Advanced search

Christiane Schmidtmer was born in Mannheim, Germany. She took acting lessons in Munich and worked in the stage in Germany from 1961-1963, then turned to photographic modeling for German nude magazines and later, Playboy. She also modeled for advertising companies, namely Max Factor cosmetics, before she started her movie career.

She was the beautiful mistress of José Ferrer in Ship of Fools (1965), but most people will remember her as the evil wardress in the exploitation women-in-prison film, The Big Doll House (1971), as well as one of the three airline stewardesses in Boeing, Boeing (1965).

Widely known for his frequent collaborations with Rainer Werner Fassbinder, a creative partnership which lasted 10 years and produced over 20 films, Ulli Lommel is one of the most consistently creative filmmakers to come from the New German Cinema movement.

The son of German comic performer Ludwig Manfred Lommel, Ulli Lommel began his career in show business as a child. His second feature film as a director Tenderness of the Wolves (1973) brought Lommel to New York, where he began working with Andy Warhol at The Factory. The Warhol / Lommel years spawned several features, including Cocaine Cowboys (1979) and Blank Generation (1980), both of which were directed by Lommel and feature Warhol in an acting role.

In the summer of 2013 Lommel went for nine months to Brazil, where he wrote a book and also made a film about Campo Bahia, the official camp for the German National Soccer Team. His autobiography, entitled Tenderness of the Wolves, is due out in late 2015.

Born in Nuremberg on February 27, 1910, the son of a school teacher, well-known German actor Wolfgang Preiss started studying philosophy and theatre sciences alternately (including dance training) and made his stage debut in 1932 in Munich. He appeared in many theatres throughout his country in the 30s including Heidelberg, Bonn, Bremen, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Berlin.

Beginning in a couple of early 1940s German films, WWII interrupted Preiss' movie output for quite some time, but, in many ways, the war never left him, for he would continue playing war-time colonels, generals, and field marshals for the duration of his prolific career.

Following more theatre and radio work, Preiss returned to post-war German filming and was seldom seen out of uniform with a mass of pictures including Deadly Decision (1954), The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (1955) (starring role), Der Cornet - Die Weise von Liebe und Tod (1955), Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (1956), Stresemann (1957), Haie und kleine Fische (1957) and I Was All His (1958). His diabolical tendencies also lent to his casting as the title criminal mastermind in a series of mystery films: The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961), The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962), The Terror of Doctor Mabuse (1962) and Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard (1963).

Preiss continued to keep his Nazi uniform starched and pressed as he branched out internationally for such 1960's war films as The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), The Longest Day (1962), The Cardinal (1963), The Train (1964), Von Ryan's Express (1965), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Anzio (1968) and Battle of the Commandos (1969). As the nemesis of such American heroes as William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Peter Falk, he moved into the next decade with portrayals of Rommel in Raid on Rommel (1971) starring Richard Burton and Field Marshal Von Rundstedt in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977) which featured an international star cast.

Preiss would appear in over 100 German and continental productions in his lifetime. Other popular filming would include featured roles in The Salzburg Connection (1972), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Bloodline (1979) and The Formula (1980). In his twilight years, Preiss turned more and more to TV as part of the ensemble casts of the quality miniseries Wallenstein (1978), The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988). He ended his career with a role in the French adventure movie drama Aire libre (1996).

Preiss died on November 27, 2002, at the age of 92, as the result of a fall. Married three times, he was survived by his third wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1955.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov was born in 1860, the third of six children to a family of a grocer, in Taganrog, Russia, a southern seaport and resort on the Azov Sea. His father, a 3rd-rank Member of the Merchant's Guild, was a religious fanatic and a tyrant who used his children as slaves. Young Chekhov was a part-time assistant in his father's business and also a singer in a church choir. At age 15, he was abandoned by his bankrupt father and lived alone for 3 years while finishing the Classical Gymnazium in Taganrog. Chekhov obtained a scholarship at the Moscow University Medical School in 1879, from which he graduated in 1884 as a Medical Doctor. He practiced general medicine for about ten years.

