Hans NielsenHans Nielsen (1911-1965) was a German actor and assistant director. He was known for such films as Titanic (1943), Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (1949) and Town Without Pity (1961). He appeared in more than 130 films between 1937 and 1965
Hans Albert Nielsen was born on 30 November 1911 as the son of a merchant in Hamburg, Germany. After attending secondary school he took an apprenticeship as a merchant,. He only completed it for the sake of his parents, because he took acting lessons with Albrecht Schoenhals and Erich Ziegel and also trained in singing. In 1932, Nielsen made his theatre debut at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. Further engagements took him to Augsburg, Kiel and Leipzig in the following months. Many actors and performing artists fled Nazi Germany, but Nielsen remained. In 1938, Nielsen went to Berlin and performed at various theatres. The talented actor had already attracted the attention of the film industry in the mid-1930s and Nielsen made his screen debut with a small part in the romantic comedy Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1937) in the same year he appeared as pilot Billy Sefton in the melodrama Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937). A year later, he took on the role of Max von Wendlowsky in the Zarah Leander film Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938), based on the play by Hermann Sudermann. Productions such as the initially banned historical drama Preußische Liebesgeschichte/A Prussian Love Story (Paul Martin, 1938), the adventure Aufruhr in Damaskus/Uproar in Damascus (Gustacv Ucicky, 1939), and the crime thriller Alarm auf Station III/Alarm at Station III (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1939) followed until the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, Nielsen appeared in the euthanasia drama Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) as Dr Höfer, which is still considered a ”reserved film’ today. In the drama Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) about the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912, Nielsen played the German first officer Petersen. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with the intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew, was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the East. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler, who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. Until the end of the war, Nielsen appeared in productions including the drama Der große König/The Great King (Veit Harlan, 1942) starring Otto Gebühr. The comedy Dr. Phil. Döderlein (1945) remained unfinished.
After the end of the Second World War, Hans Nielsen was able to continue his earlier successes on the big screen with mostly high-profile supporting roles, but also leading roles. He appeared, for example, as King Peter Petroni in the comedy of mistaken identity Herzkönig/King of Hearts (Helmut Weiss, 1947) and as Wolfgang Grunelius in the episodic film In jenen Tagen/In Those Days (1947) directed by Helmuth Käutner. It was one of the Rubble films made in the wake of Germany's defeat during World War II. In 1949, he shone alongside Luise Ullrich and Dieter Borsche in the drama Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (Harald Braun, 1949). He impressively portrayed the pastor Johannes Heger, who finds himself in a conflict of conscience. In 1950, he was seen in the role of chief inspector Thomsen in Kurt Hoffmann's crime thriller Fünf unter Verdacht/Five Suspects (1950), based on the novel ‘Thomas verhört die Prima’ by Herbert Moll and Rudolf Becker. He often played good-natured, likeable and elegant roles, like the presiding judge in the satire Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953). He usually appeared older in his roles than he was, often playing the benevolent head of the family. However, many of the productions in which Nielsen appeared were successful not least because of him. In the criminal melodrama Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk (Rolf Hansen, 1955) with Lilli Palmer and Curd Jürgens, he was the committed defence lawyer, as well as in the legal drama Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!/Confess, Doctor Corda! (Josef von Báky, 1958) with Hardy Krüger and Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959), based on the story ‘Kreuzer Pommern’ by Willi Berthold with Karlheinz Böhm, Christian Wolff and Klaus Kammer as three shipwrecked German marines. In Wolfgang Liebeneiner's romanticised historical film Königin Luise/Queen Luise (1957), he lent character to Minister Karl August von Hardenberg alongside Ruth Leuwerik as Queen Luise. His role as Max Mertens in Anders als du und ich/Different from You and Me (Veit Harlan, 1957) is rather negligible. As Filmdienst.de notes: ‘The film by no means sees homosexuality as a positive alternative to life, and also defames abstract painting and atonal music, which it portrays as the expression of such an ‘attitude to life’.’ Nielsen did not become a real screen star in German post-war films, probably because he was confined to the type of dignified grand seigneur, the ‘actor of sober businessmen and grumpy but spirited clergymen’, as one critic once described him.
Hans Nielsen founded a cabaret group, ‘Die Außenseiter’ (The Outsider) after the war, and appeared in revues by Günter Neumann. Engagements took him to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Renaissance Theatre and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, among others. One of his most important theatre roles was that of the Cardinal in the 1963 premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play ‘Der Stellvertreter’, directed by Erwin Piscator at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm, with Dieter Borsche as Pope Pius XII. During the 1960s, he also appeared in films like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1963) with Christopher Lee, Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse or Scotland Yard vs. Dr Mabuse (Paul May, 1963) starring Peter van Eyck, and Das indische Touch/The Indian Scarf (Alfred Vohrer, 1963). His only Hollywood film was Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961) with Kirk Douglas. In addition to his extensive acting work for theatre and film, Hans Nielsen was also a sought-after dubbing actor. He was the German voice of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Trevor Howard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire and Spencer Tracy. His final film was the Western Die Hölle von Manitoba/The Hell of Manitoba (Sheldon Reynolds, 1965) starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. Hans Nielsen died in 1965 in West Berlin at the age of just 53. He had previously been admitted to hospital with back problems and was diagnosed with leukaemia on examination. The popular act or was laid to rest in the Heerstraße Cemetery in the Berlin district of Westend. The actor had been married to Anna Katharina Elisabeth Novian since 1937; despite having a daughter together, the marriage failed. After the divorce, Nielsen married his second wife Annemarie Giersch, who brought a son into the marriage. Wife number 3 was Jutta Jusseit. The couple married a few months before his death in 1965. In 2023, film historian Thomas Barthol published a biography of the artist entitled ‘Hans Nielsen: Der charmante Kavalier’, who never played in the top league of film stars, but ‘knew how to convince with his acting and vocal skills’.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Demolition Derby: Guitars of Destructionon.soundcloud.com/CrGgGgNPLLXvAcu18 🎸
Demolition Derby: Guitars of Destructionon.soundcloud.com/CrGgGgNPLLXvAcu18 🎸
Demolition Derby: Guitars of Destructionon.soundcloud.com/CrGgGgNPLLXvAcu18 🎸
Hans NielsenHans Nielsen (1911-1965) was a German actor and assistant director. He was known for such films as Titanic (1943), Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (1949) and Town Without Pity (1961). He appeared in more than 130 films between 1937 and 1965
Hans Albert Nielsen was born on 30 November 1911 as the son of a merchant in Hamburg, Germany. After attending secondary school he took an apprenticeship as a merchant,. He only completed it for the sake of his parents, because he took acting lessons with Albrecht Schoenhals and Erich Ziegel and also trained in singing. In 1932, Nielsen made his theatre debut at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. Further engagements took him to Augsburg, Kiel and Leipzig in the following months. Many actors and performing artists fled Nazi Germany, but Nielsen remained. In 1938, Nielsen went to Berlin and performed at various theatres. The talented actor had already attracted the attention of the film industry in the mid-1930s and Nielsen made his screen debut with a small part in the romantic comedy Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1937) in the same year he appeared as pilot Billy Sefton in the melodrama Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937). A year later, he took on the role of Max von Wendlowsky in the Zarah Leander film Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938), based on the play by Hermann Sudermann. Productions such as the initially banned historical drama Preußische Liebesgeschichte/A Prussian Love Story (Paul Martin, 1938), the adventure Aufruhr in Damaskus/Uproar in Damascus (Gustacv Ucicky, 1939), and the crime thriller Alarm auf Station III/Alarm at Station III (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1939) followed until the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, Nielsen appeared in the euthanasia drama Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) as Dr Höfer, which is still considered a ”reserved film’ today. In the drama Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) about the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912, Nielsen played the German first officer Petersen. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with the intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew, was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the East. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler, who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. Until the end of the war, Nielsen appeared in productions including the drama Der große König/The Great King (Veit Harlan, 1942) starring Otto Gebühr. The comedy Dr. Phil. Döderlein (1945) remained unfinished.
