Gunnar Tolnæs
Gunnar Tolnæs (born December 7, 1879 in Oslo , † November 9, 1940 ibid) was a Norwegian theater and film actor, a star of the Danish silent film.
Live and act
Tolnæs from Christiana, now Oslo, first studied law and then medicine, which he completed with the state examination. Tolnæs appeared on the stage from 1906 and was a member of the Oslo National Theater from 1908 to 1916 . In 1913 he joined the film industry in Sweden . After his first works had achieved some success and Tolnæs had risen to the star of 'Svenska', the Copenhagen film company Nordisk Film signed him in 1915 and built him into their most important workhorse alongside Valdemar Psilander .
Soon the good-looking actor with the mostly stern view of the roles of noble gentlemen and cultivated, sometimes adventurous, sometimes mysterious gentlemen was set in dramas and melodramas. Above all, his leading role as an interplanetary space pilot in “ The Sky Ship ” and the title role of the Maharajah in the first two parts of the exotic adventure drama “ The Maharaja's Favorite Wife ” earned Tolnæs immense popularity - also in Germany. In 1920 Gunnar Tolnaes followed the call of the German director Max Mack to Berlin and also took on the leading role in the third part of the ' Maharajah ' trilogy.
Tolnaes stayed in Germany during the 1920s, but kept returning to Copenhagen and Stockholm for one or two films . With the dawn of the age of talkies, his screen career came to an end, probably also because of his Norwegian accent. Tolnæs returned to Oslo, where he only played theater between 1929 and 1939. He was particularly successful there in Ibsen pieces, but also as a chevalier gentleman and lover in operettas and comedies. Gunnar Tolnaes died in 1940 at the age of 60 and was buried next to his family in the Vestre Gravlund cemetery in Oslo.
Filmography (selection)
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literature
- Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 696 f.
Web links
- Gunnar Tolnæs in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Pictures by Gunnar Tolnæs In: Virtual History
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Tolnæs, Gunnar |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Norwegian actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 7, 1879 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Oslo |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 9, 1940 |
| Place of death | Oslo |