While a student, Chekhov published numerous short stories and humorous sketches under a pseudonym. He reserved his real name for serious medical publications, saying "medicine is my wife; literature - a mistress." While a doctor, he kept writing and had success with his first books, and his first play "Ivanov." He gradually decreased his medical practice in favor of writing. Chekhov created his own style based on objectivity, brevity, originality, and compassion. It was different from the mainstream Russian literature's scrupulous analytical depiction of "heroes." Chekhov used a delicate fabric of hints, subtle nuances in dialogs, and precise details. He described his original style as an "objective manner of writing." He avoided stereotyping and instructive political messages in favor of cool comic irony. Praised by writers Lev Tolstoy and Nikolai Leskov, he was awarded the Pushkin Prize from the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1888.

In 1890, Chekhov made a lengthy journey to Siberia and to the remote prison-island of Sakhalin. There, he surveyed thousands of convicts and conducted research for a dissertation about the life of prisoners. His research grew bigger than a dissertation, and in 1894, he published a detailed social-analytical essay on the Russian penitentiary system in Siberia and the Far East, titled "Island of Sakhalin." Chekhov's valuable research was later used and quoted by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in his "Gulag Archipelago." In 1897-1899, Chekhov returned to his medical practice in order to stop the epidemic of cholera.

Chekhov developed special relationship with Stanislavsky and Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko at the Moscow Art Theater. He emerged as a mature playwright who influenced the modern theater. In the plays "Uncle Vanya," "Three Sisters," "Seagull," and "Cherry Orchard," he mastered the use of understatement, anticlimax, and implied emotion. The leading actress of the Moscow Art Theater, Olga Knipper-Chekhova, became his wife. In 1898, Chekhov moved to his Mediterranean-style home at the Black Sea resort of Yalta in the Crimea. There he was visited by writers Lev Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Ivan Bunin, and artists Konstantin Korovin and Isaac Levitan.

Brigitte Skay was born on 18 July 1940 in Mannheim, Germany. She was an actress, known for The Love Factor (1969), Isabella, Duchess of the Devils (1969) and A Bay of Blood (1971). She died on 19 November 2012 in Weinheim, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

George S. Patton III was a highly successful and highly controversial general who held Corps- and Army-level commands during World War II. Because of his great competence as a battlefield commander, Patton might have led the American troops during the invasion of Normandy; however, his impolitic ways and a degree of emotional instability (which manifested itself in the slapping of two soldiers suffering from shell-shock at an Army field hospital) put the kibosh on that. Patton was relieved of his command and put on ice for many months in order to recuperate. Instead, the command of the American forces on D-Day, went to his former deputy in North Africa, Omar N. Bradley.

Patton was known as "Blood & Guts" ("Our blood, his guts"), was a common gripe among his troops for his hard-driving discipline, which paid off in lower casualties and great success on the battlefield. With the exception of Douglas MacArthur, Patton ranks as the greatest general the United States put on the field during the Second World War. Patton achieved four-star rank for his battlefield exploits as one of the best commanders of mechanized forces on either side during the War. He succeeded Dwight D. Eisenhower as the Military Governor of the U.S. Occupation Zone in Germany, when Ike -- a five-star general -- was promoted to Army Chief of Staff.

On December 9, 1945, Patton became seriously injured after his automobile crashed with an American army truck at low speed. He began bleeding from a gash on his head, and complained that he was paralyzed and having trouble breathing. Taken to a hospital in Heidelberg, Patton was discovered to have a compression fracture and dislocation of the cervical third fourth vertebrae, resulting in a broken neck and cervical spinal cord injury that rendered him paralyzed from the neck down. He spent most of the next twelve days in spinal traction to decrease the pressure on his spine. He died at age 60 in his sleep of pulmonary edema and congestive heart failure.

On December 24, 1945, General George S. Patton was buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial alongside some wartime casualties of the Third Army, in accordance with his request to "be buried with his men". He was immortalized in the 1970 eponymous epic film, which won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor (George C. Scott). This was President Richard Nixon's favorite film.

The blond, steely-eyed bad guy of European westerns and potboilers was born in Lübeck, Germany, the son of a porcelain painter. Horst Frank financed his acting studies by working part-time as a babysitter and night watchman. He actually failed his final exams at the Musikhochschule Hamburg, but nonetheless managed to secure an acting position in his home town. For some time after, his work was primarily confined to small parts on stage and in radio. His first screen role saw him as a cowardly pilot in Der Stern von Afrika (1957). Frank then won a critic's award for his next role as member of a U-Boat crew in the war drama Haie und kleine Fische (1957).

