micky Dolenz (George Michael Dolentz, Jr., 1945- ) - Son of George Dolenz (above), one of the former Monkees. WEB > Dolenz-Tribute.net
Ludwig Donath (1900-1967) - Austrian actor (Torn Curtain).
Peggy Drake (Liesl Lotte Mayer, b. 6 Oct. 1921 in Vienna) - Austrian actress (The Tuttles of Tahaiti, 1942). After 1944 she was no longer active in films. She now lives in California.
Carl Dreher (b. 1896 in Vienna) Head of the RKO sound department. Story credit for The Crime of Dr. Hallet (1938) starring Ralph Bellamy. Member of MPAAS.
Hans Dreier (1885-1966) - German-born art director at Paramount. Academy Awards for his set designs for Frenchman's Creek (1949), Samson and Delilah (1949), and Sunset Boulevard (1950).
Ernest Dryden (Ernst Deutsch-Dryden, 1887-1938) - Austrian costume designer.
Kirsten Dunst (b. 1982 in Point Pleasant, NJ) - German-American actress. Her father, Klaus Dunst, is German. Films include: Wimbledon (2004), Spiderman 2 (2004), Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), Spiderman (2002), The Virgin Suicides (1999).
E.A. Dupont (Ewald Andre Dupont, 1891-1956) - German director.
E
Uli Edel (1947- ) - German director
Bernd Eichinger (1949- ) - German producer
Hanns Eisler (1898-1962) - German film music composer
Lotte Eisner (1896-1983) - German film historian, best known for her works on Fritz Lang, F.W. Murnau and her book on film Expressionism, "The Haunted Screen."
Roland Emmerich (1955- ) is the German director of Godzilla, Independence Day, Stargate, and The Patriot
Ute Emmerich (1961- ) is the sister of Roland Emmerich. She has served as producer or executive producer on most of her brother's films and is president of their Centropolis Entertainment company.
Volker Engel - German special effects director for Godzilla (1998), Independence Day (1996). (See Roland Emmerich)
Carl Esmond (Willy Eichberger, 1905- ) - Austrian-born actor who appeared in British and American films: Sergent York (1941), Ministry of Fear (1944), From the Earth to the Moon (1958), Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966), and others.
Peter van Eyck (Götz von Eick, 1913-1969) - German actor and musician who left Germany in 1933 and became a U.S. citizen in 1943. Some of his films: The Bridge at Remagen (1969), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), The Longest Day (1962), Tarzan's Hidden Jungle (1955), The Desert Fox (1951), Five Graves to Cairo (1943), The Moon Is Down (1943).
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F
Douglas Fairbanks (Douglas Elton Ulman, 1883-1939) - American actor of the silent era. Son was Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (1909- ).
Peter Falk (1927- ) - American actor. Well-known in Germany as the TV detective "Columbo," Falk also appeared as himself in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin/Wings of Desire (1987).
Rudi Fehr (1911-1999) - German film editor born in Berlin. Fehr worked in the German film industry until the Nazi takeover forced him to flee to Britain and later the U.S. In Hollywood after 1937, Fehr worked for many years at Warner Bros. as the head of post-production. He edited two Hitchcock films and shared an Academy Award with his daughter, Kaja Fehr, for their editing of Prizzi's Honor in 1985.
Max Fleischer (1883-1972) - Austrian cartoonist, animator ("Betty Boop"). Father of director Richard Fleischer.
Richard Fleischer (1916- ) - Austrian-American director.
Christopher Franke (1953- ) - Berlin-born film music composer.
William Fox (Wilhelm Fuchs, 1879-1952) founded 20th Century Fox.
Karl Freund (1890-1969) - Significant Austrian-American cameraman (Dracula).
Hugo Wilhelm Friedhofer (1901-1981) Film music composer born in San Francisco. His father was a cellist trained in Dresden, Germany; his mother, Eva König, was born in Germany. Because he could speak German, Warner Bros. assigned Friedhofer to work with the Austrian composers Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Max Steiner. Despite his own strong skills, he remained in their shadow for many years. Friedhofer won an Academy Award for his score for The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). WEB > Ein Gigant im Schatten von Zwergen (Cinemusic.de - in German)
Gert Fröbe (Frober, 1912-1988) - German actor (Goldfinger).