After the end of the Second World War, Hans Nielsen was able to continue his earlier successes on the big screen with mostly high-profile supporting roles, but also leading roles. He appeared, for example, as King Peter Petroni in the comedy of mistaken identity Herzkönig/King of Hearts (Helmut Weiss, 1947) and as Wolfgang Grunelius in the episodic film In jenen Tagen/In Those Days (1947) directed by Helmuth Käutner. It was one of the Rubble films made in the wake of Germany's defeat during World War II. In 1949, he shone alongside Luise Ullrich and Dieter Borsche in the drama Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (Harald Braun, 1949). He impressively portrayed the pastor Johannes Heger, who finds himself in a conflict of conscience. In 1950, he was seen in the role of chief inspector Thomsen in Kurt Hoffmann's crime thriller Fünf unter Verdacht/Five Suspects (1950), based on the novel ‘Thomas verhört die Prima’ by Herbert Moll and Rudolf Becker. He often played good-natured, likeable and elegant roles, like the presiding judge in the satire Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953). He usually appeared older in his roles than he was, often playing the benevolent head of the family. However, many of the productions in which Nielsen appeared were successful not least because of him. In the criminal melodrama Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk (Rolf Hansen, 1955) with Lilli Palmer and Curd Jürgens, he was the committed defence lawyer, as well as in the legal drama Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!/Confess, Doctor Corda! (Josef von Báky, 1958) with Hardy Krüger and Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959), based on the story ‘Kreuzer Pommern’ by Willi Berthold with Karlheinz Böhm, Christian Wolff and Klaus Kammer as three shipwrecked German marines. In Wolfgang Liebeneiner's romanticised historical film Königin Luise/Queen Luise (1957), he lent character to Minister Karl August von Hardenberg alongside Ruth Leuwerik as Queen Luise. His role as Max Mertens in Anders als du und ich/Different from You and Me (Veit Harlan, 1957) is rather negligible. As Filmdienst.de notes: ‘The film by no means sees homosexuality as a positive alternative to life, and also defames abstract painting and atonal music, which it portrays as the expression of such an ‘attitude to life’.’ Nielsen did not become a real screen star in German post-war films, probably because he was confined to the type of dignified grand seigneur, the ‘actor of sober businessmen and grumpy but spirited clergymen’, as one critic once described him.
Hans Nielsen founded a cabaret group, ‘Die Außenseiter’ (The Outsider) after the war, and appeared in revues by Günter Neumann. Engagements took him to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Renaissance Theatre and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, among others. One of his most important theatre roles was that of the Cardinal in the 1963 premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play ‘Der Stellvertreter’, directed by Erwin Piscator at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm, with Dieter Borsche as Pope Pius XII. During the 1960s, he also appeared in films like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1963) with Christopher Lee, Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse or Scotland Yard vs. Dr Mabuse (Paul May, 1963) starring Peter van Eyck, and Das indische Touch/The Indian Scarf (Alfred Vohrer, 1963). His only Hollywood film was Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961) with Kirk Douglas. In addition to his extensive acting work for theatre and film, Hans Nielsen was also a sought-after dubbing actor. He was the German voice of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Trevor Howard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire and Spencer Tracy. His final film was the Western Die Hölle von Manitoba/The Hell of Manitoba (Sheldon Reynolds, 1965) starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. Hans Nielsen died in 1965 in West Berlin at the age of just 53. He had previously been admitted to hospital with back problems and was diagnosed with leukaemia on examination. The popular act or was laid to rest in the Heerstraße Cemetery in the Berlin district of Westend. The actor had been married to Anna Katharina Elisabeth Novian since 1937; despite having a daughter together, the marriage failed. After the divorce, Nielsen married his second wife Annemarie Giersch, who brought a son into the marriage. Wife number 3 was Jutta Jusseit. The couple married a few months before his death in 1965. In 2023, film historian Thomas Barthol published a biography of the artist entitled ‘Hans Nielsen: Der charmante Kavalier’, who never played in the top league of film stars, but ‘knew how to convince with his acting and vocal skills’.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Lilli enjoying the autumn sun (in explore September 2024)
Friedrichswerdescher Kirchhof - 035_I
Friedrichswerdescher Kirchhof - 036_I
Lillis Lumber
Ottakringer Kirtagwww.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSfel3QRjA
The Ottakringer Kirtag is an annual funfair and music festival held on the penultimate weekend in September in Ottakring, Vienna's 16th district.
CGSCF-Board-Mtg-17SEP24-10
CGSCF-Board-Mtg-17SEP24-26
27_11_Polansky-Lilli_c_Teresa Novotny
24-09-16—Sheldon HS, Charlene, Lilli, Donna
Lilli Freischem (University of Oxford), Workshop on Diagnostics for Global Weather Prediction, 9-12 September 2024ecmwfevents.com/i/workshop-on-diagnostics-for-global-weat...
Lilli Freischem (University of Oxford), Workshop on Diagnostics for Global Weather Prediction, 9-12 September 2024ecmwfevents.com/i/workshop-on-diagnostics-for-global-weat...
