John Gottowt

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John Gottowt , as Isidor Gesang , (born June 15, 1881 in Lemberg , Austria-Hungary , † August 29, 1942 in Wieliczka , Poland ) was an Austrian actor and director for theater and silent film .

Life

After his training in Vienna , Gottowt started in Berlin in 1905 as an actor and director with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater . Gottowt subsequently worked in various theaters in Berlin, Vienna and Munich as a character actor and chief stage director. He was a gifted actor of old men and fools. After his departure in 1911, Ernst Lubitsch took over his role in Reinhardt's ensemble .

John Gottowt had his first traditional film appearance in 1913 with Paul Wegener in Der Student von Prag . In the same year he made his debut as a film director with The Black Lot , a cinematic commedia dell'arte with the Reinhardt actor Alexander Moissi in the lead role. In 1920 he was seen in works of the expressionist wave, for example in Robert Wienes Genuine and the early science fiction film Algol. Tragedy of power . In 1920 he also played his greatest film role, the hunchback James Wilton in FW Murnau's lost The Hunchback and the Dancer . In 1921 he worked in Murnau's classic Nosferatu .

In the summer of 1920 he and his brother-in-law Henrik Galeen took over the management of the theater on Kommendantenstrasse in Berlin, which was very successful artistically. With Galeen, who was the screenwriter of Nosferatu , Gottowt also worked on other film projects, such as the comedy Der Verbotene Weg , which Galeen directed with Lupu Pick for his company Rex-Film.

In 1923 Gottowt led the cabaret Die Gondel with Paul Leni .

In 1933 he became a Jew with a professional disqualification occupied. After a few years in Denmark , he moved to Krakow . In 1942 John Gottowt was murdered by an SS officer in Wieliczka.

Filmography

literature

  • Archives of British Film Institute, London
  • Karta. No. 42, 2004, ISSN  0867-3764 , www.karta.org.pl
  • Henryk Schönker: Dotknięcie anioła. Ośrodek Karta, Warszawa 2005, ISBN 83-61283-51-X , www.karta.org.pl
  • Heinrich Schönker: I was eight and wanted to live. A childhood during the Shoah. With a foreword by Charlotte Knobloch . Patmos, Düsseldorf 2008, ISBN 978-3-491-35023-6 .
  • Irene Stratenwerth, Hermann Simon (Ed.): Pioneers in Celluloid. Jews in the early film world. Henschel, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-89487-471-6 .
  • Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 141.
  • 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. 204 f.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gottowt, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Singing, Isidore (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor and director for theater and silent film
DATE OF BIRTH June 15, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Lviv , Galicia
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1942
Place of death Wieliczka , Poland