Friedrich Fehér

Friedrich Feher, 1920

Friedrich Feher , usually without accent Friedrich Feher written, actually Frederick White (* 16th March 1889 in Vienna , † 30th September 1950 in Stuttgart ) was an Austrian actor and film director . His most famous film role was that of the mad Francis in Robert Wiene's expressionist masterpiece Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari from 1920.

Life

After attending the Conservatory in Vienna, he began his career in 1907 at the Schauspielhaus and the Lessing Theater in Berlin and then appeared on stages in Hamburg , Vienna and Prague . He took part in an American tour with the Max Reinhardt Ensemble . In 1924/1925 he was temporarily director of the Renaissance stage in Vienna.

He made his first appearances in silent films in 1911 in Berlin. At first he appeared mainly in literary adaptations, which he also directed himself from 1913 for the Berlin Mutoskop . He had his first successes as the leading actor in Theodor Körner (1912), as Franz Moor in Die Räuber (1913) and as Odoardo in Emilia Galotti (1913). 1916 returned Fehér for two years to Vienna, before 1919. participated in German productions and a starring role in Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) finally made his breakthrough. In this expressionist masterpiece, he played the well-known role of Francis , a young inmate in an asylum.

In 1921 he took over the artistic direction of the Vienna Odysseus Film, a subsidiary of Vita-Film , and directed several films. He filmed, among other things, Hoffmann's stories (1923) and worked as a supporting actor in Robert Wienes Der Rosenkavalier (1926) from the Pan-Film . The film Das Haus des Dr., which was strongly influenced by Expressionism. Gaudeamus (1921) was created under his direction.

In 1922 Fehér founded his own film production company. In 1923 he also took over the management of the first Vienna premiere cinema, the Schwarzenberg Chamber Light Theater . In 1926 he moved back to Berlin , where he directed historical plays, crime comedies and court films. In most of his 25 films, his wife Magda Sonja , the first female star of the Sascha film from 1917 to 1921 , played the leading role. His most famous films from this period include Mata Hari (1927) and Maria Stuart (1927).

In 1933 he left Berlin again - this time, however, because he was no longer allowed to act in German films as a Jew. He first emigrated to Czechoslovakia and then to Great Britain , where he founded Concordia Films Ltd. founded. In London he was also able to work with other emigrants, such as Robert Wiene , who appeared as a producer for his expressionistically inspired production of the bizarre and surrealistic Singspiel Robber's Symphony (1936). His son Hans Feher got the main role in it.

After his film company went bankrupt, he emigrated to the United States in October 1936 , where he founded Symphonic Films . With this he directed the short film series Paramount Symphonics in 1938/39 , where he directed some orchestral recordings himself. When he wanted to refine the stylistic principle of the robber symphony in his short films , his financiers turned against it and his career came to a standstill. Most recently, he was given a small film role in Jive Junction by Edgar G. Ulmer, an Austrian emigrant who was more successful in Hollywood .

The main income of the Fehér family in the years of emigration came increasingly from other activities due to the lack of film success. From 1939 Fehér worked mainly as an orchestra conductor and earned extra income as managing director of a grocery store. His wife, once a silent film star in German-speaking countries, was not at all active in American talkies. In March 1950 Fehér returned to London and soon afterwards to Germany. There he tried to sound out the possibilities of producing television films with musical content. At the end of September 1950 he died completely unexpectedly in a Stuttgart hospital. The often read place of death Frankfurt am Main, however, is not applicable.

Filmography (selection)

as an actor, unless otherwise stated

• 1911: victim of shame
• 1912: Theodor Körner
• 1912: Sendomir Monastery
• 1913: Emilia Galotti (director)
• 1913: The liberation of Switzerland and the legend of Wilhelm Tell (also director)
• 1913: The Blood Money (director)
• 1913: Cabal and Love (director)
• 1913: storms
• 1913: The Robbers (stage director)
• 1914: The blue room
• 1914: Alexandra
• 1915: The shot in a dream
• 1916: You shall not judge
• 1916: The robber bride
• 1916: waves of life
• 1917: The new life
• 1919: mountain flower
• 1919: The Invisible Guest (Director)
• 1920: The cabinet of Dr. Caligari
• 1920: The Three Dances of Mary Wilford
• 1920: The Red Witch (Director)
• 1920: Marion the dancer (director)
• 1920: Puppets of the devil
• 1921: Carrière (co-director)
• 1921: The house of Dr. Gaudeamus (director, co-script)
• 1922: The Birth of the Antichrist (Director)
• 1922: The Memoirs of a Monk (director, co-screenplay, co-producer)
• 1923: Hoffmann's stories
• 1924: The Courtesan of Venice (Director)
• 1924: The Forbidden Land (director)
• 1924: Ssanin (co-director, screenplay)
• 1926: The Rosenkavalier
• 1926: The Gray House (Director)
• 1926: Forbidden Love (director)
• 1927: Mata Hari (director)
• 1927: The Governor's Mistress (Director, Co-script)
• 1927: Maria Stuart (director, co-script)
• 1928: Sensations Trial (director)
• 1928: Hotel Secrets (director)
• 1931: Your boy / ČSR version Kdyz struny lkaji (director, co-producer)
• 1932: Hounded people / ČSR version: Stvani lidé (director, co-screenplay; in the Czech version only actors and co-director)
• 1936: Robber Symphony (The Robber Symphony) (director, co-writer)
• 1938: Ave Maria (director)
• 1939: William Tell (director)
• 1943: Jive Junction

literature

• 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 , p. 162 ff.
• Rudolf Ulrich: Austrians in Hollywood. New edition, Verlag Filmarchiv Austria, Vienna 2004, ISBN 3901932291 , p. 125

Web links

• Friedrich Feher in the Internet Movie Database (English)