Marcel Hillaire
Marcel Hillaire (* 23. April 1908 in Cologne as Erwin Ottmar Hiller ; † 1. January 1988 in Los Angeles , California ) was a German actor who until his death in the United States lived from the 1948th In his English-language films, he was distinguished by a Franco-German accent.
Hillaire gave way to the Holocaust of Nazi state made by adopting a stage name and was constantly with theater groups traveling. He later joined the administration of the Todt Organization under his maiden name and narrowly escaped execution after his arrest. After World War II , he immigrated to the United States and changed his name. Hillaire has guest roles in over a hundred episodes. He often played French like in the movie Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn .
origin
Hillaire's grandfather was Ferdinand von Hiller , a pianist and music teacher born in Frankfurt am Main .
Erwin O. Hiller was the son of Paul Hiller and his wife Sophie Lion. He had Jewish ancestors on both his father's and his mother's side. His father Paul was the critic of the Rheinische Zeitung for 24 years . For a quarter of a century he discussed every opera and orchestral performance in the Lower Rhineland. Erwin and his brother had contact with music and art from their earliest childhood until their father's death in 1934. Erwin became a well-known actor.
Life in Nazi Germany
While his brother Edgar fled to neutral Switzerland , Erwin took on the stage name Harry Fürster and toured Germany with a theater group under this name. He later began to work for the Todt Organization under his maiden name Erwin Hiller . Hiller was stationed in Brittany and reported directly to Albert Speer . In 1942 he used his connections to bring his mother, who lived in Cologne, to relatively safe France.
Three years later, while he was still working for Operation Todt in Germany, his Jewish ancestry was discovered. He was then sentenced to death for "his insidious fraud and his Semitic descent". Hiller waited in a prison in Weimar for the sentence to be carried out. On charges of sexual abuse of young people six years ago , he was transferred to Berlin and freed by the Soviet army in April 1945 at the end of the war .
Career in New York
Hiller emigrated to the USA on June 15, 1948. When he arrived in New York City , he first took jobs in restaurants while looking for offers for actors. To do this, he renamed himself Marcel Hillaire in order to improve his prospects in the entertainment industry with a French name. He has never used his maiden name in public since then.
Hillaire found work performing Europeans in theater productions in Manhattan and the burgeoning television industry in studios in New York. In 1952 he appeared in three episodes of Goodyear Playhouse and in 1953 in five episodes of Lux Video Theater . In the same year Hillaire also appeared in one of the first sitcoms , The Goldbergs . When Billy Wilder directed Sabrina with Audrey Hepburn , William Holden and Humphrey Bogart in 1954 , he received his first film role as a French master chef .
Besides Hillaire occurred in New York in two Broadway productions The Heavenly Twins (1954) by Jean-Pierre Aumont , and from February 1955 to April 1956 in a leading role in the Cole Porter -Musical Silk Stockings on .
"The essence of all French"
After moving to Los Angeles , he portrayed mostly Europeans, especially French, in film and television. From the late 1950s Hillaire toured US colleges with his one-man show, The Smile of France .
In interviews with local newspapers before his appearances, Hillaire said that he was born in the Ménilmontant district of Paris as the son of an artist at the Folies Bergère and that he received his training from the two French acting legends Louis Jouvet and Sacha Guitry . Hillaire adopted the nickname "The Essence of All French" and told reporters that he was known as "Le Bien-Aimé du Peuple Français" (The Beloved of the French People).
Late career
From the early 1950s to the 1980s he played character roles in various television series such as Twilight Zone (episodes: "A Most Unusual Camera" and "The New Exhibit"), Lost Between Alien Worlds , Mini-Max , Solo for ONCEL , Ein New York sheriff and tennis rackets and cannons . In 1969 he starred in Woody Allen's second film, Woody the Unlucky Raven , in a major supporting role.
