Erik Frey

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Erik Frey , also Eric Frey (born March 1, 1908 in Vienna as Erik Viktor Laurenz Emil Frey ; † September 2, 1988 ibid), was an Austrian actor .

Live and act

After graduating from high school, Frey studied German at the Schottengymnasium and took private acting lessons from Albert Heine . In 1927 he made his stage debut and performed at the Volkstheater in Vienna as well as in Bremen, Hamburg ( Deutsches Schauspielhaus and Thalia-Theater ), at the Deutsches Theater in Prague and at the State Theater in Berlin.

From 1935 until his death he was a member of the theater in der Josefstadt . In 1948 and from 1962 he worked there as a director. He made several guest appearances at the Salzburg Festival . The chamber actor Erik Frey embodied a wide variety of stage characters, from the youthful lover to the tragic hero, but mostly high-ranking personalities.

He received similar tasks in film, where he was seen in numerous roles since 1936. He often portrayed rather negative characters such as uncomprehending superiors or coolly calculating rivals of the actual hero. He often appeared as a high officer such as General Friedrich Olbricht in It happened on July 20 (1955). In Ludwig II - the splendor and misery of a king as well as in Crown Prince Rudolf's last love , he embodied the Emperor Franz Joseph . In the American film Der Kardinal (1963) he acted as Reich Governor Arthur Seyß-Inquart .

time of the nationalsocialism

Grave site in the Dobling cemetery

Frey was a member of the illegal NSDAP even before Austria was annexed (from 1934) . In his denazification proceedings , he claimed that he had dreamed of a Greater German Reich, but had no idea of ​​the atrocities committed. It has been proven that he not only had a clue, but was very active in the days of the Anschluss. Frey and the actor Robert Horky were commissioned by the NSDAP in 1934/35 to "infiltrate" the theater staff at the Josefstadt theater in a Nazi way. On April 23, 1938, the former director of the German Adult theater, Rudolf Beer - his time in Vienna next Max Reinhardt the most important man of the theater - during the performance of Calderon's " The Mayor of Zalamea " with the Berlin Schiller Theater in Theater in der Josefstadt guested , asked by Erik Frey and the acting director of the theater, Robert Valberg , from his box outside. He was supposed to come to an interrogation at Josefstädter Straße 39. From there, Beer was driven onto the Höhenstraße . In the Vienna Woods , the Nazi thugs threw the badly abused man out of the car. On May 9th, Rudolf Beer turned on the gas tap in his apartment on Lerchenfelder Gürtel.

The actor Nikolaus Paryla reports that Erik Frey, “who even wore an SA uniform”, helped his father, Karl Paryla , to leave the country shortly after the annexation of Austria and thus saved his life: “This man has it In any case, uniform used to save people. Without this man my father would not have been saved. "

Erik Frey, whose first marriage was to actress Jane Tilden and later to actress Susi Witt , is buried in the Döblinger Friedhof (29-104) in Vienna.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Georg Markus: Die Hörbigers (2006), p. 133
  2. ↑ Gwendolyn von Ambesser: The rats enter the sinking ship (2005), pp. 135f, 138f.
  3. ↑ Paulus Manker : “The theater man Gustav Manker. Searching for traces. “ Brandstätter, Vienna 2010 ISBN 978-3-85033-335-1
  4. ↑ Nikolaus Paryla in conversation with Wolfgang Binder, Bayerischer Rundfunk, broadcast on February 12, 2001 www.br-online.de/download/pdf/alpha/p/paryla.pdf
personal data
SURNAME Frey, Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Frey, Eric
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 2nd September 1988
Place of death Vienna