Felix Bressart

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Felix Bressart (born March 2, 1892 or 1895 in Eydtkuhnen , East Prussia , † March 17, 1949 in Los Angeles , California ) was a German actor .

Life

After eight months of acting lessons with Maria Moissi in Berlin, he made his debut at the Stadttheater Würzburg in autumn 1914, where he received his first engagement in 1915 . After the First World War he went on a theater tour through Bavaria, in 1922 he came to the German Theater in Hanover, in 1922 to the Albert Theater in Dresden, in 1925 to the Wiener Theater in der Josefstadt under Max Reinhardt . In 1927 he moved to Berlin and played in the theater on Königgrätzer Straße , where he celebrated his breakthrough in 1930 with The Money on the Street under Victor Barnowsky . From 1932 he played at the German Art Theater and at the Volksbühne , in 1933 at the Komödienhaus and at the comedians' cabaret .

From 1930 he worked in numerous film comedies . After he appeared in the music film Die Drei von der Gasstelle as an insolvent bailiff , he got the lead role as Fusilier Nowotni in the military comedy Drei Tage Mittelarrest . In Der Herr Bürovorsteher (1931) he embodied the pedantic office manager thumbtack. Bressart's popularity as a film actor, measured by the amount of his fee, was in the range of Hans Albers in 1931 : if Albers was able to earn 60,000 Reichsmarks per role for a film series , it was 50,000 Reichsmarks for Bressart. In the same year Bressart turned down offers for six films at 100,000 Reichsmarks each, as he no longer wanted to participate in the devastating plague of military films (determined by three days of central arrest and The Horror of the Garrison ) .

In 1932, Bressart was engaged alongside Lizzi Waldmüller for a revue that appeared in Amsterdam , The Hague and Scheveningen . In August 1932 it was dismantled by the German film industry as part of the import ban for artists (see also: Preußenschlag ). Bressart went to Vienna, where he made his successful guest debut on December 9th at the Deutsches Volkstheater under the direction of Herbert Furreg (1897-1958) (stage: Alfred Kunz ) in Viktor Wittner's (1896-1949) Ein Herr Herbst . On June 17, 1933, he was a guest at the New German Theater in Prague in Fritz Friedmann-Frederichs Hosemanns Söhne (“Der Dickkopf”) alongside Adele Sandrock .

After Hitler came to power in 1933, he emigrated to Switzerland as a Jew, from 1934 to early 1937 to Vienna, where he again worked in the Josefstadt ensemble (among others under Otto Preminger ) and Budapest. Further stations were Amsterdam, Paris and in 1938 the USA. In Hollywood, Bressart was able to build up a successful film career in contrast to most of the emigrants, he was under a studio contract with MGM as an actor in substantial supporting roles . In 1939 he played one of his most important roles in Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotschka as the insecure Soviet political commissioner Buljanoff at the side of Alexander Granach and Sig Ruman . In the following years Bressart appeared in two more comedies by his compatriot Lubitsch: In Rendezvous after the store had closed (1940) he played a nervous shop clerk , and in To be or not (1942) he was seen as an unsuccessful minor actor in a dramatic scene that Shylock is allowed to recite.

Bressart, married to Frieda Lehner, received his doctorate in medicine in America and worked as an alternative practitioner alongside his acting activities. He died of leukemia while filming My Friend Irma with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis .

His grave can be found in Hollywood Forever Cemetery .

