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Austrian, German and Swiss Film People in Hollywood (Part 5 - P-So)

Also see > An Introduction to how these people are selected
 

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G.W. Pabst (1885-1967)
Austrian director who only made one Hollywood picture, Modern Hero (1934). However, his influence stems more from his classic film work in Austria, France and Germany. His silents, including Joyless Streets (1925) and The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927), are still admired today. He is also known for his two films starring the American actress Louise Brooks and one of the first sound films, The Threepenny Opera/Die Dreigrosschenoper (1931).

There was a G.W. Pabst Retrospective at UCLA's James Bridges Theater, Jan. 24 - Feb. 7, 2004. It offered Pabst's films on the big screen. Films > THE MISTRESS OF ATLANTIS (1932), PANDORA'S BOX (1929), DIARY OF A LOST GIRL (1929), THE LAST TEN DAYS (Die letzte Akt, 1955), WESTFRONT 1918 (1930), THE THREEPENNY OPERA (1931), THE LOVE OF JEANNE NEY (1927, with live musical accompaniment), and others.
  > www.cinema.ucla.edu

Lilli Palmer (Lillie Marie Peiser, 1914-1986)
German actress who at one time was married to Rex Harrison. She arrived in Hollywood via France and England in 1945. Some of her films: Miracle of the White Stallions (1963), Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), The Boys from Brazil (1978), The Holcroft Covenant (1985). She was also featured in a 1958 German remake of Mädchen in Uniform (1931).

Wolfgang Petersen (1941- )
German director of Das Boot, Shattered, In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One and The Perfect Storm.

Franz Planer (1894-1963)
Austrian cinematographer: Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Criss Cross (1949), Roman Holiday (1953, Acad. Award nom.), The Caine Mutiny (1954), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961, Acad. Award nom.). After years in Berlin and Vienna, Planer began a long career in Hollywood, often working with other emigré directors from Austria and Germany. He received three Golden Globe awards and five Oscar nominations as director of photography. His last film, Something's Got to Give with Marilyn Monroe, remained uncompleted following the star's death in 1962.

Franka Potente (1974- )
German actress (Blow, Run Lola Run, The Bourne Identity)

Erich Pommer (1889-1966)
German producer ("The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari," Metropolis, Hotel Imperial, The Blue Angel). Pommer produced many of the great German silent classics for Ufa and had immense influence on the cinema world. From 1934 on he produced British and American films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Jamaica Inn (UK, 1939) and Music in the Air (US, 1934). Pommer became a US citizen in 1944 and served as American film chief in post-war Germany.

Ingo Preminger (1911- )
Austrian producer and brother of Otto Preminger (below). Ingo is perhaps best known for producing M.A.S.H. (1970), the film that inspired the long-running TV series. Ingo also produced The Salzburg Connection (1972) which featured the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer. He was the film agent for brother Otto and actor Paul Henried. Ingo returned to live in Austria in 1970.

Otto Preminger (1906-1986)
Austrian director, producer (Laura, Anatomy of a Murder, Exodus, The Cardinal, In Harm's Way, River of No Return). Preminger also acted in Stalag 17 and some other films. His brother, Ingo Preminger (above), was a film producer.

Jürgen Prochnow (1941- )
Berlin-born actor who got his big start as the submarine captain in Wolfgang Petersen's Das Boot (1981, US release 1982). Prochnow has also appeared in: Dune (1984), Beverly Hills Cop II (1987), Robin Hood (1991), Body of Evidence (1993), The Fire Next Time (1993), Judge Dredd (1995), The English Patient (1996), Air Force One (1997), See Arnold Run (TV, 2005, as Arnold Schwarzenegger), and The Celestine Prophecy (2005). For a full list of Prochnow's films see his IMDb page.

Andre Previn (1929- )
German composer, conductor and musician who won Academy Awards for Gigi, Porgy and Bess and Irma la Douce.