G
Clark Gable (1901-1960) American film actor born in Cadiz, Ohio. Both Gable's mother (Adeline Hershelman) and father (William H. Gable) had German ancestors (Frankenfield, Hershelman, and Haupt) who had settled in Pennsylvania. Despite unfounded claims found all over the Web, it is a myth that Gable's name was once spelled "Goebel." No one in Clark Gable's family tree ever had a German version of the Gable surname, going back at least five generations to 1790.
Bruno Ganz (1941- ) - Swiss-German actor who has appeared in many Wim Wenders films, including Wings of Desire (1987).
Rudi Gernreich (1922-1985) - Austrian fashion and costume designer.
H.R. Giger (1940- ) - Swiss art director, set designer (Alien, Species).
Ernest Gold (Ernst Goldner, 1921- ) - Austrian film composer
Samuel Goldwyn (Goldfish, 1882-1974) was a co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).
Thomas Gottschalk (“Thommy,” 1950- ) - Popular German TV “Showmaster” and movie actor who is virtually unknown in the U.S., although he lives in southern California. His few Hollywood films to date: Driving Me Crazy (1991), Sister Act II (1993) and Ring of the Musketeer (1993).
H
Dolly Haas (Dorothy Clara Louise Haas, 1910-1994) - German actress (I Confess, 1953, Broken Blossoms, 1936) who was married to German director John Brahm and later to the famous American caricaturist Al Hirschfeld (1903-2003). Although Haas was born and raised in Hamburg, her mother, Margarethe, was Austrian. Her father, Charles Oswald Haas, was British.
David Hasselhoff (1952- ) - American actor known primarily for his roles in the TV series "Knight Rider" and "Baywatch." But he is best known in Austria and Germany, even as a singer.
O.E. Hasse (1903-1978) - German actor/director (full name: Otto Eduard Hasse) who had worked primarily on the stage before beginning his film work. His English-language films (as actor) include The Big Lift (1950), Decision Before Dawn (1951), Hitchcock's I Confess (1953) and Betrayed (1954). Hasse also dubbed the German voices for Humphrey Bogart and other Hollywood actors.
Ullrich Haupt (1887-1931) - German-born actor whose Hollywood work was mostly in the silent era. His sound films included Du Barry, Woman of Passion and Morocco (both 1930). His son, Ullrich Haupt, Jr. (1915-1991), was born in Chicago but went to Germany after his father's accidental death in a hunting accident, and was a film, stage, and TV actor there.
Brigitte Helm played the sexy robot Maria in Fritz Lang's Metropolis.
Paul Henreid (Paul George Julius von Hernried, 1908-1992) - Austrian-American actor, director. Played Ingrid Bergman's husband in Casablanca.
"Herbie" the Volkswagen first appeared in The Love Bug in 1969.
Werner Richard Heymann (1896-1950) - German film music composer
Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980) - British-born director who learned valuable lessons while working in Germany during the silent era
Michael Hoenig (1952- ) - German film music composer
Frederick Hollander (Friedrich Holländer, 1896-1976) - German film music composer.
Oskar Homolka (1898-1978) - Austrian actor
Paul Hubschmid (1917-2001) - Swiss-born actor who used the name Paul Christian in Hollywood
J
Emil Jannings (1884-1950) - German actor (born in Switzerland, raised in Germany) who won the very first Academy Award (1927-28) for Best Actor.
Curd Jürgens (1915-1982) - German/Austrian actor.
Nathan H. Juran (Nathan Hertz, 1907-2002) - Austrian-born director (films and TV), art director, former architect. Films (as director): The Black Castle (1952), Hellcats of the Navy (1957), The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The Boy Who Cried Werewolf (1973), and others. Received Oscar for set design on How Green Was My Valley (1941)
Walter Jurmann (1903-1971) - Austrian composer of film music and popular songs ("San Francisco," "Someone to Care for Me")
Whatever happened to...? WANTED: Information about missing Austrian film people. If you know something about the people listed on our Missing List, author Rudolf Ulrich and I would be most grateful for any help.
