Curtis Bernhardt

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Curtis Bernhardt (born April 15, 1899 in Worms as Kurt Bernhardt , † February 22, 1981 in Pacific Palisades , California ) was a German director with US citizenship.

Life

Kurt Bernhardt attended drama school in Mainz during the First World War . At the age of 18 he was drafted to fight as a soldier in Verdun . After the war he began his artistic career as an actor in Heidelberg . Then he attended drama school again, this time in Frankfurt am Main . This was followed by engagements as an actor in Darmstadt and Recklinghausen before he came to the Renaissance Theater in Berlin in 1922 . In 1924 he directed his first film in Berlin and made his debut in the same year as a film director with the production Nameless Heroes . With his ambitious feature film productions on historical and social topics (including Schinderhannes based on a model by his friend Carl Zuckmayer ), Bernhardt advanced to become a sought-after director during the silent film era.

After the Nazis came to power, Bernhardt emigrated to the USA in 1933, where he changed his name from Kurt to Curtis. In 1946 he took American citizenship.

In Hollywood he shot with stars like Bette Davis ( The Big Lie , The Ambitious ), Charles Laughton and Jane Wyman (each A Mother's Heart ), Ronald Reagan ( The Dollar Rain ), Humphrey Bogart ( Conflict , Sirocco - Between Cairo and Damascus ) , Joan Crawford ( Unrestrained Love ), Lana Turner ( The Merry Widow ), Rita Hayworth ( Purgatory ), Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov (each in Beau Brummell ).

Bernhardt was married to the prima ballerina Pearl Argyle (1910-1947) and his second marriage to the actress Anna-Maria Wickert . His son Steven Bernhardt (1937–1999) worked as a producer and assistant director. His sister, the actress Erna Bernhardt , stage name: Boyar, was married to the film producer Eugen Tuscherer , with whom Kurt Bernhardt repeatedly worked.

Filmography (selection)

Awards

literature

  • 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. P. 101 ff., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bernhardt, Curtis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhardt, Kurt (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American director of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Worms
DATE OF DEATH February 22, 1981
Place of death Pacific Palisades , California