Filmography (selection)
| year | Movie title | role | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1954 | Sabrina | Cook teacher | |
| 1959 | Not with me gentlemen (It Happened to Jane) | cook | Uncredited |
| 1960 | The Twilight Zone (TV series) | Waiter | Episode: A Most Unusual Camera |
| 1960 | Seven Thieves (Seven Thieves) | Duc di Salins | |
| 1960 | Land of a Thousand Adventures (North to Alaska) | "Butler", Jenny's husband | Uncredited |
| 1961 | The Marriage Machine (The Honeymoon Machine) | Casino Games Inspector | |
| 1962 | The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse | Armand Dibier | |
| 1962 | Champagne in Paris (Bon Voyage!) | Guide | |
| 1963 | In love a 1 (Take Her, She's Mine) | police officer | |
| 1963 | Separate beds (The Wheeler Dealers) | Giuseppe - Maitre d ' | |
| 1963 | McHale's Navy (TV series) | Emile Gerard | two episodes |
| 1964 | Monsieur Cognac (Wild and Wonderful) | Inspector Duvivier | |
| 1964 | Always with someone else (What a Way to Go!) | French lawyer | Uncredited |
| 1964 | McHale's Navy (feature film) | Chief de Gendarmes | |
| 1964 | Combat! (TV series) | Jean Sebelleau | Episode: A Rare Vintage |
| 1965 | With Madame Coco (The Art of Love) | hangman | |
| 1965 | A very special love | Claude - French lawyer | |
| 1966 | Paris is full of love (Made in Paris) | companion | |
| 1966 | Time Tunnel ( The Time Tunnel , TV series) | Prisoner on Devil's Island | |
| 1966 | The murderers stand in line (Murderers' Row) | Police Capt. Deveraux | |
| 1967 | Throw out the monkeys! (Monkeys, Go Home!) | Mayor Gaston Lou | |
| 1969 | Woody the unlucky fellow (Take the Money and Run) | Fritz - director | |
| 1978 | Evening in Byzantium (Miniseries) | Inspector Le Dioux |
Trivia
In his non-fiction book Beethoven's Locke. The US journalist Russell Martin tells a true story of how Hillaire's then 15-year-old grandfather, Ferdinand von Hiller , took a lock from the composer Ludwig van Beethoven on his deathbed , and follows the history of this lock and its owner to the present day. He names Erwin Hiller as her possibly last owner from the Hiller clan.
Individual evidence
- ^ Martin, Russell, 1952-: Beethoven's hair . 1st ed. Broadway Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-7679-0350-1 , pp. 67 .
- ↑ Ken Eisner: Beethoven's Hair. . In: Variety . June 3, 2005. Accessed December 7, 2020: “Since the Hillers were partly Jewish, Paul's family had to flee from the Nazis. (One of the singer's sons became the successful French actor Marcel Hillaire.) "
- ↑ Martin Walker: This Beethoven saga missing many notes. In: The Chicago Sun-Times . December 31, 2000, archived from the original on September 21, 2014 ; accessed on December 7, 2020 (English): “The last of the Hillers lived in Los Angeles and worked as a character actor in Hollywood (" Mission: Impossible "and Woody Allen's" Take the Money and Run ") under the new name Marcel Hillaire. His life is another forgotten epic: Marcel survived the Hitler years by working as a traveling actor under the name Harry Fuerster, but was fired and denounced after sleeping with the manager's wife and was eventually spared because he was killed by the Red Army Berlin, which conquered Berlin while he was in prison for rape, was freed. "
- ^ A b c d Martin, Russell, 1952-: Beethoven's hair . 1st ed. Broadway Books, New York 2000, ISBN 0-7679-0350-1 , pp. 261-264 .
- ^ French '1-Man Theater' Slated to Present Variety Act at ASC . In: Arizona Republic . Phoenix, Arizona February 18, 1961, p. 12 ( newspapers.com [accessed December 7, 2020]).
- ↑ Billy Wilder: Billy Wilder: Interviews . Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2001, ISBN 978-1-57806-444-1 ( google.com [accessed December 7, 2020]).
- ^ French Actor to Present Series Program Monday . In: The Lumberjack , Northern Arizona University, Associated Students, February 16, 1961, p. 1. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
- ^ Russell Martin: Beethoven's Hair. An Extraordinary Historical Odyssey and a Scientific Mystery Solved . Crown Publishing Group, New York 2001, ISBN 076790351X . German translation: Beethoven's Locke. A true story . Piper, Munich 2002, ISBN 9783492235556
- ^ Literatur-Couch Medien GmbH & Co KG: Beethovens Locke. A true story. In: Krimi-Couch.de. July 19, 2018, accessed January 9, 2021 .
Web links
- Marcel Hillaire in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Marcel Hillaire in the Internet Broadway Database
- Marcel Hillaire in the Internet Off-Broadway Database
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hillaire, Marcel |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hiller, Erwin Ottmar (maiden name); Fuerster, Harry (stage name); Prince, Harry (stage name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 23, 1908 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Cologne |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 1, 1988 |
| Place of death | Los Angeles , California |