Filmography

Audio documents

  • Potpourri from the operetta “My sister and me”. Text and music: Ralph Benatzky. With Felix Bressart, Liane Haid , Oskar Karlweis , Margarete Schlegel and the Lewis Ruth Band. Part I and II. Electrola EH 501, HMV AN 534 (mx. CLR 6384-II, 6385-II), recorded in Berlin, Beethoven-Saal, May 22, 1930
  • The office manager telephones. Funny scene from the sound film 'Der Herr Bürovorsteher' (also: 'Account X'). Text by Charlie Roellinghoff and Felix Bressart. With Felix Bressart. Parlophone B 48 073-I (mx. 133.211), recorded in Berlin, Lindström-Studio 1, September 7, 1931
  • Felix Bressart on the police. Humorous scene. Text by Roellinghoff and Bressart. With: Felix Bressart and Charlie Roellinghoff. Parlophone B 48 073-II (mx. 133.212), recorded in Berlin, Lindström-Studio 1, September 7, 1931
  • My love blooms anew every year! Waltz song from the sound film 'Holzapfel knows everything'. Music: Hans J. Salter . Text: Charlie Roellinghoff. Felix Bressart with Paul Godwin Orchestra and instrumental effects. Gramophone 24 537-A (mx. 4679 ½ BD III), recorded in Berlin, Schumann-Saal, around April 1932
  • Golden blonde cat. Foxtrot from the sound film 'The Lucky Cylinder' (also: 'Golden blonde girl, I'll give you my heart'). Music: Bruno Granichstaedten . Text: Rudolf Bernauer . Felix Bressart with the Paul Godwin Orchestra. Gramophone 24 537-B (mx. 4680 BD III), recorded in Berlin, Schumann-Saal, around April 1932

literature

  • Hans-Michael Bock (HMB): Felix Bressart - actor , in CineGraph - Lexicon for German-Language Films, Volume 2 (1984)
  • Maria Hilchenbach: Cinema in Exile - The Emigration of German Film Artists 1933–1945. (= Communication and politics. Volume 14). Verlag Saur, 1982, pp. 171 and 236
  • Ferdinand Kahn : 600 seconds with Felix Bressart. In: Structure. Volume 10, number 37, November 28, 1947, p. 16, ( online ) (interview with Felix Bressart 1944).
  • Berthold Leimbach: audio documents of cabaret and their interpreters 1898-1945. Self-published, Göttingen 1991.
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than is given ...' Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria 1933 to 1945: A general overview. Acabus Verlag, 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , pp. 10, 23, 37-38, 42, 51, 100, 114, 416, 449, 494 and others. 666.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Comedians are serious people! So too: Felix Bressart. In:  Illustrierte Wochenpost , No. 47/1932 (5th year), November 18, 1932, p. 15, top left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / iwp.
  2. ^ Hugo Engelbrecht:  Berlin theater. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 63/1932, March 16, 1932, p. 7, center right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  3. ↑ How I got into film. A Linz resident's leap into the world of appearances. In:  Tages-Post , Sonntagsblatt, No. 228/1931 (LXVII. Year), October 3, 1931, p. 7, column 4 above. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / tpt.
  4. ↑ The world of film. (...) All about the film. In:  Arbeiter-Zeitung , No. 273/1931 (XLIV. Volume), October 4, 1931, p. 19, columns 3 and 4. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / aze.
  5. ↑ Theater, Art and Music. (...) Lizzi Waldmüller in Holland. In:  Reichspost , No. 163/1932 (XXXIXth year), June 12, 1932, p. 13 center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / rpt.
  6. ↑ Numerus clausus for talent: Bressart, Abraham, Stolz - dismantled. In:  Wiener Sonn- und Mondags -Zeitung , No. 34/1932 (LXX. Volume), August 22, 1932, p. 6. (online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wsz.
  7. ^ DB:  Art and Knowledge. (...) German Volkstheater. In:  Arbeiter-Zeitung , No. 342/1932, December 11, 1932, p. 9, bottom. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / aze;
    Richard Wiener:  Mystery of the Post. "A Mr. Autumn" by Victor Wittner. First performance in the Vienna German Volkstheater. In:  Prager Tagblatt , No. 292/1932 (LVII. Volume), December 11, 1932, p. 6, column 1. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ptb.
  8. ^ The December program of the Volkstheater and Raimundtheater. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 273/1932, November 26, 1932, p. 5, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  9. ^ New theater. In:  Prager Tagblatt , No. 141/1933 (Volume III), June 17, 1933, p. 18, column 4 below. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / ptb.
  10. ↑ W. v. E.g.  theater. "The princess on the ladder" (...). In:  Wiener Salonblatt , No. 17/1934 (LXV. Year), August 12, 1934, p. 8, center right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wsb.
  11. ^ Felix Bressart at Allmovie
  12. ↑ listen on youtube
  13. ↑ listen on youtube
  14. ↑ listen on youtube
  15. ↑ listen on youtube
  16. ↑ listen on youtube
personal data
SURNAME Bressart, Felix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Eydtkuhnen
DATE OF DEATH March 17, 1949
Place of death los Angeles