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Luise Rainer (1910- )
Born in Düsseldorf, Germany on Jan. 12, 1910, Luise Rainer had a short but distinguished Hollywood career. She won back-to-back Oscars for Best Actress in two Hollywood films: The Great Ziegfield (1936) and The Good Earth (1937, with Paul Muni). The Jewish Rainer worked with Max Reinhardt (see below) in Berlin and Vienna on the stage and in films before being forced to flee Nazi Germany for the United States in 1935. She became a U.S. citizen in 1940, but has resided in England for many years. She retired from films in the 1940s, but has made some screen and TV appearances over the years. Rainer was honored at the 75th Academy Awards in 2003 as a former Oscar winner. Web: Luise Rainer (IMDb)

Max Reinhardt (Maximilian Goldman, 1873-1943)
Reinhardt was born in Baden, Austria (near Vienna) on Sept. 8, 1873. He became Germany's greatest theater director and dramatic producer. Although his own film work was quite limited (his only US film was A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1935), he indirectly exerted great influence on German and world cinema. During Germany's cinematic “golden age,” Reinhardt was a mentor to almost every important Austrian and German film person – many of whom later ended up in Hollywood. Film directors Murnau, Lubitsch, Dieterle, Preminger, and others trained under Reinhardt, as did actors such as Dietrich, Jannings, Schildkraut and Veidt. Reinhardt owned and operated theaters in Austria and Germany, the most famous being Berlin's Deutsches Theater. Reinhardt's sons, Gottfried and Wolfgang, both worked as Hollywood producers.

Leni Riefenstahl (1902- )
German director, actress. Her pioneering documentary works (Triumph des Willens, Olympia) introduced film techniques that are still used today - slow motion, tracking shots, and more. Tainted by her Nazi connections, Riefenstahl was forced to turn to still photography after the war. - More about Riefenstahl.

Hugo Riesenfeld (1879-1939)
Relatively unknown Austrian film composer who came to America in 1907. Riesenfeld composed film scores for more than 70 movies, including several DeMille classic silents (which always had musical accompaniment).

Sigmund Romberg (1887-1951)
Austrian composer of light operettas ("The Student Prince") and film scores.

Philip E. Rosen (1888-1951)
German director, born in Marienburg, East Prussia (now Malbork, Poland). Rosen came to the US while young. He directed several major US films in the silent era, including Abraham Lincoln (1924). Prior to that he had been the cameraman for several Theda Bara productions. Rosen's career in the sound era was limited to mostly B-movies.

Heinz Rühmann (1902-1994)
Rühmann made over 100 movies in Germany but only one in Hollywood: Ship of Fools (1965). Active almost until his death, Rühmann's last film appearance was in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1993). He was criticized by some for continuing to work during the Nazi era in Germany, but he played a Jewish victim (Löwenthal) in Ship of Fools.

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Felix Salten (Siegmund Salzmann, 1869-1945)
Austrian author of Bambi: A Life In The Woods (1923), Bambi's Children and other animal tales. Few fans of Disney's Bambi (1942) have ever heard of Salten, who was living in Switzerland at the time of his death, three years after the release of the animated classic.

Hans J. Salter (1896- )
Austrian film music composer and music director. Salter came to the United States in 1937 and composed scores for some 150 Hollywood movies.

Maria Schell (Margarete Schell, 1926- )
Austrian-Swiss actress. Her brother Maximilian Schell (below), as well as other siblings are also actors. Like Maximilian, Maria was born in Vienna, but her family went to Switzerland after the Anschluss of 1938. Maria has appeared in only a few Hollywood films - The Bothers Karamazov (1957), The Hanging Tree (1958), Cimarron (1960) - and has acted in some US and European television productions and TV movies, but her last appearance was in 1980. She is married to the Austrian director Veit Relin and currently has homes in Bavaria and Austria.

