Francis Lederer

Francis Lederer, actually Franz Lederer, Cz František Lederer ( born November 6, 1899 in Carolinenthal in Prague, then Austria - Hungary, † 25 May 2000 Palm Springs / California ) was an Austrian- Czechoslovakian actor. In German-speaking films he appears under his baptismal name " Franz Lederer ", in American as " Francis Lederer ".

Life and work

Franz Lederer grew up as the son of Jewish parents in Prague on bilingual and earned already in the 1910s as a theater extra money added. After acting with Reinhardt 's novel he began in 1918 to study at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts and received his first appointment in 1919 at the New German Theatre in Prague. In the following years he also appeared on the German stage, where he was a youthful lover has enjoyed success since 1925.

As a film actor, he made ​​his debut in 1928 in Carl Froelich's melodrama refuge in which he starred with Henny Porten the lead role. One of his most famous films he made in 1929, when he played alongside Louise Brooks in Pandora's Box, GW Pabst's adaptation of Wedekind's drama of the same name. Had a further success in Hanns Schwarz film The Wonderful Lie of Nina Petrovna, a variant of the classic stage Lady of the Camellias, which showed him next to Brigitte Helm.

Thanks to his stage experience Lederer made ​​the leap to talkies without problems. He made ​​his debut in the new medium in 1929 in the Atlantic Ocean in the EA Dupont interpreted the Geschichtes the sinking of the Titanic. Among the best known strip from the time the participation was next to the then very popular Hollywood actress Anna May Wong in the German language version of Richard Eichberg Hai -Tang. The road to shame with.

The actor moved in 1932 after various theater engagements in the United Kingdom to the United States, where he was successful with Autumn Crocus on Broadway in 1932. With a film contract with Paramount Pictures, he went to Hollywood, where the studio was trying to bring out in him the successor of Maurice Chevalier in the role of the professional continental lover large. The studio changed its name to Francis Lederer, which was easier to pronounce for American audiences. Overall, however, his career was below the level he had in Europe. Despite occasional leading roles in comedies such as cost Novak loves America next Ginger Rogers and William Wyler's The Gay Deception in he played mostly supporting roles in A- films like Mitchell Leisen's comedy in Midnight - unveiling at midnight

Among the few leading roles, he still got towards the end of 1930, the part was Anatole Litvak in Confessions of a Nazi Spy, the 1939 showed Lederer opposite Edward G. Robinson as a German secret agent. With the exception of The Bridge of San Luis Rey in 1944, the film adaptation of the novel by Thornton Wilder, in which he appeared alongside Alla Nazimova, most were films of the time routine productions. 1958 Francis Lederer began a brief second career as a horror movie actor. As a vampire, Count Dracula, he starred in The Return of Dracula from 1958. The following year, Lederer was in Terror is a Man a mad scientist transforms a panther into a murderous human-like creature.

Since the 1930s, he was next to his acting work as a pacifist and politically engaged. In 1934 he had the World Peace Federation was founded. In 1940 he was accused by a committee of the White House, to sympathize with the Communists, but was eventually cleared. Lederer was among the first members of the American film actor union Screen Actors Guild and was briefly ANTA for a time president of the American National Academy of Performing Arts.

Lederer was married in the 1920s with Ada Nejedly. After a brief marriage with Mexican actress Margo held its third nearly 60 years. In later years, Lederer, who had come as a broker to great prosperity operation, a large ranch in Canoga Park.

Filmography

German films, unless otherwise indicated:

American films, unless otherwise indicated:

Documentation

345620
de