Hans NielsenHans Nielsen (1911-1965) was a German actor and assistant director. He was known for such films as Titanic (1943), Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (1949) and Town Without Pity (1961). He appeared in more than 130 films between 1937 and 1965
Hans Albert Nielsen was born on 30 November 1911 as the son of a merchant in Hamburg, Germany. After attending secondary school he took an apprenticeship as a merchant,. He only completed it for the sake of his parents, because he took acting lessons with Albrecht Schoenhals and Erich Ziegel and also trained in singing. In 1932, Nielsen made his theatre debut at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. Further engagements took him to Augsburg, Kiel and Leipzig in the following months. Many actors and performing artists fled Nazi Germany, but Nielsen remained. In 1938, Nielsen went to Berlin and performed at various theatres. The talented actor had already attracted the attention of the film industry in the mid-1930s and Nielsen made his screen debut with a small part in the romantic comedy Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1937) in the same year he appeared as pilot Billy Sefton in the melodrama Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937). A year later, he took on the role of Max von Wendlowsky in the Zarah Leander film Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938), based on the play by Hermann Sudermann. Productions such as the initially banned historical drama Preußische Liebesgeschichte/A Prussian Love Story (Paul Martin, 1938), the adventure Aufruhr in Damaskus/Uproar in Damascus (Gustacv Ucicky, 1939), and the crime thriller Alarm auf Station III/Alarm at Station III (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1939) followed until the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, Nielsen appeared in the euthanasia drama Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) as Dr Höfer, which is still considered a ”reserved film’ today. In the drama Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) about the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912, Nielsen played the German first officer Petersen. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with the intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew, was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the East. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler, who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. Until the end of the war, Nielsen appeared in productions including the drama Der große König/The Great King (Veit Harlan, 1942) starring Otto Gebühr. The comedy Dr. Phil. Döderlein (1945) remained unfinished.
After the end of the Second World War, Hans Nielsen was able to continue his earlier successes on the big screen with mostly high-profile supporting roles, but also leading roles. He appeared, for example, as King Peter Petroni in the comedy of mistaken identity Herzkönig/King of Hearts (Helmut Weiss, 1947) and as Wolfgang Grunelius in the episodic film In jenen Tagen/In Those Days (1947) directed by Helmuth Käutner. It was one of the Rubble films made in the wake of Germany's defeat during World War II. In 1949, he shone alongside Luise Ullrich and Dieter Borsche in the drama Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (Harald Braun, 1949). He impressively portrayed the pastor Johannes Heger, who finds himself in a conflict of conscience. In 1950, he was seen in the role of chief inspector Thomsen in Kurt Hoffmann's crime thriller Fünf unter Verdacht/Five Suspects (1950), based on the novel ‘Thomas verhört die Prima’ by Herbert Moll and Rudolf Becker. He often played good-natured, likeable and elegant roles, like the presiding judge in the satire Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953). He usually appeared older in his roles than he was, often playing the benevolent head of the family. However, many of the productions in which Nielsen appeared were successful not least because of him. In the criminal melodrama Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk (Rolf Hansen, 1955) with Lilli Palmer and Curd Jürgens, he was the committed defence lawyer, as well as in the legal drama Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!/Confess, Doctor Corda! (Josef von Báky, 1958) with Hardy Krüger and Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959), based on the story ‘Kreuzer Pommern’ by Willi Berthold with Karlheinz Böhm, Christian Wolff and Klaus Kammer as three shipwrecked German marines. In Wolfgang Liebeneiner's romanticised historical film Königin Luise/Queen Luise (1957), he lent character to Minister Karl August von Hardenberg alongside Ruth Leuwerik as Queen Luise. His role as Max Mertens in Anders als du und ich/Different from You and Me (Veit Harlan, 1957) is rather negligible. As Filmdienst.de notes: ‘The film by no means sees homosexuality as a positive alternative to life, and also defames abstract painting and atonal music, which it portrays as the expression of such an ‘attitude to life’.’ Nielsen did not become a real screen star in German post-war films, probably because he was confined to the type of dignified grand seigneur, the ‘actor of sober businessmen and grumpy but spirited clergymen’, as one critic once described him.
Hans Nielsen founded a cabaret group, ‘Die Außenseiter’ (The Outsider) after the war, and appeared in revues by Günter Neumann. Engagements took him to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Renaissance Theatre and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, among others. One of his most important theatre roles was that of the Cardinal in the 1963 premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play ‘Der Stellvertreter’, directed by Erwin Piscator at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm, with Dieter Borsche as Pope Pius XII. During the 1960s, he also appeared in films like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1963) with Christopher Lee, Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse or Scotland Yard vs. Dr Mabuse (Paul May, 1963) starring Peter van Eyck, and Das indische Touch/The Indian Scarf (Alfred Vohrer, 1963). His only Hollywood film was Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961) with Kirk Douglas. In addition to his extensive acting work for theatre and film, Hans Nielsen was also a sought-after dubbing actor. He was the German voice of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Trevor Howard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire and Spencer Tracy. His final film was the Western Die Hölle von Manitoba/The Hell of Manitoba (Sheldon Reynolds, 1965) starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. Hans Nielsen died in 1965 in West Berlin at the age of just 53. He had previously been admitted to hospital with back problems and was diagnosed with leukaemia on examination. The popular act or was laid to rest in the Heerstraße Cemetery in the Berlin district of Westend. The actor had been married to Anna Katharina Elisabeth Novian since 1937; despite having a daughter together, the marriage failed. After the divorce, Nielsen married his second wife Annemarie Giersch, who brought a son into the marriage. Wife number 3 was Jutta Jusseit. The couple married a few months before his death in 1965. In 2023, film historian Thomas Barthol published a biography of the artist entitled ‘Hans Nielsen: Der charmante Kavalier’, who never played in the top league of film stars, but ‘knew how to convince with his acting and vocal skills’.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Senta Berger and Lex Barker in Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius (1962)Senta Berger and Lex Barker in Frauenarzt Dr. Sibelius/Dr. Sibelius (Rudolf Jugert, 1962).
Beautiful Austrian actress Senta Berger (1941) received many awards for her work in theatre, film, and television, including a Golden Globe Award and a Goldene Kamera. She played in many European co-productions as well as a sex bomb in some Hollywood movies of the 1960s. Later, Berger worked as a producer of internationally acclaimed films and as a bestselling author.
Senta Berger was born in Vienna, Austria in 1941 as the daughter of Therese Jany, a teacher, and Josef Berger, a musician. She first appeared on stage at age four, where her father accompanied his daughter's singing on the piano. At age five, she started ballet lessons, but Senta was asked to leave at 14 because she had ‘developed’ too much. She then took private acting lessons and appeared as an extra in the comedy Du bist die Richtige/You Are The Right One (Erich Engel, Josef von Báky, 1955) starring Curd Jürgens. In 1957, she won her first small role in Die unentschuldigte Stunde/The Unexcused Hour (1957), one of the last films directed by legendary actor-director Willi Forst. She applied for the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a famous acting school in Vienna. Still, she was expelled shortly afterwards after accepting a small role in the film The Journey/Die Reise (Anatole Litvak, 1959) without permission. Only 17, she became the youngest member of the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna in 1958 and played a role in Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV. Film producer Arthur Brauner offered her a role opposite German superstar Heinz Rühmann in the deft satire Der brave Soldat Schweijk/The Good Soldier Schweijk (Axel von Ambesser, 1960). Brauner signed a contract for several films and cast her in Schlagerfilms like O sole mio (Paul Martin, 1960) and Adieu, Lebewohl, Goodbye (1961). She soon got tired of them, but Maria Brauner, the producer’s wife, helped her to get a part next to O.W. Fischer and Eva Bartok in the thrillers Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein/Operation Caviar (Geza von Radvanyi, 1961) and Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein/This time it has to be caviar (Geza von Radvanyi, 1961). These spy thrillers, based on the novels by Johannes Mario Simmel, meant her breakthrough. Berger became a staple in European co-productions like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, Frank Winterstein, 1962) starring Christopher Lee, and Kali-Yug, la Dea della Vendetta/Vengeance of Kali (Mario Camerini, 1963) with Lex Barker. On the invitation of Richard Widmark, with whom she had appeared in the Cold War adventure film The Secret Ways (Phil Karlson, 1961), she went to Hollywood. There she appeared in the anti-war drama The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963) and The Waltz King (Steve Previn, 1963), a two-parter in the TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Though an actress of more than average talent, Berger was regarded as just another European sex bomb by most Hollywood publicity flacks. She was offered a five-year contract by a major Hollywood studio, but she decided to return to Germany.