Maximilian Schell (1930- )
Austrian-Swiss actor, director, producer. Although born in Vienna, Austria, Schell's family left Austria for Switzerland after Hitler's 1938 Anschluss, and Maximilian was raised in Switzerland. In his first Hollywood role Schell played a German officer in The Young Lions (1958). He received an Oscar three years later for his powerful portrayal of a defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg. Several of Schell's siblings are also actors, most notably sister Maria Schell. Although he still acts in an occasional film, in the latter part of his career Schell has devoted his energies mostly to producing and directing. He directed and produced Marlene (1986), a documentary about Marlene Dietrich in which the German actress refused to appear on camera. Some of his other films as an actor: Topkapi (1964), Krakatoa East of Java (1969), The Odessa File (1974), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Julia (1977), The Black Hole (1979), and The Freshman (1990).

Carl Schenkel (1948- )
The director of Tarzan and the Lost City (1998) and other films, was born in Switzerland. He started a career as a journalist in Frankfurt, Germany before ending up filming commercials and eventually full-length features. - WEB LINK > IMDb link for Schenkel

Josef Schildkraut (1895-1964)
Austrian actor whose films include Cleopatra (1930), Mr. Moto Takes a Vacation (1938), The Life of Emile Zola (1937, best actor Oscar), The Three Musketeers (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), The Diary of Anne Frank (1959), and The Greatest Story Ever Told (1964). Schildkraut also appeared in many TV productions from 1949 to 1963. His father, Rudolf Schildkraut (1862-1930) appeared on the stage and in films both in Germany and the US. Book: Josef Schildkraut's autobiography - My Father and I (1959).   > Find This Book at Alibris.com

Volker Schlöndorff (1939- )
German director of the award-winning Die Blechtrommel/The Tin Drum (1979, Golden Palm, Oscar for Best Foreign-Language Film). He has directed several television movies for the US market. His best-known English-language production is The Handmaid's Tale (1990), a feminist sci-fi film that received mixed reviews. His more recent Hollywood English-language film work includes Palmetto (1998). Schlöndorff was born in Wiesbaden on March 31, 1939. He is married to the German actress, screenwriter, and film director Margarethe von Trotta. Schlöndorff is also a co-director of the former UFA/DEFA studios south of Berlin now known as Studio Babelsberg.

Romy Schneider (Rosemarie Magdalena Albach, 1938-1982)
Austrian actress who first became popular in the so-called “Sissi” films (1950s, Austria). She appeared in several Hollywood films of the 1960s: The Cardinal (1963, filmed in Vienna and directed by fellow Austrian Otto Preminger), Good Neighbor Sam (1964, with Jack Lemmon and Edward G. Robinson), What's New, Pussycat? (1965, with Peter Sellers and Ursula Andress; Woody Allen's first acting appearance), Bloodline (1979). Schneider, whom Walt Disney once called “the most beautiful girl in the world,” died relatively young of heart failure in Paris, where she had teamed up with French director Claude Sautet. During the '70s Schneider appeared primarily in European films. > More…

Eugen Schüfftan (1893-1977)
German-American cinematographer and inventor of the “Schüfftan process” for optical special effects, used until it was replaced by the simpler matte method. Camera work: Menschen am Sonntag (1929), The Hustler (1961, Acad. Award), Lilith (1964).

Reinhold Schünzel (1886-1954)
German director and actor. After a long career in Germany that included directing and writing the screenplay for Viktor und Viktoria (1933, remade by Blake Edwards in 1982), Schünzel came to the US in 1938. In Hollywood he acted (Hangmen Also Die, The Hitler Gang, Notorious, Golden Earrings, Berlin Express) and directed (Rich Man Poor Girl, Ice Follies of 1939, New Wine).

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947- )
Austrian-American actor, producer, director and former Mr. Universe who made his first two pictures under the name Arnold Strong — Hercules in New York (1970) and The Long Goodbye (1973). Born in Thal bei Graz on July 30, 1947, Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen in 1983. Some of his films: Conan the Barbarian (1982), The Terminator (1984), Red Sonja (1985), Predator (1987), Twins (1988), Total Recall (1990), Kindergarten Cop (1990), Terminator 2 (1991), The Last Action Hero (1993), True Lies (1994), Junior (1994), Eraser (1996) and Batman and Robin (1997). > More…

Bodo Scriba (1939- )
German film financier. Scriba, who was born in Hamburg, has financed several major Hollywood film packages in recent years, one of the largest being a 12-picture deal for Michael Douglas and Paramount. Before striking out on his own, Scriba negotiated media deals for the German media king Leo Kirch.

