Born Today June 17: Aenne Willkomm

1902-1979

Influential German costume designer Aenne Willkomm (name sometimes spelled Änne) was born on this day in 1902. Her early life is basically a complete mystery, save that her birth place is given (curiously) as Shanghai, in what was then empirical China. She seemingly came to the 1920's film industry in Germany from out of the blue--and left just as quickly before the end of the decade. She was the costume designer on five very influential films in the mid-1920s (two in 1924 and three in 1927). The first of these was Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (which is sometimes listed as two separate films).  But, by far the most well known film that she designed for was Lang's science fiction nightmare Metropolis in 1927; her designs for that film are instantly recognizable even today--though very few people know that they are looking at the work of a single designer. The last production that she designed for was Gerhard Lamprecht's Betrayal (1927), before marrying Lang's film set designer/architect/production designer Erich Kettelhut and retiring from designing altogether. The couple lived together in Hamburg and died some three months apart in 1979 (by this time Hamburg, was of course a city in West Germany). Willkomm herself died on the 20th of June, just three day after her 77th birthday. She is buried, with her husband Erich, at the historic Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. [The other two films that feature her designs are: My Leopold (1924) and Schwester Veronica (1927).] Just a few of her highly original, beautiful designs--many of them well known--are posted below (the sketches all bear her signature). 

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Born Today March 17: Brigitte Helm

1906 (her grave marker states 1908)-1996

Famed early German actress Brigitte Helm was born on this date as Brigitte Eva Gisela Schittenhelm, to a Prussian military family (her father was an officer in the Prussian army).  She made her film debut in one of the most famous of silent films:  Fritz Lang's Metropolis in 1927.  She was cast in the lead as Maria/The Robot.  She worked steadily throughout the end of silent era, but was ambivalent about film acting and did not last long into the sound era.  She is a prime example of an actor, so loved for her work in silents, that just could not seem to make the successful transition to sound work.  Though her fame did allow for her casting in a very early German sound film in 1929 Alraune. It's not that she lacked for talent; she had that in spades--she just didn't care for the lifestyle.  Couple that with the rise of Hitler in her native country, and incurring the wrath of the Nazi party when you married her second husband, a wealthy Jewish industrialist (she was charged with "race defilement"); she was simply fed up with it all.  In 1935 she retired from acting and fled to Switzerland, where she remained until her death.  There she raised a family of 4 children. She reportedly would not speak at any time to any one about her days in the movie industry.  The last film that she voluntarily made was Ein idealer Gatte (1935); though she was featured in the 1978 short Wie im Traum.  Helm died on the 11 June 1996 is Ascona, Switzerland at the age of 90; her husband had preceded her in death by ten years.  She is buried in there in the Cimitero di Ascona, along with her husband, under her married name of Kunheim.

As The Robot in Metropolis (1927)

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Leave Virtual Flowers @ Find A Grave (marked as year of birth

      1908)

Born Today May 13: Fritz Rasp

1891-1976

Fritz Heinrich Rasp was born in Bayreuth, Germany to a very large family--he had at least 12 other siblings.  Between the years 1908 & 1909 he attended acting school in Munich, where he leaned to overcome a speech impediment by developing a Frankish accent.   He made his stage debut later in 1909.  He soon established himself as quite the character actor, and would go on to work in stage productions directed by the likes of Max Reinhardt and Bertolt Brecht.  He made his film debut in 1916, in a short comedy directed by the soon to be famous Ernst Lubitsch, Schuhpalast Pinkus.  By the early 1920's he was staple "heavy" in German silent films.  He might have acted in more films in the late 1910's if were not for his military service in the years 1916-1918.  The role that he by far and away most famous for is The Thin Man from Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).  The German film industry was somewhat behind that of the United States in terms of sound films; so it wouldn't be until 1930 that Rasp was in his first speaking role on film in The Dreyfus Case.  From then on, he would have a long and prolific career acting in films, acting right up until the year of his death.  He was so well known as a villainous character actor, that when he died 30 November at the age of 85 in 1976, his obituary in Der Speigal, read in part "the German film villain in service for over 60 years."  He is buried in Friedhof Gräfelfing Cemetery.  

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Scene from Metropolis

Born Today November 24: Rudolf Klein-Rogge

1885-1955

Born Frederich Rudolf Klein-Rogge in Cologne, Germany.  While studying art history at two universities, one in Berlin and one and Bonn, where he began to take acting classes.  He made his acting debut in 1909 in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar one the stage.  His film debut came in 1919 and from then on went on to have huge career in the silent era, playing master criminals and/or mad scientists.  He, in this capacity, he can be seen as an early horror icon.  For example, he played a criminal in The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari in 1920.  His most important role was C. A. Rotwang--The Inventor, the mad scientist of Fritz Lang's masterpiece Metropolis (1927).  His career continued well into the talking era, with most of his roles (and there were a great many) coming in the 1930's.  He never felt or succumbed to the call of Hollywood.  He remained a German actor, with his last role coming in 1949.  He passed away on the 30th April in the village of Wetzelsdorf in the Styrian region Austria.

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Stanley Kubrick's Favorite Silent Film: Metropolis

Amongst the many, many films listed by the late great director Stanley Kubrick as being favorites of his, influential on his work, Metropolis was the only silent film that he consistently talked about.  This is the 2001 restored version with the original music.  

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!