This page uses content from the Anton Walbrook biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

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

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, 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 chiller 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.

Selected films

In Austria

• Viktor und Viktoria, aka Viktor and Viktoria (1933)
• Walzerkrieg (1933), aka Waltz Time in Vienna (1935)... as Johann Strauss.
• Maskerade, aka Masquerade in Vienna (1934)
• Der Student von Prag, aka The Student of Prague (1935)

After leaving Austria

• 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 Red Shoes (1948)
• The Queen of Spades (1949)
• La Ronde (1950)
• 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

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