Helmut Dantine

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Helmut Dantine in March 1946

Helmut Dantine , actually Helmut Guttmann (born October 7, 1918 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary , † May 2, 1982 in Beverly Hills ) was an American actor and producer .

Life

Helmut's father Alfred Guttmann worked in a leading position for the Austrian Federal Railways . After graduating from high school, Helmut Guttmann enrolled at the private consular academy in Vienna on October 8, 1936 , which prepared an international audience for consular and diplomatic service. He was to remain lifelong on friendly terms with his listener Otto Eiselsberg . According to Eiselsberg, Helmut was “the most brilliant colleague of the year”.

Immediately after the Anschluss of Austria , he was arrested for participating in the resistance and imprisoned in the Roßauer Lände police prison. He was released in June 1938 after three months in prison only on the basis of relationships and a medical certificate. He emigrated to the USA in July 1938, where he stayed with an uncle in Los Angeles and attended the University of California . While his father died in Austria, his mother survived the war and moved to California in 1960.

Jimmy Roosevelt, Vice President of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and a son of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt , made it possible for Helmut Dantine to visit the set of The Real Glory with Gary Cooper in June 1939 . Enthusiastic about the impressions, he signed up for the entrance exam at the Pasadena Playhouse drama school . Less than 10 percent of the applicants were accepted, including Helmut Dantine. In 1940 he signed a contract with Warner Brothers . He was often cast in smaller roles, mainly as a German, again mostly as a Nazi . His financial breakthrough came just two years later. In 1943 he became a US citizen and was drafted into the army.

After the end of the war, Helmut Dantine took part in an association of Austrian artists in Hollywood who wanted to help rebuild Viennese art and theater life. Colleagues such as Hedy Lamarr , Rose Stradner , Paul Henreid , Walter Reisch and Fritz Kortner were involved . In autumn 1945 they assured the Vienna City Councilor for Culture Viktor Matejka that they would support everything from food parcels to donations for the reconstruction of the Burgtheater and the opera house.

In the 1960s and 70s, Helmut Dantine retired from acting, switched to film production and managed the Schenck family's assets. He later worked for Robert L. Lippert Productions , then as President of Hand Enterprises .

family

Helmut Dantine was married three times. The first marriage to a classmate at the Pasadena Playhouse, Gwen Anderson, was divorced in 1943. From 1947 to 1950 he was married to Charlene S. Wrightsman (1927-1963), daughter of oil millionaire Charles B. Wrightsman; the marriage had a son. His third marriage was with Nicola Schenck (* 1934), daughter of Loew’s CEO Nicholas Schenck and niece of Joseph M. Schenck ( 20th Century Fox ). They had three daughters together. Nicola worked under the stage name Niki Dantine. This marriage ended in divorce in 1971.

Helmut Dantine died in 1982 of complications from a heart attack and was buried in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery .

Filmography (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Aljean Harmetz: The Making of Casablanca. Bogart, Bergman, and World War II , New York 2002, p. 211.
  2. ↑ Harmetz According to Helmut Guttmann was not Jewish, see Rebecca Kaplan Boroson: We'll always have 'Casablanca' , Jewish Standard, September 13, 2013.
  3. ↑ Oliver Rathkolb: 250 years. From the Oriental to the Diplomatic Academy in Vienna , Studienverlag, Innsbruck a. a. 2004, ISBN 3-7065-1921-6 , p. 455.
  4. ↑ Otto Eiselsberg: Experienced history. 1917–1997 , Böhlau, Vienna a. a. 1997, ISBN 3-205-98682-2 , p. 45.
  5. ↑ Aljean Harmetz, p. 223: “youth riots”. It remains unclear whether he was possibly active in the Revolutionary Socialist Youth . But it was v. a. Members of the illegal SPÖ who were imprisoned on the Roßauer Lände.
  6. ↑ Aljean Harmetz, p. 212: slightly distorted as Rosserlaende Camp .
  7. ↑ Aljean Harmetz, p. 211.
  8. ↑ a b Otto Eiselsberg, p. 46.
  9. ^ Austrians in exile. USA 1938-1945. A documentation , vol. 2, ed. v. Documentation archive of the Austrian Resistance, Vienna 1995, ISBN 3-216-07479-X , p. 720.
  10. ↑ Otto Eiselsberg, p. 315 f.
  11. ^ Obituary Helmut Dantine, Film Actor; often played arrogant Nazi New York Times, May 6, 1982.
  12. ^ Obituary Actor-Producer Helmut Dantine dead at 63 , The Miami News, May 6, 1982.
  13. ↑ Aljean Harmetz, p. 223.
  14. ↑ Helmut Dantine Find A Grave
personal data
SURNAME Dantine, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guttmann, Helmut (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American actor and producer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1982
Place of death Beverly Hills , California