During the shooting of the comedy Jacky und Jenny/Jacky and Jenny (Victor Vicas, 1964), Senta Berger met Michael Verhoeven, son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not the Dutch Paul Verhoeven). They started their own film production company Sentana-Filmproduktion in 1965 and married the following year. Berger continued to develop her international career and played with such stars as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, and Yul Brynner. She appeared in numerous Euro-spy films such as the Italian crime comedy Operazione San Gennaro/Operation San Gennaro (Dino Risi, 1966), the British comedy Our Man in Marrakech (Don Sharp, 1966) with Tony Randall, and the French thriller Peau d’Espion/To Commit a Murder (Edouard Molinaro, 1967) with Louis Jourdan. One of her best-known Hollywood movies is the Western Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965) with Charlton Heston. On the Celluloid Heroes blog, Paul McElligott writes: “Major Dundee is one of Sam Peckinpah’s early works, a highly stylized Western that fits perfectly the outsized performances of its stars, Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. Neither the story, the dialogue or the acting can be called realistic, but it is what it claims to be, a rousing entertainment.” In Cast a Giant Shadow (Melville Shavelson, 1966) with Kirk Douglas, she played the role of Magda, a soldier in the Israeli army during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. That same year she was also a German schoolteacher involved in neo-Nazi activity opposite Max von Sydow and George Segal in the spy film The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966). A Curio is the short film Vienna (1967) directed by Orson Welles. In the film Welles is wandering through Vienna, remembering The Third Man and then, aided by Berger and Mickey Rooney, he suddenly stumbles into a spy satire which is, according to the IMDb reviewer, “simply hilariously funny”. In 1967, Berger acted also in the pilot for the American television TV series It Takes a Thief (1968) starring Robert Wagner. She reprised her role in the series in 1969, in an episode in which her character was killed off.
In 1970 Senta Berger appeared in the Italian caveman spoof Quando le Donne Avevano la Coda/When Women Had Tails (Pasquale Festa Campanile, 1970), which was a surprise box-office hit in Italy. Her participation in this banal sex-comedy leads Hal Erickson at AllMovie to the conclusion that “by 1970, Senta Berger gave up any hopes of being taken seriously.” That year though, she also starred for the first time in a film produced by her own company and directed by her husband, Wer im Glashaus liebt/He Who Loves in a Glass House (Michael Verhoeven, 1970). Two years later she featured in Volker Schlöndorff’s Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass/Morals of Ruth Halbfass (Volker Schlöndorff, 1972) followed by the leading role in Der scharlachrote Buchstabe/The Scarlet Letter (Wim Wenders, 1973). And in Italy, she appeared in several films for high-quality directors such as Roma Bene (Carlo Lizzani, 1971), L'Amante dell'orsa maggiore/The Smugglers (Valentino Orsini, 1972), Bisturi: La Mafia Bianca/Hospitals: The White Mafia (Luigi Zampa, 1973) and the Giallo L'Uomo Senza Memoria/Puzzle (Duccio Tessari, 1974) opposite Luc Merenda. Following the birth of her two sons, Simon (1972) and Luca (1979), Berger returned to theatre work. She played at the famous Burgtheater in Vienna, at the Thaliatheater in Hamburg and at the Schillertheater in Berlin. Between 1974 and 1982, she played the Buhlschaft in the play Jedermann (Everyman) at the Salzburg Festival with Curd Jürgens and later Maximilian Schell in the title role. She also co-starred with Schell and James Coburn in the war film Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977).
In 1985, Senta Berger started a comeback in front of German-speaking TV audiences in the popular, ironic mini-series Kir Royal (Helmut Dietl,1985-1986), about a Munich gossip reporter and the city’s legendary high society circles. Further serial hits followed, like Die schnelle Gerdi/The Fast Gerti (Michael Verhoeven, 1989), where she played a Munich cab driver. In the same year, she also started a career as a singer of Chansons. Berger continued to work in Italy and appeared opposite Marcello Mastroianni in Le Due Vite di Mattia Pascal/The Two Lives of Mattia Pascal (Mario Monicelli, 1985), based on a Luigi Pirandello story. Berger and Verhoeven produced acclaimed and internationally successful films including Die weiße Rose/The White Rose (Michael Verhoeven, 1982) and Das schreckliche Mädchen/The Terrible Girl (Michael Verhoeven, 1990), both starring Lena Stolze. During the 1990s Berger was mostly seen as a smart, sexy and honest woman on TV. In 1991 she played an acclaimed role in the marriage drama Sie und Er/She and He (Frank Beyer, 1991). Series followed like Lilli Lottofee (Michael Verhoeven, 1992) and Ärzte/Doctors (1994-1996). Then she played parts in Sandra Nettelbeck‘s film debut Mammamia (1998), Bin ich schön?/Am I Beautiful (Doris Dörrie, 1998) and the TV film Trennungsfieber/Divorce Fever (Manfred Stelzer, 2000). Since February 2003, Berger has been president of the German Film Academy, which seeks to advance the new generation of actors and actresses in Germany and Europe. The Academy will decide the assignment of the German Film Awards in the future. 2005 saw her in the cinemas in Einmal so wie ich will/For Once As I Want It (Vivian Naefe, 2005) opposite Götz George, as a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. She finds love on holiday but turns her back on the relationship. In the spring of 2006, Berger's autobiography was published in Germany: 'Ich habe ja gewußt, daß ich fliegen kann' (I Knew That I Could Fly). It became a bestseller. Among her memories of Hollywood are a less-than-subtle attempt by Darryl Zanuck to get her on his casting couch, and being called ‘You German pig’ on her first day on the set of Major Dundee by a gaffer whose wife had lost her family in Auschwitz. Senta Berger is still married to Michael Verhoeven and their sons Simon and Luca Verhoeven are both actors now. She lives in Grünwald near Munich, Germany. This century she worked on the screen in the TV mini-series Four Seasons (Giles Foster, 2008) with Tom Conti and Michael York, the film Ruhm/Fame (Isabel Kleefeld, 2011) and the comedy Altersglühen - Speed Dating für Senioren/Old glow - Speeddating for Seniors (Jan Georg Schütte, 2014) with Mario Adorf.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Paul McElligott (Celluloid Heroes), Lenin Imports, The Wild Eye, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Hans NielsenHans Nielsen (1911-1965) was a German actor and assistant director. He was known for such films as Titanic (1943), Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (1949) and Town Without Pity (1961). He appeared in more than 130 films between 1937 and 1965
