Imre Ráday

Imre Ráday , also performed as Imre Raday (* 4. September 1905 in Budapest ; † 12. March 1983 ) was a Hungarian actor of stage and film as well as a theater director .

Imre Ráday 1936

Ráday's tomb

Live and act

Training and activity in Germany

The son of a Jewish instrument dealer and a seamstress was already active as an artist (as a painter and draftsman) at an early age. At the age of 14 he won a competition for young artists. After graduating from high school, Ráday studied at the University of Applied Arts and continued his education after classes with a renowned painter. Ráday also quickly developed an interest in the theater: he enrolled at an acting school, where he graduated in 1923. First stage engagements followed at houses in the Hungarian provinces (Székesfehérvár, Kaposvar). In the autumn of 1926 a film team from Berlin came to Hungary and shot the exterior shots for the Kálmán operetta adaptation Die Czardasfürstin . Thereupon Ráday, who had played the Luftikus here, decided to go to Berlin, since the flourishing German film industry offered significantly better chances for a career in front of the camera than the depressed Hungarian one. He played the title role in the legal drama The Struggle of Donald Westhof , and the following year the waltz composer Johann Strauss Sohn played in the composer's biography Heut 'der Strauss . With the advent of the talkie in 1929, Ráday, who spoke insufficiently German, left Berlin and returned to his native Hungary.

Return to Hungary

Imre Ráday continued his acting career there in 1929, initially only at the theater. He was seen in an abundance of plays by domestic authors, less often in performances based on models by foreign writers such as Walter Hasenclever , Noel Coward and Vicki Baum . At the beginning of 1930 he married his professional colleague Mici Erdélyi , with whom he also appeared in front of film cameras several times in the years to come. As a result of the anti-Semitic race laws, which were also introduced in Admiral Horthy's Hungary towards the end of the 1930s, Imre Ráday, who had been banned from filming since 1938, was hardly able to play theater for the entire war years from 1939 to 1945. Small engagements took him to the Budapest Music Academy and to the Netherlands, where he got with the help of a friend. There Ráday played some roles in German. After 1941, when the situation for local Jews in Hungary became more and more dangerous, he managed to survive the following years unscathed to the end. During this time he and his second wife had two sons (born in 1942 and 1944).

Post-war activities

In 1945 the popular actor was able to work both in the theater - Imre Ráday was seen in countless plays by Hungarian authors but also in those of foreign origin such as Coward again, as well as Franz Werfel , John B. Priestley , Jean Anouilh , George Bernard Shaw and Molière - as well as with Resume movie. He grew more and more into character roles and was able to direct as a member of the National Theater ensemble. Later Ráday also appeared in other venues and also worked as an acting teacher in the first half of the 1950s until the Hungarian uprising . Only then, especially during his time at the József Attila Theater (1957 to 1970), did Ráday start filming again (now only with supporting roles of different sizes) and also appeared in numerous radio programs. Since 1960, television has become an increasingly important part of Ráday's artistic work as an employer. Imre Ráday even acted temporarily as a presenter at a weekly show (for pensioners). In 1978 he played the German Reichsbank President Hjalmar Schacht in a Hungarian production about the Nuremberg war crimes trials . Shortly before his death, after a very long time at the beginning of the 1980s, he could be seen again in a German-language role (in the popular Austrian television series Ringstrasse Palace ).

Filmography

• 1927: The Czardas Princess
• 1927: At the edge of the world
• 1927: The woman in the closet
• 1927: The fight of Donald Westhof
• 1928: Gynecologist Dr. shepherd
• 1928: Free ride
• 1928: Today the ostrich is playing
• 1929: A small advance on bliss
• 1929: The way through the night
• 1932: Csókolj meg, édes!
• 1934: Peter
• 1935: Az okos mama
• 1935: Címzett ismeretlen
• 1936: Évforduló
• 1936: Pókháló
• 1937: Édes a bosszú
• 1937: Lovagias ügy
• 1938: A Hölgy egy kissé bogaras
• 1938: Te csak pipálj, Ladányi!
• 1951: Teljes gőzzel
• 1956: Dollárpapa
• 1959: Felfelé a lejtőn
• 1960: Rangon alul
• 1960: Long is the way home (Hosszú út hazáig)
• 1961: Puskák és galambok
• 1961: Alba Regia ... please come (Alba Regia)
• 1962: Hurrá nyaralunk!
• 1962: Házasságból elégséges
• 1963: Slágermúzeum (TV movie)
• 1964: Miért rosszak a magyar filmek?
• 1965: Light behind the curtain (Fény a redőny mögött)
• 1966: I never lie (Nem szoktam hazudni)
• 1968: Walls (Falak)
• 1969: Holnap reggel (TV movie)
• 1970: Ne a gyerek előtt (TV movie)
• 1972: Fortélyos asszonyok (TV movie)
• 1973: Purple Acacia (Lila ákác)
• 1974: Richard Waverly pere (TV movie)
• 1974: Stiff hat and potato nose (Keménykalap és krumpliorr) (TV series)
• 1975: Ms. Dery, where are you going? (Déryné, get van?)
• 1976: The gold ducats of the ghost (Kísértet Lublón)
• 1978: Memento-Nürnberg, 1946 (TV film)
• 1979: Vera's upbringing (Angi Vera)
• 1980–81: Ringstrasse Palace (TV series)
• 1982: Bambini di Prága, 1947 (TV film)
• 1983: Fekete császár (TV film)

Web links

• detailed biography (in hungarian)
• Short biography (in hungarian)
• Imre Ráday in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Imre Ráday at filmportal.de