Leo Reuss

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Leo Reuss (born March 30, 1891 in Dolyna , Galicia , Austria-Hungary , as Leo Moritz Reis , † April 1, 1946 in Manila , Philippines ) was an Austrian actor and director . After emigrating to Hollywood, he anglicized his name to Lionel Royce .

Life

Leo Reuss grew up as the son of a veterinarian in Vienna. Against the will of the Father, he attended the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and was a soldier in the First World War . In 1919 he got his first engagements at private Viennese theaters and in 1921 went to the Hamburger Kammerspiele with Erich Ziegel . In 1923 he joined Leopold Jessner at the Staatstheater Berlin . Later he played together with his then partner Agnes Straub , mainly at the Volksbühne and at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm . During the last years in Berlin, he directed the Agnes-Straub-Theater (imTheater am Kurfürstendamm ) until he was banned from working as a Jew by the National Socialists at the end of 1934 .

In 1935 Leo Reuss had to flee from the National Socialists. He first emigrated to Austria , but found no work there. Eventually he disappeared and it was said that he had gone to America. Some time later (in the summer of 1936) he posed as a Tyrolean farmer named Kaspar Brandhofer, who absolutely wanted to go to the theater , at Max Reinhardt's in Salzburg . Since the "farmer" seemed very talented to him, Reinhardt sent him to Vienna with a few letters of recommendation , where the directors there found the layman much more interesting than the trained actors who had emigrated and were looking for work in Vienna.

The "farmer" was then engaged by the director Ernst Lothar at the theater in der Josefstadt . Here he played with great success under the direction of Hans Thimig in Lothar's adaptation of the novella "Fräulein Else" by Arthur Schnitzler . After the successful premiere in 1936, there were extremely positive reviews in the newspapers. Especially the right-wing press found great satisfaction in the fact that a Tyrolean was discovered as a new acting talent. For example, the Reichspost wrote : “At last, pure Tyrolean mountain air was blowing from the stage”.

After the premiere reviews appeared, he revealed his true identity. Reuss received no recognition for this, and Ernst Lothar even reported him for fraud and forgery of documents. Since no longer a “Tyrolean natural talent”, Reuss found himself in the same situation as before the camouflage campaign: no role offers. In 1937 Reuss emigrated to the USA . He played there in around 45 films under the name Lionel Royce mainly small, but occasionally also larger supporting roles.

Leo Reuss was married three times and had four children from these marriages. One of his grandchildren is the American painter Peter Lodato (* 1946). The actor died unexpectedly of a heart attack in Manila in 1946, where he was staying while he was part of a USO troop entertainment.

The life and especially the absurd emigration story of Leo Reuss became the subject of various biographies and a play (see literature). A filming project in Hollywood during his lifetime was never realized.

Filmography

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Friedrich Torberg : The heirs of Aunt Jolesch. Appendix: Tyrolean rice casserole. In: Friedrich Torberg: The Aunt Jolesch or the Fall of the West in Anecdotes and The Heirs of Aunt Jolesch. 2008, p. 621.
  2. ↑ Michael Mürkl: Leo Reuss - The mountain farmer in the Josefstadt. (pdf; 802 kB) Diploma thesis. University of Vienna, 2012, p. 14 , accessed on April 1, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Reuss, Leo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Royce, Lionel (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American actor
DATE OF BIRTH March 30, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Dolyna , Galicia
DATE OF DEATH April 1, 1946
PLACE OF DEATH Manila , Philippines