Emil Jannings

Infobox actor
name = Emil Jannings


imagesize =
caption =
birthdate = birth date|1884|7|23|mf=y
location = Rorschach, Switzerland
deathdate = death date and age|1950|1|3|1884|7|23|mf=y
deathplace = Strobl, Austria
birthname = Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz
academyawards = Best Actor
1928 "The Last Command" and
"The Way of All Flesh"

Emil Jannings (July 23, 1884 – January 3, 1950) was a German actor and the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actor.

Early life

He was christened Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of a German mother and an American father.

Career

Jannings was a theater actor who eventually started a career in Hollywood. He won the 1928 Oscar for two films, "The Way of All Flesh" and "The Last Command". He also starred in F. W. Murnau's "The Last Laugh", a film notable in silent cinema for its lack of title cards, and in the 1922 film version of Shakespeare's "Othello".

His Hollywood career came to an end when talkies made his thick German accent difficult to understand. He returned to Europe, where he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film "The Blue Angel", filmed in English simultaneously with its German version "Der blaue Engel". He soon spotted that the unknown Dietrich was a star in the making, while his own career was past its peak, and so he was especially spiteful to her throughout the filming, according to her.

Besides "The Last Laugh", Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films, playing the title character in "Herr Tartüff" and Mephistopheles in "Faust".

Later life

During the Third Reich, he starred in several films which were intended to promote Nazism, particularly the "Führerprinzip": "Der Herrscher" ("The Ruler" 1937), "The Youth of Frederick the Great" (1935), and "The Dismissal of Bismarck" (1942). Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named him "Artist of the State" in 1941. His involvement with the Nazis ended any chance he may have had for a comeback in the United States.

When troops of the Allied Powers entered Germany in 1945, Jannings reportedly carried his 1928 Best Actor Oscar with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, Jannings' active role in Nazi propaganda meant he was subject to denazification, and any comeback attempt was doomed. He then retired to his farm in Austria. Very proficient in money matters, Jannings was one of the highest paid actors of his time.

Jannings died in 1950 in Strobl, Austria, of cancer. His Best Actor Oscar is now on display at the Filmmuseum in Berlin, Germany.

Filmography

References

External links

*imdb name|id=0417837|name=Emil Jannings
*findagrave|7040055
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=673 Photographs of Emil Jannings]