Alex Otto

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Alex Otto (born February 17, 1861 as Alexander Otto Pfennigwerth in Mainz , † November 29, 1936 in Hamburg ) was a German actor and theater director with many years of experience at Hamburg theaters.

Life

The son of the actor Wilhelm Otto (1825–1918) and the actress Rosa Otto-Martineck (1836–1928) studied medicine in Munich and Rostock for a few semesters before taking acting lessons from his father. Otto began his stage career on a traveling stage on September 26, 1880 in Verden , where he appeared with the play " Galoschen des Glücks ". He then went on touring. From 1882 to 1888 Otto was a member of the Meininger Hoftheater ensemble .

After an interlude at the City Theater of Lübeck (permanently employed from November 1888 to March 1889), Alex Otto moved to the Hanseatic City of Hamburg in September 1889 for an engagement at the City Theater, to which he would remain connected for the rest of his life. As the successor of Adalbert Matkowsky , the last brawny, bald artist was given leading roles. He was seen as Hagen von Tronje in Die Nibelungen , as Wilhelm Tell, as Faust, as Holofernes, as Othello , as the carter Henschel, as Karl Moor and in many other roles. From 1903 Otto worked at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus . Otto celebrated artistic successes in both drama and comedy and was also active at this venue as a director.

In the first few years after the First World War , Alex Otto also appeared in front of the camera in a number of silent films made in Hamburg. Until 1922 he was hired as a character actor for productions of Vera-Filmwerke AG and played alongside colleagues with more cinematic experience such as Werner Krauss , Alf Bloomcher , Philipp Lothar Mayring , Fred Immler and Emil Jannings . None of these films has any artistic significance. In addition, he was also active as an acting teacher, one of his students was Karin Hardt .

An obituary read: "Alex Otto, one of the old guard of the Hamburg State Theater, a talented and celebrated actor, knowledgeable director, reciter and festival director, the popular fairytale uncle for the little ones at Christmas time."

His brother was the actor Julius Otto , he was married to Margarethe Körner .

Filmography

  • 1919: Colombine. The Apache Bride - Vera-Filmwerke
  • 1920: The Public Prosecutor - Vera-Filmwerke
  • 1920: The Black Rose of Cruska - Vera-Filmwerke
  • 1921: Slaves of Vengeance - Vera Films
  • 1921: The Secret of the Green Villa - Vera-Filmwerke
  • 1922: The little stenographer - Vera-Filmwerke

Radio plays (selection)

  • 1925: Henrik Ibsen : Peer Gynt. Dramatic poem (Peer Gynt, son of the farmer's widow Ase) - Director: Hans Bodenstedt ; Hermann Beyer (broadcast (radio play adaptation) - NORAG )
  • 1925: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe : Götz von Berlichingen. Play in five acts (Götz von Berlichingen) - Director: Hans Bodenstedt; Hermann Beyer (broadcast (radio play adaptation) - NORAG)
  • 1926: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: Götz von Berlichingen. Play in five acts (Götz von Berlichingen) - Director: Hans Bodenstedt; Hermann Beyer (broadcast (radio play adaptation) - NORAG)
  • 1926: Max Halbe : The current. Drama (Ulrich) - Director: Hermann Beyer (broadcast (radio play adaptation) - NORAG)
Note: All programs were broadcast live without recording .

literature

  • Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 740, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Kurt Küchler : Hamburg actor portraits. Max Montor, Robert Nhil, Adele Doré, Alex Otto. Adolff, Altona-Ottensen 1910.
  • Wilhelm Kosch : German Theater Lexicon. Biographical and bibliographical manual. Volume 2: Hurka - Pallenberg. Kleinmayr, Klagenfurt et al. 1960, p. 1716.
  • Obituary. In: German Stage Yearbook. Vol. 49, 1938, ISSN  0070-4431 , p. 112.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See the entry of Alexander Otto's matriculation in the Rostock matriculation portal
  2. ↑ German Stage Yearbook 1937 , Volume 49, print and commission publisher FA Günther & Sohn, 1938, page 112
  3. ↑ Deutsches Bühnenjahrbuch 1937 , Volume 49, print and commission publisher FA Günther & Sohn, 1938, page 128
personal data
SURNAME Otto, Alex
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pfennigwerth, Alexander Otto (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1936
Place of death Hamburg