Herbert Berghof

Herbert Berghof (* September 13, 1909 in Vienna, † November 5, 1990 in New York City ) was an Austrian- American actor, director and acting teacher. Together with his wife Uta Hagen he founded in 1945, the HB Studio, a prestigious drama school in Greenwich Village.

Actor

In addition to studying at the University of Vienna, he studied acting training at Max Reinhardt, who eventually it both in the theater in the Josefstadt, and 1937 - began as a death in his Everyman production at the Salzburg Festival - with only 27 years. But Berghof guest appearances in Berlin and Zurich, was temporarily the ensemble literature at the Naschmarkt and played 1936 - next to Zarah Leander - in the premiere of Axel at heaven's door, an operetta by Ralph Benatzky, at the Theater an der Wien.

1939 forced to emigrate to the United States, he earned his living for the time being as an acting teacher, but was from the late 1940s once again succeed as an actor on Broadway and then in Hollywood. His first stage success in America was the role of Miss Liberty in Bartholdi, a musical by Irving Berlin for a script by Robert E. Sherwood with 308 performances in 1949. His first Hollywood film was 1951 The case Cicero ( in the original: Five Fingers ), a thriller directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, in which he embodied the German captain of judges. In subsequent years, although he was engaged mainly in TV series, but always returned to Hollywood: 1963 in Cleopatra alongside Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, 1974 in Harry and Tonto by Paul Mazursky, 1980 in Your lips, your eyes with Tom Hulce.

Director

Berghof already ventured in 1956 Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway bring out - with Geoffrey Holder as Lucky, EG Marshall and Earle Hyman later than Vladimir, Rex Ingram as Pozzo, Bert Lahr and later Mantan Moreland as Estragon occupied prominent. He scored a respectable success in the press and public, although production did not run long.

Teacher

Berghof died in 1990 of heart failure in Manhattan, The New York Times praised him as "one of the greatest acting teachers of the nation".