Alfred Zeisler

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Alfred Zeisler, in 1945

Henry Alfred Zeisler (born September 26, 1892 in Chicago , Illinois , USA ; † March 1, 1985 in Camano Island , USA) was a German actor , film producer and director who began working on films during the silent film era .

Life

Henry Alfred Zeisler was born on September 26, 1892 in Chicago to the actor Moritz Zeisler, of Jewish-German descent. At first he was an actor / dancer at the Royal Theater in Berlin and later at the German State Theater in Prague . On the advice of Erich Pommers , he tried his luck at film; His first employer was Fritz Lang , and he gained his first film experience with Lang's 1921 film Der müde Tod , in which he was allowed to stay on the set as an assistant director for the first time . He wrote his first screenplay for the film Rivals in 1923 , later made his first film Behind the Scenes of the Reichspost (1925) and stood in front of the camera for the first time in the film Die Carmen von St. Pauli . At the beginning of the 30s he was considered one of the leading directors / producers in the German film industry. Because of the Nazi policy, he was forced to leave Germany in 1935. In 1936 he moved to London and in 1939 to Hollywood, where he, born in Chicago, was able to settle without hindrance. His wife followed him the next year.

His best-known films as a director include, above all, The Shot in the Tonfilmatelier (1930), Dash through the Bill (1932) with Heinz Rühmann , Shot at Dawn (1932), The Star of Valencia (1933), Crime Over London (1936), The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936) and Fear (1946).

As a producer, he has made films such as The Blonde Nightingale (1930), The Tiger (1930), Gunshot at Dawn (1932), Viktor and Viktoria (1933), Gold (1934) and The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss (1936). In February 1943 he starred on Broadway in The Barber Had Two Sons . As a film actor, he starred in Bird of Paradise (1951) What Price Glory (1952) and The Desert Rats (1953).

Alfred Zeisler was married to the actress Lien Deyers from 1934 to 1940 .

Confiscated villa by the National Socialists

After the Jewish film producer and director Alfred Zeisler fled abroad with his wife Lien Deyers due to imminent arrest, Marika Rökk acquired his villa in Potsdam-Babelsberg, which was confiscated by the National Socialists, and moved in with her husband Georg Jacoby . Zeisler, who died in 1985, said he had not received “a penny” for the villa. After the fall of the Wall, Rökk applied for restitution and hired a lawyer to prevent the villa from being awarded to the Jewish Claims Conference .

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 .
  2. ↑ EEN PRODUCTIE-LEIDER VERTELT - Alfred Zeisler, interviewed the great Ufa films "FP I answered niet" and "Goud" . In: Bredasche courant . No. 187 . Breda August 16, 1934, p. 7 , col. 2 + 3 (Dutch, digitized at Delpher - Delpher December 1, 2019).
  3. ↑ Patrick McGilligan, Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast
  4. ↑ The Barber Had Two Sons. In: Internet Broadway Database (IBDB). Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Real Estate: Villas fight in Babelsberg . In: Der Spiegel . No. 4 , 1996 ( online - Jan. 22, 1996 ).
  6. ^ Punks Arrives from America (1935) - Full Cast & Crew. In: Internet Movie Database . Retrieved March 21, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Zeisler, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zeisler, Henry Alfred (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, producer and director
DATE OF BIRTH September 26, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1985
Place of death Camano Island