Heinz Bernard
Heinz Bernard (actually Heinz Messinger , adopted Heinz Bernhard Löwenstein ; born December 22, 1923 in Nuremberg , † December 18, 1994 in London ) was a British actor and theater director.
Life
Bernard was adopted by the Löwenstein family after his father, the cantor of the Orthodox synagogue in Nuremberg, died of tuberculosis . His adoptive father committed suicide on economic grounds when Bernard was nine years old. When he was threatened with deportation to Poland by the National Socialists in 1939, thanks to a request from British Member of Parliament Josiah Wedgwood , he was able to leave for England a few days before the outbreak of war. Bernard learned English and took a number of jobs, including studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts . For almost twenty years he was the manager and later artistic director of the Unity Theater , a theater in London that was initially affiliated with the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB). There Bernard was the first to perform Bertolt Brecht's plays in English. Bernard was a member of the party until the Hungarian uprising and Stalin's anti-Jewish measures.
Bernard moved to the Century Theater in the 1960s, where he staged or played in numerous classics. After his brother, who had co-founded the kibbutz Ramat Yoachanan in Israel , died in the late 1960s, Bernard emigrated there in 1971; he earned the money for it u. a. with appearances in Anatevka in the West End . In Israel he became well known as a performer on English-language television programs, Neighbors and Here We Are , which were broadcast for fifteen years after his stay in the country. In addition, he starred in numerous films of the domestic production of the 1970s.
In 1981 Bernard returned to Great Britain, where he continued his career in often small roles until his death from a rare blood disease.
Filmography (selection)
- 1959: Mother Courage and Her Children (TV movie)
- 1964: The Traitor (The Traitor's Gate)
- 1976: The Colt of God (Ekdach Haelohim)
- 1976: Jesus of Nazareth (The Passover Plot)
- 1992: Tales from the Poop Deck (TV series, episode)
Web links
- Heinz Bernard in theInternet Movie Database(English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Arnold Hinchcliffe: Pioneer of British Brecht: Heinz Bernard, 1923-1994. Obituary in New Theater Quarterly, 42, Part 2. pp. 193/194
- ^ Obituary in the Independent , January 21, 1995
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bernard, Heinz |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Messinger, Heinz (real name); Löwenstein, Heinz Bernhard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British actor and theater director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 22, 1923 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nuremberg |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 18, 1994 |
| Place of death | London |