Hans Albert Nielsen was born on 30 November 1911 as the son of a merchant in Hamburg, Germany. After attending secondary school he took an apprenticeship as a merchant,. He only completed it for the sake of his parents, because he took acting lessons with Albrecht Schoenhals and Erich Ziegel and also trained in singing. In 1932, Nielsen made his theatre debut at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. Further engagements took him to Augsburg, Kiel and Leipzig in the following months. Many actors and performing artists fled Nazi Germany, but Nielsen remained. In 1938, Nielsen went to Berlin and performed at various theatres. The talented actor had already attracted the attention of the film industry in the mid-1930s and Nielsen made his screen debut with a small part in the romantic comedy Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1937) in the same year he appeared as pilot Billy Sefton in the melodrama Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937). A year later, he took on the role of Max von Wendlowsky in the Zarah Leander film Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938), based on the play by Hermann Sudermann. Productions such as the initially banned historical drama Preußische Liebesgeschichte/A Prussian Love Story (Paul Martin, 1938), the adventure Aufruhr in Damaskus/Uproar in Damascus (Gustacv Ucicky, 1939), and the crime thriller Alarm auf Station III/Alarm at Station III (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1939) followed until the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, Nielsen appeared in the euthanasia drama Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) as Dr Höfer, which is still considered a ”reserved film’ today. In the drama Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) about the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912, Nielsen played the German first officer Petersen. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with the intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew, was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the East. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler, who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. Until the end of the war, Nielsen appeared in productions including the drama Der große König/The Great King (Veit Harlan, 1942) starring Otto Gebühr. The comedy Dr. Phil. Döderlein (1945) remained unfinished.
After the end of the Second World War, Hans Nielsen was able to continue his earlier successes on the big screen with mostly high-profile supporting roles, but also leading roles. He appeared, for example, as King Peter Petroni in the comedy of mistaken identity Herzkönig/King of Hearts (Helmut Weiss, 1947) and as Wolfgang Grunelius in the episodic film In jenen Tagen/In Those Days (1947) directed by Helmuth Käutner. It was one of the Rubble films made in the wake of Germany's defeat during World War II. In 1949, he shone alongside Luise Ullrich and Dieter Borsche in the drama Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (Harald Braun, 1949). He impressively portrayed the pastor Johannes Heger, who finds himself in a conflict of conscience. In 1950, he was seen in the role of chief inspector Thomsen in Kurt Hoffmann's crime thriller Fünf unter Verdacht/Five Suspects (1950), based on the novel ‘Thomas verhört die Prima’ by Herbert Moll and Rudolf Becker. He often played good-natured, likeable and elegant roles, like the presiding judge in the satire Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953). He usually appeared older in his roles than he was, often playing the benevolent head of the family. However, many of the productions in which Nielsen appeared were successful not least because of him. In the criminal melodrama Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk (Rolf Hansen, 1955) with Lilli Palmer and Curd Jürgens, he was the committed defence lawyer, as well as in the legal drama Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!/Confess, Doctor Corda! (Josef von Báky, 1958) with Hardy Krüger and Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959), based on the story ‘Kreuzer Pommern’ by Willi Berthold with Karlheinz Böhm, Christian Wolff and Klaus Kammer as three shipwrecked German marines. In Wolfgang Liebeneiner's romanticised historical film Königin Luise/Queen Luise (1957), he lent character to Minister Karl August von Hardenberg alongside Ruth Leuwerik as Queen Luise. His role as Max Mertens in Anders als du und ich/Different from You and Me (Veit Harlan, 1957) is rather negligible. As Filmdienst.de notes: ‘The film by no means sees homosexuality as a positive alternative to life, and also defames abstract painting and atonal music, which it portrays as the expression of such an ‘attitude to life’.’ Nielsen did not become a real screen star in German post-war films, probably because he was confined to the type of dignified grand seigneur, the ‘actor of sober businessmen and grumpy but spirited clergymen’, as one critic once described him.
Hans Nielsen founded a cabaret group, ‘Die Außenseiter’ (The Outsider) after the war, and appeared in revues by Günter Neumann. Engagements took him to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Renaissance Theatre and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, among others. One of his most important theatre roles was that of the Cardinal in the 1963 premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play ‘Der Stellvertreter’, directed by Erwin Piscator at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm, with Dieter Borsche as Pope Pius XII. During the 1960s, he also appeared in films like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1963) with Christopher Lee, Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse or Scotland Yard vs. Dr Mabuse (Paul May, 1963) starring Peter van Eyck, and Das indische Touch/The Indian Scarf (Alfred Vohrer, 1963). His only Hollywood film was Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961) with Kirk Douglas. In addition to his extensive acting work for theatre and film, Hans Nielsen was also a sought-after dubbing actor. He was the German voice of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Trevor Howard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire and Spencer Tracy. His final film was the Western Die Hölle von Manitoba/The Hell of Manitoba (Sheldon Reynolds, 1965) starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. Hans Nielsen died in 1965 in West Berlin at the age of just 53. He had previously been admitted to hospital with back problems and was diagnosed with leukaemia on examination. The popular act or was laid to rest in the Heerstraße Cemetery in the Berlin district of Westend. The actor had been married to Anna Katharina Elisabeth Novian since 1937; despite having a daughter together, the marriage failed. After the divorce, Nielsen married his second wife Annemarie Giersch, who brought a son into the marriage. Wife number 3 was Jutta Jusseit. The couple married a few months before his death in 1965. In 2023, film historian Thomas Barthol published a biography of the artist entitled ‘Hans Nielsen: Der charmante Kavalier’, who never played in the top league of film stars, but ‘knew how to convince with his acting and vocal skills’.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Lilli & Zebok loving each other
Senta BergerSenta Berger (1941) received many awards for her work in theatre, film, and television, including a Golden Globe Award and a Goldene Kamera. She played in many European co-productions as well as a sex bomb in some Hollywood movies of the 1960s. Later, Berger worked as a producer of internationally acclaimed films and as a bestselling author.
