Leonid Kinskey

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Leonid Kinskey (born April 18, 1903 in St. Petersburg , Russia , † September 8, 1998 in Fountain Hills , Arizona , United States ) was a Russian-American film and television actor.

Life

Leonid Kinskey fled Russia during the October Revolution and pursued his stage career in Europe and South America before coming to New York City in 1921 . In 1931 Al Jolson hired him for a tour of the musical The Wonder Bar . In 1932 he got his first supporting role in the film musical The Big Broadcast , in the same year he played a communist in Ernst Lubitsch's comedy Anger im Paradies . In the 1930s in particular, other supporting roles followed in numerous movies, with Kinskey's roles often being so small that they were not mentioned in the credits . He played his best-known role as Sascha, the Russian bartender at Rick's Café Américain , in the classic film Casablanca (1942). The role of the bartender was "typical" for Kinskey in that he was regularly cast as a strange foreigner or stranger.

From the mid-1940s, Kinskey turned less and less Hollywood films, instead he worked more often as a director or screenwriter for industrial and commercials . From the 1950s on, he mainly shot for television, his last film appearance was in 1957. He appeared in guest roles in a number of US television productions, such as 77 Sunset Strip , Crooks Against Crooks , Burke's Law and Solo for ONCEL As Russian sergeant Vladimir Minsk , Kinskey appeared in the pilot of the television series A Cage Full of Heroes . However, since he believed that the Nazis were not being taken seriously enough on the series and that the series was too pointless, he refused to sign a contract. In 1971 he had his last of almost 130 film and television appearances.

Kinskeys was married three times. His first wife Josephine Zossia Tankus died in 1939 after nine years of marriage to Kinskey. His second wife was the actress Iphigenie Castiglioni (1895–1963) from 1943 until her death in 1963 . His last wife was Tina York, with whom he had been married since 1983. Leonid Kinskey died in 1998 at the age of 95 from complications after a stroke.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lamparski, Richard: Whatever wurde of--: eighth series: the best (updated) and newest of the famous Lamparski profiles of personalities of yesteryear. Crown Publishers, New York 1982, p. 158. ISBN 0-51-754346-X .
personal data
SURNAME Kinskey, Leonid
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-American film and television actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Petersburg , Russia
DATE OF DEATH September 8, 1998
Place of death Fountain Hills , Arizona , United States