Richard Boleslawski

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Ryszard Bolesławski

Richard Boleslawski , actually Bolesław Ryszard Szrednicki (born February 4, 1889 in Warsaw , † January 17, 1937 in Los Angeles , California ) was a Polish actor and film director .

Life

Born as Bolesław Ryszard Szrednicki in Warsaw, he had been on stage from the age of 16 and eventually took acting classes at the Moscow Academy of the Arts with Konstantin Stanislawski . He made a few films, but after the October Revolution he left the country in 1919 and initially returned to Poland, where he fought as a cavalryman against the Bolsheviks. In 1920 he was responsible for the propaganda strip The Miracle on the Vistula , in which the role of the Polish army in the battles for Warsaw was glorified. In the following year he went to Germany and worked, among other things, as an actor in Carl Theodor Dreyer's film Die Gezeichen . With stops in France he finally came to the United States in the mid-1920s, where he quickly established himself as a successful director on Broadway . In 1923 he founded the American Laboratory Stage Theater in New York City , from which the Actor's Studio would later develop.

In 1929, in the wake of the sound film , Boleslawski joined the exodus of Broadway talents to Hollywood and quickly rose from dialogue coach to director. He worked primarily for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). His breakthrough came in 1932 when Irving Thalberg entrusted him to direct the troubled production of Rasputin: The Demon of Russia . In this large-scale production, the three siblings John Barrymore , Lionel Barrymore and Ethel Barrymore were seen together in front of the camera for the first time. The story of the murder of Rasputin had already caused enormous censorship problems; after the publication, MGM was successfully sued by members of the royal family for an enormous sum of damages.

In the following years, Boleslawski was primarily responsible for elegant, melodramatic, sometimes humorous productions. In 1933, for example, Boleslawski shot Storm at Daybreak, a gripping melodrama from the First Balkan War starring Kay Francis and Walter Huston and the romantic comedy Fugitive Lovers starring the popular couple Robert Montgomery and Madge Evans . However, Boleslawski developed particularly well in works for other producers, for example in his adaptation of Les Miserables or in the adventure film Clive of India , in which Ronald Colman practically single-handedly conquered half of India and also won the love of Loretta Young . To this day, Boleslawski is primarily known for his film The Colorful Veil , a literary adaptation based on W. Somerset Maugham with Greta Garbo in the lead role. The film was, however, by critics as boring and static savaged and rejected by the public, but showed a slight profit by the enormous European demand. The Garden of Allah grew into a brilliant flop in 1936 . The production suffered from the quarrels between Marlene Dietrich and David O. Selznick and the unusual shooting conditions in the desert sand. With the screwball comedy Theodora Goes Wild , in which Irene Dunne secretly writes a frivolous novel as a small town girl and suddenly becomes famous, things went up again for Boleslawski: MGM entrusted him with the social comedy The Last of Mrs. Cheyney with Joan Crawford in the title role .

Boleslawski was seriously ill while filming the Garden of Allah in the Yuma Desert . Probably as a result of the consumption of spring water, he lost weight to 45 kilograms over time, but was soon able to recover somewhat. His sudden cardiac death at the age of only 47 amid the filming of The Last of Mrs. Cheyney (which was then finished by George Fitzmaurice) is believed to be linked to the weakening of his constitution from the poisoning.

Richard Boleslawski was married three times and left behind a child from his last marriage to actress and musician Norma Drury, which lasted until his death. A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame commemorates his contributions to the film industry.

Filmography (selection)

Works

  • Lance Down. Between the Fires in Moscow. In collaboration with Helen Woodward. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis IN 1932 (In German: Lanzen Nieder! (1917. Novel of the Russian Revolution.). Translated by Julie Mathieu. Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1936).
  • The way of the lancer. In collaboration with Helen Woodward. Bobbs-Merrill Co., Indianapolis IN 1932 (In German: Polish Ulanen. Translated from English by Paul Fohr. Propylaen-Verlag, Berlin 1935).
  • Acting. The First Six Lessons. Theater Arts Inc., New York NY 1933 (In German: Acting. The first six steps. Translated by Uta Pongratz. Verlag Eigenwerte , Wanna 2001, ISBN 3-934080-00-6 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Renate Seydel: Marlene Dietrich . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2000, p. 180 .
  2. ^ Richard Boleslawski. Retrieved May 18, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Boleslawski, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Szrednicki, Bolesław Ryszard (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish actor and film director
DATE OF BIRTH February 4, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Warsaw
DATE OF DEATH January 17, 1937
Place of death Los Angeles , California