Anton Walbrook

Infobox actor
bgcolour =
name = Anton Walbrook

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imagesize = 250px
caption = Anton Walbrook as Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff, in the duel scene from "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp"
birthname = Adolf Anton Wilhelm Wohlbrück
birthdate = birth date|1896|11|19|df=yes
location = Vienna, Austria
flagicon|Austria
deathdate = death date and age|1967|08|9|1896|11|19|df=yes (heart attack)
deathplace = Garatshausen, Bavaria, Germany
occupation = Actor
spouse =

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 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. With the rise of oppression in Nazi Germany, instead of returning to Austria, 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. [Commentary track on Criterion DVD of The Red Shoes] 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.

elected filmography

In Austria and Germany

* "Walzerkrieg" (1933), aka "Waltz Time in Vienna", 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" (1935), aka "The Student of Prague"
* "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 Major Esterhazy

References

Notes

Bibliography

*Andrew Moor, "Dangerous Limelight: Anton Walbrook and the Seduction of the English" (2001)

External links

*
*. Biography & filmography
* [http://antonwalbrook.co.uk Anton Walbrook fan site]
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=277 Photographs of Anton Walbrook]