Senta Berger was born in Vienna, Austria in 1941 as the daughter of Therese Jany, a teacher, and Josef Berger, a musician. She first appeared on stage at age four, where her father accompanied his daughter's singing on the piano. At age five, she started ballet lessons, but Senta was asked to leave at 14 because she had ‘developed’ too much. She then took private acting lessons and appeared as an extra in the comedy Du bist die Richtige/You Are The Right One (Erich Engel, Josef von Báky, 1955) starring Curd Jürgens. In 1957, she won her first small role in Die unentschuldigte Stunde/The Unexcused Hour (1957), one of the last films directed by legendary actor-director Willi Forst. She applied for the Max Reinhardt Seminar, a famous acting school in Vienna. Still, she was expelled shortly afterwards after accepting a small role in the film The Journey/Die Reise (Anatole Litvak, 1959) without permission. Only 17, she became the youngest member of the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna in 1958 and played a role in Luigi Pirandello’s Enrico IV. Film producer Arthur Brauner offered her a role opposite German superstar Heinz Rühmann in the deft satire Der brave Soldat Schweijk/The Good Soldier Schweijk (Axel von Ambesser, 1960). Brauner signed a contract for several films and cast her in Schlagerfilms like O sole mio (Paul Martin, 1960) and Adieu, Lebewohl, Goodbye (1961). She soon got tired of them, but Maria Brauner, the producer’s wife, helped her to get a part next to O.W. Fischer and Eva Bartok in the thrillers Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein/Operation Caviar (Geza von Radvanyi, 1961) and Diesmal muß es Kaviar sein/This time it has to be caviar (Geza von Radvanyi, 1961). These spy thrillers, based on the novels by Johannes Mario Simmel, meant her breakthrough. Berger became a staple in European co-productions like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, Frank Winterstein, 1962) starring Christopher Lee, and Kali-Yug, la Dea della Vendetta/Vengeance of Kali (Mario Camerini, 1963) with Lex Barker. On the invitation of Richard Widmark, with whom she had appeared in the Cold War adventure film The Secret Ways (Phil Karlson, 1961), she went to Hollywood. There she appeared in the anti-war drama The Victors (Carl Foreman, 1963) and The Waltz King (Steve Previn, 1963), a two-parter in the TV series Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color. Though an actress of more than average talent, Berger was regarded as just another European sex bomb by most Hollywood publicity flacks. She was offered a five-year contract by a major Hollywood studio, but she decided to return to Germany.
During the shooting of the comedy Jacky und Jenny/Jacky and Jenny (Victor Vicas, 1964), Senta Berger met Michael Verhoeven, son of the German film director Paul Verhoeven (not the Dutch Paul Verhoeven). They started their own film production company Sentana-Filmproduktion in 1965 and married the following year. Berger continued to develop her international career and played with such stars as Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, and Yul Brynner. She appeared in numerous Euro-spy films such as the Italian crime comedy Operazione San Gennaro/Operation San Gennaro (Dino Risi, 1966), the British comedy Our Man in Marrakech (Don Sharp, 1966) with Tony Randall, and the French thriller Peau d’Espion/To Commit a Murder (Edouard Molinaro, 1967) with Louis Jourdan. One of her best-known Hollywood movies is the Western Major Dundee (Sam Peckinpah, 1965) with Charlton Heston. On the Celluloid Heroes blog, Paul McElligott writes: “Major Dundee is one of Sam Peckinpah’s early works, a highly stylized Western that fits perfectly the outsized performances of its stars, Charlton Heston and Richard Harris. Neither the story, the dialogue or the acting can be called realistic, but it is what it claims to be, a rousing entertainment.” In Cast a Giant Shadow (Melville Shavelson, 1966) with Kirk Douglas, she played the role of Magda, a soldier in the Israeli army during the Israeli War of Independence in 1948. That same year she was also a German schoolteacher involved in neo-Nazi activity opposite Max von Sydow and George Segal in the spy film The Quiller Memorandum (Michael Anderson, 1966). A Curio is the short film Vienna (1967) directed by Orson Welles. In the film Welles is wandering through Vienna, remembering The Third Man and then, aided by Berger and Mickey Rooney, he suddenly stumbles into a spy satire which is, according to the IMDb reviewer, “simply hilariously funny”. In 1967, Berger acted also in the pilot for the American television TV series It Takes a Thief (1968) starring Robert Wagner. She reprised her role in the series in 1969, in an episode in which her character was killed off.
In 1970 Senta Berger appeared in the Italian caveman spoof Quando le Donne Avevano la Coda/When Women Had Tails (Pasquale Festa Campanile, 1970), which was a surprise box-office hit in Italy. Her participation in this banal sex-comedy leads Hal Erickson at AllMovie to the conclusion that “by 1970, Senta Berger gave up any hopes of being taken seriously.” That year though, she also starred for the first time in a film produced by her own company and directed by her husband, Wer im Glashaus liebt/He Who Loves in a Glass House (Michael Verhoeven, 1970). Two years later she featured in Volker Schlöndorff’s Die Moral der Ruth Halbfass/Morals of Ruth Halbfass (Volker Schlöndorff, 1972) followed by the leading role in Der scharlachrote Buchstabe/The Scarlet Letter (Wim Wenders, 1973). And in Italy, she appeared in several films for high-quality directors such as Roma Bene (Carlo Lizzani, 1971), L'Amante dell'orsa maggiore/The Smugglers (Valentino Orsini, 1972), Bisturi: La Mafia Bianca/Hospitals: The White Mafia (Luigi Zampa, 1973) and the Giallo L'Uomo Senza Memoria/Puzzle (Duccio Tessari, 1974) opposite Luc Merenda. Following the birth of her two sons, Simon (1972) and Luca (1979), Berger returned to theatre work. She played at the famous Burgtheater in Vienna, the Thaliatheater in Hamburg and the Schillertheater in Berlin. Between 1974 and 1982, she played the Buhlschaft in the play Jedermann (Everyman) at the Salzburg Festival with Curd Jürgens and later Maximilian Schell in the title role. She also co-starred with Schell and James Coburn in the war film Cross of Iron (Sam Peckinpah, 1977).
