Theo Shall

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Theo Shall (born February 24, 1894 in Metz , † October 4, 1955 in Berlin ; born William Guldner ) was a German actor .

Life

He had Franco-German parents, grew up bilingual and served in the German artillery during the First World War . That is why he was expelled from his homeland after the end of the war, when Alsace-Lorraine came to France . Guldner took the stage name Theo Shall in 1919 and made his first film appearance in 1920.

From 1921 he appeared on the Berlin stages, from 1924 to 1926 he was engaged at the Volkstheater in Vienna . In 1928 he came to the Schauspielhaus Zürich , where he worked as an actor and director.

In between he kept getting film roles. From May 1930 to February 1931 he stayed in Hollywood and worked in German versions of American films. In Anna Christie he took on the male lead as partner of Greta Garbo .

Back in Germany he was the leading actor in The Adventurer of Tunis . From October 1931 to March 1932 he went on a theater tour to Zurich . In 1932 he played in Paris and in August of the same year in Australia. In July 1934 he worked in two English film productions. In Moon on the Yellow River , he acted at the Haymarket Theater in London .

On December 6, 1934, the stateless Shall had to leave Great Britain again. The globetrotter returned to Germany and founded the International Theater in Berlin in March 1936, which specialized in foreign-language plays.

Shall not only acted as a director there, but also became the artistic director and director of the Kulturbund der Englische Bühne e. V., which was closed in January 1939 on the instructions of the Propaganda Ministry. Shall had to limit himself to working as a supporting actor in a few German films, although it was noticeable that he was often brought in front of the camera for politically tendentious productions as an actor by the English and French, but also by Russians and Americans. In the endurance film Kolberg he played the French general Loison, who was brought to despair by the resistance of the German city.

After the end of the war he got an engagement at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and now worked at DEFA in several decidedly pro-communist and anti-western strips, where he remained loyal to the foreigner subject. He had one last major appearance in Part II of the Thälmann film as the French communist leader Marcel Cachin . He died after a long, serious illness.

Filmography

Radio plays

Remarks

  1. ↑ According to Kay Less : Das große Personenlexikon des Films , Volume 7, p. 281, in which Shalls life is described in detail. Other sources give, apparently in error, 1896 as the year of birth.
  2. ↑ filmportal.de gives October 4, 1956 as the date of death.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Shall, Theo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guldner, William (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Metz
DATE OF DEATH 4th October 1955
Place of death Berlin