Of athletic, lithe build and owner of a somewhat cold, hypnotic gaze (with a voice to match), Frank soon found himself typecast to disturbingly good effect as psychotic murderers in German and international productions (The Black Panther of Ratana (1963), Das Mädchen vom Moorhof (1958), Der Greifer (1958)). Alternatively, he proved an ideal henchman for spaghetti westerns (Bullets Don't Argue (1964), Johnny Hamlet (1968) and Django, Prepare a Coffin (1968)). Frank didn't seem to mind turning out copies of the same negative in a seemingly endless gallery of ruthless killers and impassive assassins. He did so with relish well into the 1980's and 90's, enjoying guest spots on popular TV crime time shows like Tatort (1970) and Derrick (1974). If Horst Frank was in the cast, you knew pretty much from the start 'whodunnit'.

Behind the menacing heavy, there was a family man and author of poems and chansons. In addition to his screen acting, Frank lent his voice to dubbing work (for the likes of fellow tough guys Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine and Chuck Connors); and to radio, where he voiced Captain Nemo in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and "The Mysterious Island".

Likely because of his lack of work in major American or British productions, Frank never quite achieved the international recognition he undoubtedly deserved. He died quite suddenly in May 1999 of a brain hemorrhage, just short of his 70th birthday.

Born 1929 in Germany as son of a surrealist painter who was banned by the Nazis in 1936. Went to Waldorf-school and deserted when he was called to the army at age of 16 in 1945. After the war he became an actor, critic and finally writer. His first big success was the children's book "Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivfuehrer" (Jim Knopf and Lukas the Engine-driver). Although he got much praise and many awards he remained modest, almost shy, preferring his fantasy world but still keeping an eye on the real world in his stories.

Marika Rokk was born in Cairo on the 3rd of November 1913. As a child she moved to Hungary. In Paris at the Moulin Rouge she started her career as a dancer, soon moving on to Broadway New York City, USA.

She made her first films Why Sailors Leave Home (1930) in London, & also Kiss Me Sergeant (1930) in London, U.K.

After that she made 2 very fine films in Hungary, her home.

Miss Rokk made her first German film: Light Cavalry (1935) in 1935 it made her a Star overnight. Soon she married German Film Director Georg Jacoby and her 2nd German film was Der Bettelstudent (1936), directed by him.

In 1939 she made It Was a Gay Ballnight (1939) with superstar Zarah Leander and started filming the first German color film Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941) which was finished and released two years later.

The couple had one child, Gabriele Jacoby. Miss Rökk also married Fred Raul. She retired from films in the 1960s but continued to perform in Operetta's like "Die Blume von Hawaii" & others on the stage across Europe before retiring to Baden, Austria. She died of a heart attack May 16, 2004.

Vilma Degischer was, first of all, a famous and a very good theatre actress. She was born in Vienna on November, the 17th 1911. After attending school, she wanted to be a dancer and was taught ballet by Grete Gross, Gertrude Bodenwieser and Ellinor Tordis. However, after some time, she found the acting talent in herself.

She decided to attend the Wiener Reinhardt Seminar where she learned how to be a good actress. After graduating from the seminar, she played in various Austrian and German theatres, especially in Berlin, Vienna and Salzburg. Here, it is important to mention her debut in Berlin in 1930s where she played Hermia in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. It was directed by Max Reinhardt.

The first turning point in her theatre career was the year 1939 when she started to actively work in the Viennese theatre "Theater in der Josefstadt." She stayed there for long and up till now her name is well remembered there. Vilma became a "salondame" and got a number of main roles in plays. Above all, it is necessary to mention such roles as Helen in "Der Schwierige", Generalin in "Der Walzer der Toreros", unforgettable Königin in "Die Jüdin von Toledo", Marie in "Das Konzert" or Mother Carmen in "Maria Pineda".