Curt Siodmak (1902-2001)
German screenwriter for B-movies and classic monster movies such as The Wolf Man (1941), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943) and Son of Dracula (1943). He also wrote scripts for Berlin Express (1948) and Tarzan's Magic Fountain (1948). Siodmak both wrote and directed Bride of the Gorilla (1951), Love Slaves of the Amazon (1957) and few other films. Born in Dresden on August 10, 1902, Siodmak began his film-writing career with Billy Wilder, along with brother Robert (below) on the film Menschen am Sonntag in Berlin. He went to Hollywood in 1938. Curt Siodmak also wrote the horror novel Donovan's Brain (filmed three times, the last in 1965 as a German-British coproduction called The Brain) and other stories that were adapted for the screen. (Also see the Tarzan Connection.)

Robert Siodmak (1900-1973)
German director and brother of Curt above. Although born in Memphis, Tenn., Robert grew up and was educated in Germany. He began his film career at the German UFA studios in 1925. His better Hollywood films include the film noir Phantom Lady (1944), Criss Cross (1949) and The Crimson Pirate (1952). See the new biography: Robert Siodmak: A Biography, with Critical Analyses of His Films Noirs and a Filmography by Deborah Lazaroff Alpi on our Film Books page.

Douglas Sirk (Claus Detlef Sierck, 1900- )
Danish-German director who left his native Denmark in his teens to work in the film industry of Weimar Germany. He fled Germany in 1939 and began directing at Universal. Sirk's films (many starring Rock Hudson) include: All That Heaven Allows (1955, remade in German in 1974 by Rainer Werner Fassbinder), Magnificent Obsession (1954), Written on the Wind (1956, considered Sirk's best film), and Imitation of Life (1959). Poor health forced Sirk to retire after making Imitation of Life and he returned to settle in Germany.

Walter Slezak (1902-1982)
Austrian actor born in Vienna. The son of Leo Slezack (1873-1946) was discovered by Michael Curtiz in Austria, where he played leading and character roles. In Hollywood, as was so typical, Slezack became typecast as a heavy with an accent. In Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944) he played an evil German captain. In Bedtime for Bonzo (1950) he was a bumbling idiot. He had better luck with his work on Broadway and in television. Slezack won a Tony in 1955 for his role in the musical “Fanny.” Other films: Sinbad the Sailor (1947), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), and Disney's Emil and the Detectives (1964).

Elke Sommer (Elke Schletz, 1940- )
Sommer, the daughter of a Lutheran minister, was born in Berlin. She played a blonde, teutonic-looking sexpot in numerous US and European films of the 1960s and '70s. Far from the stereotypical “dumb blonde,” Sommer speaks several languages, and she was a popular guest on TV talk shows because of her bright wit and conversational ability. In fact, she originally planned a career as a diplomatic interpreter before she went into modeling and then her film career. Sommer married writer Joe Hyams in 1964. Her films include: Love Italian Style (Italy, 1960), The Prize (1963), A Shot in the Dark (1964), Boy Did I Get a Wrong Number (1966), The Venetian Affair (1967), The Wrecking Crew (1969), Zeppelin (1971), and Severed Ties (1992). More…

Josef Sommer (Maximilian Josef Sommer, 1934- )
Born in Greifswald, Germany, Sommer came to the US as a youth. He has played important character roles in major Hollywood productions, beginning with Dirty Harry in 1971. He was the narrator in Sophie's Choice (1982). His other films include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Reds (1981), Silkwood (1983), Witness (1985), The Rosary Murders (1987), and The Mighty Ducks (1992).

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