In 1985, Senta Berger started a comeback in front of German-speaking TV audiences in the popular, ironic mini-series Kir Royal (Helmut Dietl,1985-1986), about a Munich gossip reporter and the city’s legendary high society circles. Further serial hits followed, like Die schnelle Gerdi/The Fast Gerti (Michael Verhoeven, 1989), where she played a Munich cab driver. In the same year, she also started a career as a singer of Chansons. Berger continued to work in Italy and appeared opposite Marcello Mastroianni in Le Due Vite di Mattia Pascal/The Two Lives of Mattia Pascal (Mario Monicelli, 1985), based on a Luigi Pirandello story. Berger and Verhoeven produced acclaimed and internationally successful films including Die weiße Rose/The White Rose (Michael Verhoeven, 1982) and Das schreckliche Mädchen/The Terrible Girl (Michael Verhoeven, 1990), both starring Lena Stolze. During the 1990s Berger was mostly seen as a smart, sexy and honest woman on TV. In 1991 she played an acclaimed role in the marriage drama Sie und Er/She and He (Frank Beyer, 1991). Series followed like Lilli Lottofee (Michael Verhoeven, 1992) and Ärzte/Doctors (1994-1996). Then she played parts in Sandra Nettelbeck‘s film debut Mammamia (1998), Bin ich schön?/Am I Beautiful (Doris Dörrie, 1998) and the TV film Trennungsfieber/Divorce Fever (Manfred Stelzer, 2000). Since February 2003, Berger has been president of the German Film Academy, which seeks to advance the new generation of actors and actresses in Germany and Europe. The Academy will decide the assignment of the German Film Awards in the future. 2005 saw her in the cinemas in Einmal so wie ich will/For Once As I Want It (Vivian Naefe, 2005) opposite Götz George, as a woman trapped in an unhappy marriage. She finds love on holiday but turns her back on the relationship. In the spring of 2006, Berger's autobiography was published in Germany: 'Ich habe ja gewußt, daß ich fliegen kann' (I Knew That I Could Fly). It became a bestseller. Among her memories of Hollywood are a less-than-subtle attempt by Darryl Zanuck to get her on his casting couch, and being called ‘You German pig’ on her first day on the set of Major Dundee by a gaffer whose wife had lost her family in Auschwitz. Senta Berger is still married to Michael Verhoeven and their sons Simon and Luca Verhoeven are both actors now. She lives in Grünwald near Munich, Germany. This century she worked on the screen in the TV mini-series Four Seasons (Giles Foster, 2008) with Tom Conti and Michael York, the film Ruhm/Fame (Isabel Kleefeld, 2011) and the comedy Altersglühen - Speed Dating für Senioren/Old glow - Speeddating for Seniors (Jan Georg Schütte, 2014) with Mario Adorf.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Paul McElligott (Celluloid Heroes), Lenin Imports, The Wild Eye, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards .
Lilli
Hans NielsenHans Nielsen (1911-1965) was a German actor and assistant director. He was known for such films as Titanic (1943), Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (1949) and Town Without Pity (1961). He appeared in more than 130 films between 1937 and 1965
Hans Albert Nielsen was born on 30 November 1911 as the son of a merchant in Hamburg, Germany. After attending secondary school he took an apprenticeship as a merchant,. He only completed it for the sake of his parents, because he took acting lessons with Albrecht Schoenhals and Erich Ziegel and also trained in singing. In 1932, Nielsen made his theatre debut at the Hamburger Kammerspiele. Further engagements took him to Augsburg, Kiel and Leipzig in the following months. Many actors and performing artists fled Nazi Germany, but Nielsen remained. In 1938, Nielsen went to Berlin and performed at various theatres. The talented actor had already attracted the attention of the film industry in the mid-1930s and Nielsen made his screen debut with a small part in the romantic comedy Daphne und der Diplomat/Daphne and the Diplomat (Robert A. Stemmle, 1937) in the same year he appeared as pilot Billy Sefton in the melodrama Tango Notturno (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1937). A year later, he took on the role of Max von Wendlowsky in the Zarah Leander film Heimat (Carl Froelich, 1938), based on the play by Hermann Sudermann. Productions such as the initially banned historical drama Preußische Liebesgeschichte/A Prussian Love Story (Paul Martin, 1938), the adventure Aufruhr in Damaskus/Uproar in Damascus (Gustacv Ucicky, 1939), and the crime thriller Alarm auf Station III/Alarm at Station III (Philipp Lothar Mayring, 1939) followed until the end of the 1930s. In the 1940s, Nielsen appeared in the euthanasia drama Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941) as Dr Höfer, which is still considered a ”reserved film’ today. In the drama Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) about the sinking of the luxury liner RMS Titanic in 1912, Nielsen played the German first officer Petersen. Titanic was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels with the intent of showing not only the superiority of German filmmaking but also as a propaganda vehicle which would depict British and American capitalism as being responsible for the disaster. The addition of an entirely fictional heroic German officer, Petersen, to the ship's crew, was intended to demonstrate the superior bravery and selflessness of German men as compared to the British officers. The film's original director, Herbert Selpin, was arrested during production after making disparaging comments about the German army and the war in the East. He was found hanged in prison, and the film was completed by Werner Klingler, who was not credited. Although the film had a brief theatrical run in parts of German-occupied Europe starting in November 1943, it was not shown within Germany by order of Goebbels, who feared that it would weaken the German citizenry's morale instead of improving it, as heavy Allied bombing raids made a film depicting mass panic and death unappealing. Goebbels later banned the playing of the film entirely, and it did not have a second run. Until the end of the war, Nielsen appeared in productions including the drama Der große König/The Great King (Veit Harlan, 1942) starring Otto Gebühr. The comedy Dr. Phil. Döderlein (1945) remained unfinished.
After the end of the Second World War, Hans Nielsen was able to continue his earlier successes on the big screen with mostly high-profile supporting roles, but also leading roles. He appeared, for example, as King Peter Petroni in the comedy of mistaken identity Herzkönig/King of Hearts (Helmut Weiss, 1947) and as Wolfgang Grunelius in the episodic film In jenen Tagen/In Those Days (1947) directed by Helmuth Käutner. It was one of the Rubble films made in the wake of Germany's defeat during World War II. In 1949, he shone alongside Luise Ullrich and Dieter Borsche in the drama Nachtwache/Keepers of the Night (Harald Braun, 1949). He impressively portrayed the pastor Johannes Heger, who finds himself in a conflict of conscience. In 1950, he was seen in the role of chief inspector Thomsen in Kurt Hoffmann's crime thriller Fünf unter Verdacht/Five Suspects (1950), based on the novel ‘Thomas verhört die Prima’ by Herbert Moll and Rudolf Becker. He often played good-natured, likeable and elegant roles, like the presiding judge in the satire Hokuspokus/Hocuspocus (Kurt Hoffmann, 1953). He usually appeared older in his roles than he was, often playing the benevolent head of the family. However, many of the productions in which Nielsen appeared were successful not least because of him. In the criminal melodrama Teufel in Seide/Devil in Silk (Rolf Hansen, 1955) with Lilli Palmer and Curd Jürgens, he was the committed defence lawyer, as well as in the legal drama Gestehen Sie, Dr. Corda!/Confess, Doctor Corda! (Josef von Báky, 1958) with Hardy Krüger and Kriegsgericht/Court Martial (Kurt Meisel, 1959), based on the story ‘Kreuzer Pommern’ by Willi Berthold with Karlheinz Böhm, Christian Wolff and Klaus Kammer as three shipwrecked German marines. In Wolfgang Liebeneiner's romanticised historical film Königin Luise/Queen Luise (1957), he lent character to Minister Karl August von Hardenberg alongside Ruth Leuwerik as Queen Luise. His role as Max Mertens in Anders als du und ich/Different from You and Me (Veit Harlan, 1957) is rather negligible. As Filmdienst.de notes: ‘The film by no means sees homosexuality as a positive alternative to life, and also defames abstract painting and atonal music, which it portrays as the expression of such an ‘attitude to life’.’ Nielsen did not become a real screen star in German post-war films, probably because he was confined to the type of dignified grand seigneur, the ‘actor of sober businessmen and grumpy but spirited clergymen’, as one critic once described him.