Later, in the 1940s Vilma Degischer broadened her repertoire and started to play in musicals, films, and even some mini series. Most people probably remember her portrayal of the cruel archduchess Sophie in Ernst Marischka's three parts of "Sissi" (1955, 1956, 1957) with Romy Schneider and Karlheinz Böhm. Besides, there were other roles in movies: as Livia Argan in Ernst Marischka's beautiful movie interpretation of Franz Werfel's "Der veruntreute Himmel" (1958) with Annie Rosar and Hans Holt; as sister Wilhelmina in Otto Preminger's "The Cardinal" (1963) with Romy Schneider; as Mrs. Shelby in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" (1965) and many other roles. At the end of her life, one could admire her in a minor role in the mini series "The Strauss Dynasty" (1991) by Marvin J. Chomsky with Anthony Higgins and Stephen McGann.

Vilma Degischer died on May, the 3rd 1992 at the age of 80. She was married once to the actor Hermann Thimig with whom she had two daughters. In her long career, she was awarded with the "Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst erster Klasse", "Kainz Medaille" and was given a title "Kamerschauspielerin".

People who remember her know how much she appreciated elegance, perfection of acting, good manners, and culture. She will always be remembered by people who share her values. A great actress from a great country!

Lotte Reiniger was born on 2 June 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She was a director and writer, known for Silhouetten (1936), Der Graf von Carabas (1935) and Lotte Reiniger - The Fairy Tale Films (1961). She was married to Carl Koch. She died on 19 June 1981 in Dettenhausen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Erich Ponto was born on 14 December 1884 in Lübeck [now Schleswig-Holstein], Germany. He was an actor and writer, known for The Third Man (1949), Sky Without Stars (1955) and Schneider Wibbel (1939). He was married to Tony Kresse. He died on 4 February 1957 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Hans Holt was born on 22 November 1909 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor and writer, known for Wen die Götter lieben (1942), The Trapp Family (1956) and The Mozart Story (1948). He was married to Renate Bremer. He died on 3 August 2001 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austria.

Heinz Meier was born on 17 February 1930 in Perwissau, East Prussia, Germany [now Rozhkovo, Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia]. He was an actor, known for World on a Wire (1973), Mystery Science Theater 3000 (1988) and Ozark (2017). He was married to Gisela Meier-Bonsels. He died on 21 July 2013 in Schliengen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Vera Glagoleva was born on 31 January 1956 in Moscow, Russian SFSR, USSR [now Russia]. She was an actress and director, known for Odna voyna (2009), Zakaz (2005) and Two Women (2014). She was married to Kirill Shubsky and Rodion Nakhapetov. She died on 16 August 2017 in Baden-Baden, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Erwin Rommel, aka "The Desert Fox", was one of Adolf Hitler's most able generals during WWII. He joined the German army in 1910 and won awards for bravery in WW I. He was in the 7th Tank Division at the outbreak of WW II and headed the push to the English Channel. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant general, Rommel led the German army in Africa (known as The Afrika Korps) in its mostly successful North African campaign. He drove the British in Libya back to to El Alamein. This led to his promotion to the rank of Field Marshal. Eventually outmaneuvered by British Gen. Bernard L. Montgomery, he returned to Germany, where he was given charge of the defense of northern France. Implicated in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler, he chose suicide rather than execution.

Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Heraklion, Crete (Greece). He studied Law in Athens and in Paris, but soon he studied philosophy and literature. He travelled almost everywhere; he learnt many foreign languages and left his scientific research for Nitsche. At philosophy: "Ascetics" (Salvatores Dei, 1927), script that expresses the writer's belief for metaphysics. At poetry: "The Odyssey" (1938) "Tertsines" and also some poetic works for theatre: "Protomastoras" (=foreman) "Melissa" (=Bee) "Julian" "Prometheus" etc. His novels are: "Alexis Zorbas" (1946) "O Xristos xanastavronetai" (=Christ is recrucified) (1948) "O ftoxoulis tou Theou" (=The God's poor man) (1952-3) "Anafora ston Greco (=Reference to Greco) (1961) He died in 1957.

Arnold Fanck was born March 6, 1889, in Frankenthal, Germany. A trained geologist, he began making documentary and action films after the end of World War I, and his love of geology inspired him to shoot his films in remote mountain locations. These pictures became immensely popular with the German audiences and led to what is known as the "mountain films", a genre that was pretty much begun by Fanck but carried on by other German and Austrian directors. Fanck worked most notably with Leni Riefenstahl, Georg Wilhelm Pabst and American director Tay Garnett.

