Conrad Veidt(1893-1943)
- Actor
- Director
- Producer
Conrad Veidt attended the Sophiengymnasium (secondary school) in the
Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in
1912, last in his class of 13. Conrad liked animals, theater, cinema,
fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golfing. He
disliked heights, flying, the number 17, wearing ties, pudding and
interviews. A star of early German cinema, he became a sensation in
1920 with his role as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in
Robert Wiene's masterpiece
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920).
Other prominent roles in German silent films included
Different from the Others (1919)
and
Waxworks (1924).
His third wife, Ilona (nicknamed Lily), was Jewish, although he himself
wasn't. However, whenever he had to state his ethnic background on
forms to get a job, he wrote: "Jude" (Jew). He and Lily fled Germany in
1933 after the rise to power of
Adolf Hitler, and he became a British
citizen in 1939. Universal Pictures head
Carl Laemmle personally chose Veidt to play
Dracula in a film to be directed by Paul Leni
based on a successful New York stage play: "Dracula". Ultimately,
Bela Lugosi got the role, and
Tod Browning directed the film,
Dracula (1931). In his last German film,
F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (1932),
Veidt sang a song called "Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay."
Although the record was considered a flop in 1933, the song became a
hit almost 50 years later, when, in 1980, DJ
Terry Wogan played it as a request on the
Radio 2 breakfast show. That single playing generated numerous phone
calls, and shortly thereafter the song appeared on a British
compilation album called "Movie Star Memories" - a collection of songs
from 1930s-era films compiled from EMI archives. The album was released
by World Records Ltd., and is now out of print but can still be ordered
online ("Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay" is track 4 on side
2). Veidt appeared in Germany's first talking picture,
Bride 68 (1929),
and made only one color picture,
The Thief of Bagdad (1940),
filmed in England and Hollywood. His most famous role was as Gestapo
Maj. Strasser in the classic
Casablanca (1942); although he was not
the star of the picture, he was the highest paid actor. He died while
playing golf, and on the death certificate his name is misspelled as
"Hanz Walter Conrad Veidt". Because he had been blacklisted in Nazi
Germany, there was no official announcement there of his death. His
ex-wife, Felicitas, and daughter Viola, in Switzerland, heard about it
on the radio.