Hans Nielsen founded a cabaret group, ‘Die Außenseiter’ (The Outsider) after the war, and appeared in revues by Günter Neumann. Engagements took him to the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Renaissance Theatre and the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, among others. One of his most important theatre roles was that of the Cardinal in the 1963 premiere of Rolf Hochhuth's play ‘Der Stellvertreter’, directed by Erwin Piscator at Berlin's Theater am Kurfürstendamm, with Dieter Borsche as Pope Pius XII. During the 1960s, he also appeared in films like Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes/Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace (Terence Fisher, 1963) with Christopher Lee, Scotland Yard jagt Dr. Mabuse/Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse or Scotland Yard vs. Dr Mabuse (Paul May, 1963) starring Peter van Eyck, and Das indische Touch/The Indian Scarf (Alfred Vohrer, 1963). His only Hollywood film was Town Without Pity (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1961) with Kirk Douglas. In addition to his extensive acting work for theatre and film, Hans Nielsen was also a sought-after dubbing actor. He was the German voice of Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Trevor Howard, James Stewart, Fred Astaire and Spencer Tracy. His final film was the Western Die Hölle von Manitoba/The Hell of Manitoba (Sheldon Reynolds, 1965) starring Lex Barker and Pierre Brice. Hans Nielsen died in 1965 in West Berlin at the age of just 53. He had previously been admitted to hospital with back problems and was diagnosed with leukaemia on examination. The popular act or was laid to rest in the Heerstraße Cemetery in the Berlin district of Westend. The actor had been married to Anna Katharina Elisabeth Novian since 1937; despite having a daughter together, the marriage failed. After the divorce, Nielsen married his second wife Annemarie Giersch, who brought a son into the marriage. Wife number 3 was Jutta Jusseit. The couple married a few months before his death in 1965. In 2023, film historian Thomas Barthol published a biography of the artist entitled ‘Hans Nielsen: Der charmante Kavalier’, who never played in the top league of film stars, but ‘knew how to convince with his acting and vocal skills’.
Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
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Lilli & Zebok Dancing With My Baby
Lucie Höflich in Rose Bernd (1916)Rose Bernd (1916) by Gerhart Hauptmann. In later years, Henny Porten acted in the film adaptation of the play.
Lucie Höflich , born Helene Lucie von Holwede, (* 20 February 1883 in Hanover; † 9 October 1956 in Berlin) was a German actress.
Her mother was Dora von Holwede (1863-1937) and her stepfather and adoptive father was Georg Höflich, an actor and director at the Berlin Schauspielhaus. Lucie Höflich began her long theatre career at the age of 16 at the Stadttheater in Bromberg and joined the Intime Theater in Nuremberg in 1901 and the Raimundtheater in Vienna the following year. In 1903, she made her debut with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. She remained there, with a few interruptions, until 1932. During this time, she was particularly convincing in Gerhart Hauptmann's naturalistic plays such as Rose Bernd and Henrik Ibsen's Nora. She also achieved general acclaim as Franziska in Minna von Barnhelm and Gretchen in Faust.
Höflich's film career began in 1913 and although she never dominated the screen as she did in the theatre, she was seen in many important supporting roles over the decades. In her first film, the Deutsche Bioscop production Gendarm Möbius (Stellan Rye, 1913), she already had the female lead opposite George Molenar. Yet, it was only after the First World War that her film career set off in films by Max Mack (Freie Liebe, 1919), Reinhold Schünzel (Maria Magdalene, 1920), Carl Wilhelm (Der langsame Tod. Die nach Liebe schmachten, 1920), and others. She played the title role in Schünzel's Katharina die Große (1920), opposite Schünzel as czar Peter III. Other major parts she had as Frau John In Die Ratten (Hanns Kobe, 1921), starring Emil Jannings, as the belligerent Duchess of Marlborough in Ludwig Berger's Ein Glas Wasser (1922-23), starring Mady Christians, as the wife of Eugen Klöpfer in Götz von Berlichingen (Hubert Moest, 1925), as the wife of Kurt Gerron in Manege (Max Reichmann, 1927-28), and as Mutter Wolff in the Hauptmann adaptation Der Biberpelz (Erich Schönfelder, 1928).
Yet, gradually, Höflich mostly played (step-)mothers, and this not only during the 1920s, e.g. the stepmother in the Cinderella variation Der verlorene Schuh (Ludwig Berger, 1923), but particularly in the German sound cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. including the Hans Albers vehicles Der weiße Dämon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) and Peer Gynt (Fritz Wendhausen, 1934), Manege (1937) by Carmine Gallone, Der Berg ruft (1937) by Luis Trenker, the two propaganda films Der Fuchs von Glenarvon/ The Fox of Glenarvon (Max W. Kimmich, 1939-40) and Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941), and the postwar film Himmel ohne Sterne (Helmut Käutner), her penultimate film.
In 1933, Höflich left the Deutsches Theater for political reasons and took over the management of the Staatliche Schauspielschule Berlin. From 1936, she ran her own studio for young actors at the Berlin Volksbühne. During the National Socialist era, she was awarded the title of state actress in 1937 and continued to give guest performances as an actress until 1940, particularly at the Volksbühne and the Schillertheater. In 1944, she was on the list of those honoured by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. After the war, she succeeded Werner Bernhardy as director of the Staatstheater Schwerin from 1947/1948 to 1950, after which she again appeared on West Berlin stages, including the Hebbel-Theater, the Schlosspark-Theater and the Schillertheater. She was a member of the 1st People's Council of the Soviet Occupation Zone.
Lucie Höflich was married to the art historian Anton Mayer from 1910 until their divorce in 1917, From this marriage came the actress Ursula Höflich (born 6 October 1911 in Berlin). She was then briefly, from 9 August 1921 to 13 June 1922, the wife of actor Emil Jannings. In April 1956, Höflich suffered a serious heart attack in Iserlohn during a guest performance at the Schlossparktheater, from which she recovered. She died in 1956 at the age of 73 in her Berlin flat and was buried at Berlin's Dahlem Cemetery. She was honoured posthumously in 1957 with the German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mrs Bäumle in the feature film Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter/ Anastasia, the Last Daughter of the Tsar (Falk Harnack, 1956), starring Lilli Palmer. It was Lucie Höflich's last film performance.
Sources: German and English Wikipedia, IMDb.
