Fritz Spira
Fritz Spira, a native Jacob Spira, ( born August 1, 1877 in Vienna, † 1943 in the concentration camp Ruma, Yugoslavia ) was an Austrian actor.
Life
Spira attended the Vienna Conservatory and began his artistic career as an operetta singer at the theaters of Olomouc and Opava. In 1899 he first came to the city theater of Breslau. In 1900 he received an engagement at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna. In 1901 he came to Berlin, where he spent three decades working at various theaters such as the Residenz-Theater, the New Theater, the Little Theater, the comedy house, the Komische Opera and the Metropolitan Theatre.
Since 1910, Spira was also often used in silent film, but remained mostly confined to small roles, even if he in the third squadron or the almighty Governor embodied high personalities such as Emperor Franz Joseph in 1926 Sacco and Vanzetti.
After the seizure of power by the National Socialists, he emigrated to Poland. The marriage with his wife, actress Lotte Spira, whom he had married on 20 December 1905 in 1934 divorced. Spira played on the German city theater in Poland Bielsko, where he was senior director. In 1935, he went to Austria, but he found a Jew hardly work opportunities.
After the Anschluss he tried in vain to escape abroad. In his attempt to obtain a visa to Shanghai, he was arrested and deported in early March 1941. Spira was probably in the region lying in Vojvodina KZ Ruma killed. He is the father of actresses Camilla Spira and Steffie Spira.