Willy Eichberger

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Willy Eichberger (born June 14, 1902 in Vienna as Carl Caesar Willy Simon , † December 4, 2004 in Brentwood , California ), English pseudonym Carl Esmond , was an Austrian - American film and theater actor .

Live and act

Theater and film career in Europe

Eichberger worked as a bank clerk in Vienna and attended the Academy for Music and Performing Arts . There, Burg actor Ernst Arndt was his teacher, who recommended him in 1922 for a role at the Burgtheater , where he made his debut in the role of the young man in “The Woman of Forty Years”. After internal turbulence at the Burgtheater, which meant that he was only used as a "Springer", he switched to the Volkstheater . There he played mainly Grillparzer roles with great success . His colleague Celia Lovsky finally persuaded him to move to Berlin, where Eichberger initially played at the Theater Unter den Linden . He was then brought to Chemnitz by the director Richard Tauber (the singer's father ) , after which he played at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg , where he was able to establish himself as a character actor under the direction of Hermann Röbbeling . When he went to the Burgtheater in Vienna, Eichberger moved to Berlin again, where he played at the Rose Theater as the last stage before his first film role.

In 1932 he was discovered for the film by Friedrich Zelnik . Eichberger got a role in Kaiserwalzer (1933). With his second film, Liebelei (1933), he became an overnight star. The internationally successful film drew numerous role offers.

In 1933 his agent Elisabeth Blumann, who had emigrated to England, got him several film roles in London. There he changed his name to Carl Esmond after the English press from Eichberger created "Iceberg", which his producer did not find a good nickname for a romantic lover.

After three films he returned to mainland Europe in 1935 and played as Willy Eichberger in the Ufa films Die Pompadour (1935), Der Postillon von Lonjumeau (1935), Der Weg des Herzens ( Prater ) (1936), again with Magda Schneider , with which he was already so successful in the literary film adaptation of Liebelei , and Burgtheater (1936). He then went back to London, where he celebrated great success as "Prince Albert" in the play "Victoria Regina". In this prime role he was seen by MGM boss Louis B. Mayer that same year and lured to Hollywood with fabulous promises. In the same year he also met Ruth Taub, whom he later met again in Hollywood and married.

Career in film and television in Hollywood

In January 1938 he finally moved to Hollywood after Paul von Hernreid had found a successor for his role in London. Once there, it took months until he was finally able to take on a role as a pilot in the First World War in Dawn Patrol (1938), since the larger roles initially intended for him as "Count Axel Fersen" in Marie Antoinette and as "Johann Strauss" in The Great Waltz have already been cast with other actors. He turned down another role for fear of repression against his family in Vienna after the SS newspaper Das Schwarze Korps threatened him in Germany .

In March 1938 he was surprised in Hollywood by the news of the “Anschluss” of Austria . A return to Vienna would have been a return to the Third Reich, which he refused. As a result, Eichberger also suffered a lot from being offered almost only roles as "Nazi" as a "German", since from 1938 a real boom in war and Nazi films set in, which was only intensified when the USA entered the war in 1941. In order to continue to have a secure income, he still had to assume a few roles. In these, however, he tried to deliver a more differentiated picture of his character than crude clichés and images of the enemy. He was able to act out this very well in, for example, Fritz Lang's mystery thriller Ministry of Fear (1944), since his role as a Nazi officer in it only shows his true colors towards the end of the film. It was not until many years after the end of the war that he was able to prove his versatility as an actor in Hollywood and establish himself as a character actor. The highlight of Esmond's film career is the documentary feature film Resisting Enemy Interrogation , which was shot in 1944 for the American Air Force to investigate enemy espionage tactics in the event of captivity. Except for a comment at the beginning and the end of the film, the film was professionally staged as a drama. Esmond played a German defense officer in it . The film received an Oscar nomination for best documentary in 1944 .

After the end of the war he tried to build on his earlier successes in Germany, but the film industry dominated by shallow entertainment films did not offer any interesting roles for him. He therefore returned to the United States, of which he had been a citizen since 1943. Only in 1955, when he heard about Max Ophüls ' Lola Montez film in Munich , did he play a role again - Lola's doctor - in Germany.

From 1965, Esmond received no more film offers. He has since acted in countless television films and series, and has made countless appearances in commercials and television shows.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Carl Esmond: I wasn't keen to go to America. In: Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (eds.): Departure into the Unknown. Austrian filmmakers emigrated before 1945. Wespennest Verlag, Vienna 1993.
  • Helmut G. Asper: Something Better Than Death - Film Exile in Hollywood. Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2002, ISBN 3-89472-362-9 , pp. 297-307.
  • 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. ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 151 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Helmut G. Asper: Something Better Than Death - Film Exile in Hollywood. Schüren Verlag, Marburg 2002, p. 301.
personal data
SURNAME Eichberger, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Simon, Carl Caesar Willy (maiden name); Esmond, Carl (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American film and theater actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 14, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 2004
Place of death Brentwood , California