Fanny Schreck was born on 15 July 1877 in Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg [now Baden-Württemberg], Germany. She was an actress, known for The Hunter of Fall (1936), Die Talfahrt des Severin Hoyey (1922) and The Girl from the Marsh Croft (1935). She was married to Max Schreck. She died on 11 December 1951 in Söflingen, Ulm, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Friedrich Feher was born on 16 March 1889 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor and director, known for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Robber Symphony (1936) and William Tell (1913). He was married to Magda Sonja. He died on 30 September 1950 in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Proficient in Greek and Latin and self-taught in classic literature, Sonja Sutter was a captivating actress who achieved dramatic depths on both stage and screen during a career which commenced in 1951. A banker's daughter, she had completed a rudimentary education in her home town (Freiburg) where she also made her theatrical debut. She was 'discovered' for the screen by Luis Trenker during an audition for a Heimatfilm and passed along to the director Slatan Dudow who gave her a pivotal role in his post-war drama Frauenschicksale (1952). Affiliated with both East and West German cinema, Sutter then appeared in several prestige pictures, including Das Schweigen im Walde (1955) and Die Barrings (1955). Not until five years later did she get another opportunity to demonstrate her talent as the titular star of Lissy (1957), directed by Konrad Wolf. This anti-fascist drama, chronicling the lives of a working class family in 1930's Berlin under the Nazis, became one of Wolf's most famous films and was also the high point of Sutter's film career. Perhaps too closely identified with a particular type of character, she received fewer film offers from the West in the 60's. The creation of the Berlin Wall effectively ended her association with DEFA. Returning to the stage, Sutter became an ensemble member of the iconic Vienna Burgtheater in 1959. Her tenure with the company lasted four decades, with as many as seventy leading roles to her repertoire. She also regularly performed at the Salzburg Festival, her roles ranging from Strindberg's "Queen Christina" and Schiller's "Intrigue and Love" (Kabale und Liebe) to Gute Werke in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's medieval play "Everyman". Towards the end of her career, she concentrated increasingly on TV work, often guesting as genteel ladies in popular crime shows like Tatort (1970), Derrick (1974) and The Old Fox (1977).

Renate Schroeter was born on 27 September 1939 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for The Lacemaker (1977), Die Kleinbürger (1969) and Haus Herzenstod (1964). She died on 3 April 2017 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Robert Lynen was born on 24 May 1920 in Sarrogna, Jura, Franche-Comté, France. He was an actor, known for Sans famille (1934), Poil de carotte (1932) and Bargekeepers Daughter (1938). He died on 1 April 1944 in Karlsruhe, Baden, Germany.

Eva May was born Eva Maria Mandel on May 29, 1902 in Vienna, Austria. Her mother was actress Mia May and her father was producer and director Joe May. Eva made her film debut in her father's 1914 German film The Black Triangle. At the age of sixteen she married director Erik Lund. The couple worked together in numerous films including The Foolish Heart, Black Pearls, and The Bride Of The Incapacitated. She was directed by her father again in the 1920 drama The Legend Of Holly Simplicity,. The press called her "The German Mary Pickford". Unfortunately Eva developed a reputation for being difficult to work with. The young actress was also jealous of her mother's beauty and greater success. She divorced Erik in 1922 and married director Lothar Mendes. They split up a year later.

In 1923 she costarred with Lya De Putti in Die Fledermaus and with Conrad Veidt in Paganini. Her third marriage, to director Manfred Noa, only lasted a few months. Eva started dating producer Rudolf Sieber. When he left her for Marlene Dietrich she slashed her wrists. It was one of several suicide attempts she had made. Then she fell in love with director Fritz Mandl (who was also her second cousin). She was devastated when he refused to marry her. On September 10, 1924 the twenty-two year old committed suicide by shooting herself in the head. In her hand she clutched a photo of Fritz Mandl. Eva left a note that said "Fritz family object - always there is something to mar my happiness - Life is not worth living". Thousands of friends and fans attended her funeral in Vienna. She was cremated and her ashes were given to her parents.

Annemarie Düringer was born on 26 November 1925 in Basel, Switzerland. She was an actress, known for Veronika Voss (1982), The Devil Strikes at Night (1957) and Vor Sonnenuntergang (1956). She died on 26 November 2014 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austria.