Curt Bois

Curt Bois
Curt Bois (left) with Fritz Kortner in the Berlin Schillertheater (1959)
Born	April 5, 1901(1901-04-05) Berlin, Germany
Died	December 25, 1991(1991-12-25) (aged 90) Berlin, Germany
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1907–1987

Curt Bois (April 5, 1901 – December 25, 1991) was a German actor. He is best remembered for his performance as the Pickpocket in Casablanca (1942).

Bois was born in Berlin and began acting in 1907, becoming one of the film world's first child actors, with a role in the silent movie Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß. In 1909, he played the title role in Der Kleine Detektiv ('The Little Detective').

Bois' acting career spanned eighty years, a longer period than can be claimed by any other actor. His final performance was in 1987's Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire). Bois performed in theatre, cabaret, musicals, silent film and "talkies" over his career as an actor.

In 1934, Bois was forced to leave his home for the United States, where he found work on stage on Broadway. By 1937, he had found his way to Hollywood, and began acting in American pictures, the best-known of which was Casablanca (1942), with a single speech warning about pickpockets as "vultures everywhere". After World War II Bois decided it was safe to return to Germany, which he did in 1950. He finished his life and career in Germany, first in the East, and finally in the West. Bois died in Berlin, the city of his birth, at the age of ninety.

Partial filmography

• Tovarich (1937)¹
• The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938)
• The Great Waltz (1938)
• Hullabaloo (1940)
• Bitter Sweet (1940)
• That Night in Rio (1941)
• Hold Back the Dawn (1941)
• Casablanca (1942)
• Princess O'Rourke (1943)
• The Desert Song (1943)
• Cover Girl (1944)
• Saratoga Trunk (1945)
• The Spanish Main (1945)
• Arch of Triumph (1948)
• The Woman in White (1948)
• Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950)
• The Boat Is Full (1981)
• Wings of Desire (1987)

¹ American film debut.

External links

• Curt Bois at the Internet Movie Database
• Curt Bois biography from Thomas Staedeli's index of German film stars and filmmakers from 1903–1945
• Photographs of Curt Bois

Persondata
Name	Bois, Curt
Alternative names
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	1901-4-5
Place of birth	Berlin, Germany
Date of death	1991-12-25
Place of death	Berlin, Germany