K
Lily Kann (1898-1978) - German actress who had minor roles in many Hollywood films, including The Third Man (1949), I Was a Male War Bride (1949), Betrayed (1955), and Whirlpool (1957).
Anton Karas (1906-1985) - Austrian musician and composer (THE THIRD MAN).
Kurt Kasznar (Serwischer, 1913-1979) - Austrian actor born in Vienna. Films: KISS ME KATE (1953), A FAREWELL TO ARMS (1957), 55 DAYS AT PEKING (1963), CASINO ROYALE (1967) and others.
Marthe Keller - Swiss actress born in Basel (28 Jan. 1945) who appeared in Billy Wilder's FEDORA (1978) as the title character. Keller has also appeared in many European films and TV productions. Since 1999 she has directed operas, including Mozart's "Don Giovanni" at the Metropolitan Opera in 2004. She now lives in Paris. Other Hollywood films: BOBBY DEERFIELD (1976), MARATHON MAN (1976), BLACK SUNDAY (1977), THE FORMULA (1980).
Udo Kier (Udo Kierspe, b. 14 Oct. 1944) - German actor who has a huge body of work in European and Hollywood cinema since 1966. His Hollywood films include: My Own Private Idaho, Barb Wire, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Blade, and End of Days.
Klaus Kinski (Claus Günther Nakszynski, 1926-1991) - German actor. Father of Nastassja (below). Autobiography: Kinski Uncut.
Nastassja Kinski (1960- ) - German actress.
Werner Klemperer (1920- ) - German actor, musician.
Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) - Austrian film music composer.
Fritz Kortner (Fritz Nathan Kohn, 1892-1970) - Austrian actor, director.
Henry Koster (Hermann Kosterlitz, 1905- ) - German director.
Siegfried Kracauer (1889-1966) - German-American film historian.
Thomas Kretschmann (1962- ) - East-German-born actor who escaped to the West in the early 1980s and made his German film debut in 1989. His starring role in Joseph Vilsmaier's STALINGRAD brought him international attention. His first Hollywood film was U-571 (2000). Kretschmann now lives in Los Angeles. Selected films: BLADE II (2002), THE PIANIST (2002), RESIDENT EVIL (2004), THE CELESTINE PROPHECY (2005). More about Kretschmann's films at IMDb.
Diane Kruger (Heidkrüger, 1976- ) - German-born actress who appears as Helen in Wolfgang Petersen's TROY (2004). She has lived in Paris for many years and acted in French films. She married French actor Guillaume Canet (THE BEACH) in 2001.
Hardy Krüger (1928- ) - German actor
Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934)
featured Peter Lorre in one of his first sound pictures.
PHOTO: Gaumont British Picture Corp.
L
Carl Laemmle (1867-1939) was the German founder of Universal studios
Hedy Lamarr (Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, 1913-2000) - Austrian actress Louis B. Mayer once dubbed “the most beautiful girl in the world.” And she had brains too!
Fritz Lang (1890-1976) was the Austrian director of Metropolis and Ministry of Fear.
Henry (Pathé) Lehrman (1886-1946) - Austrian director who worked with Max Sennet.
Paul Leni (1885-1929) - German director, art director.
Lotte Lenya (Karoline Blamauer, 1900-1981) - Austrian actress (From Russia With Love)
Karl Walter Lindenlaub (1957- ) - German cinematographer: Independence Day, Stargate, Maid in Manhattan.
Marcus Loew (1870-1927) was a co-founder of MGM studios and the Loew's theater chain.
Frederick Loewe (1901-1988) - Austrian composer (Lerner and Loewe)
Peter Lorre (Laszlo Löwenstein, 1904-1964) was the Austrian actor in The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) - German-American director, producer famous for "the Lubitsch Touch."
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