1893-1943
The "man with the face," probably one of the most recognizable of silent actors (though in roles only, not necessarily by his "street looks"), Hans Walter Conrad Veidt--known professionally by Conrad--was born on this day in Berlin. It's hard to tell when Veidt became interested in acting, or even if he got into acting because of an actual interest, as opposed to not having many other career paths. It is known that an early girlfriend from pre-World War I Germany was an actress. The relationship ended when he was conscripted into the army in 1915, and sent to the German front. It was not long before he became violently ill, which necessitated his evacuation to a secure hospital for recuperation. While in the hospital, he recieved a communication from his girlfriend informing him that she had been offered acting work in a theater away from Berlin. Upon his release, Veidt followed her, after applying for work at the same theater that had offered her a contract (that actress, by the way, was Lucie Mannheim, who probably best known to audiences by her appearance in Hitchcock's adaptation of The 39 Steps in 1935--though her career was a long one!). He definitely worked for a time on the stage in what is now a city in Latvia along side Mannheim in 1916, but not for long. In late 1916, he was sent back into army service and ended his relationship with her for good. In early 1917, however, the army quickly determined that he was not fit enough for service, and quickly discharged him in full (it is entirely possible that this massive infection, which left him weakened by the age of 23, contributed to his premature death). By this time, he had little in the way of a career path to follow other than acting (not to say that he didn't have a passion for it, it just seems that contrary to some of the misleading biographical materials Veidt offered that are now known to have been "embellished" later on--under the circumstances, it seems his life was a bit "a drift" and acting offered a definite path). What is sure, is that after this point he poured all of his energy into his acting career, which would result in some the most iconic appearances in films during the silent era (and, of course, in Casablanca)! It would not take long for Veidt to make his first film appearance--he had such a face--and no film director would leave that go for long!! His debut came in a Robert Reinert crime film released in July of 1917: Wenn Tote sprechen (or When the Dead Speak). Viedt of course has become synonymous with early/silent horror films, with at least two of them becoming two of the most well known silent films today, but his first horror feature was in a little known film that Veidt both directed and produced, as well as starred in. The film, Wahnsinn, which is sadly lost to us today, was produced under his own Veidt Films company (he and his company made one other film--Die Nacht auf Goldenhall (1920)--which is also lost). Of course, his earliest famous film performance was as Cesare in the super famous German expressionist film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari directed by Robert Wiene and released in late February of 1920. The film would seem to be the mark of his films career at first glance, but appearances are decieving here. He actually appeared in over 30 films between his film debut and his role in Cabinet, including about half a dozen horror films (see: Eerie Tales, Satanas a Murnau film in which he plays the devil/Lucifer amongst other characters & was written by Wiene, Der Graf von Cagliostro, Nachtgestalten in which he foreshadowingly played a clown and Der nicht vom Weibe Geborene (1917) where is actually played Satan for the first time). Viedt also appeared in another famous silent horror in 1920--another Murnau production: The Head of Janus, a film almost as famous for being lost as it is being an "uncredited" version of Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde story. Veidt, having gained a much deserved reputation as a moody actor, managed to branch out from such roles into crime films and even comedic roles (in playing Manolescu in Manolescus Memoiren, he managed to combine the two, and add historical acting into the mix to boot--since the film was based on the memoirs of George Manoluescu--which were presented with more than a little bit of humor). Veidt was in another two Murnau films in 1921, the most famous of which is Journey into the Night--both men would later become much more famous in their adopted home town of Hollywood in the later half of the 1920's. Though, aside from his role in Caligari, his most famous roles came in American films, but he didn't actually make his U.S. film debut until 1927 in the George Melford melodrama A Man's Past (though his appearance in the German production Gesetze der Liebe--co-directed by Richard Oswald probably Veidt's most prolific director during his career--came out after he left for California). Viedt next film is probably his most famous full stop--especially now that . That of Gwynplaine/Lord Chancharlie in Paul Leni's The Man Who Laughs in 1928. The film was a production out of Universal and some prints were released as "sound films"--what we often call "partial silents" today. It's wider release was fully silent. The film is so much more than a "silent horror"--and it's cultural reach has been far and wide--the most enduring cultural connection that we continue to have even now coming up on 100 years later is that of The Joker from the Batman comics (it is worth pointing out that the most recent iteration of the character was in Todd Philips' Joker, released in October 2019, which garnered the largest number of 2020 Oscar nominations). Gwynplaine is a "clownish" figure with a "fixed grin"--more like a horrifying "death sneer." This was a powerful enough visage as to completely insipire The Joker character in artistic the mind of Bob Kane & the literary mind of Bill Finger. The film, along with Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), might be the most culturally continuous images from silent era (I am specifically using the term "images" because film, like no other medium, brought us images that were mass produced like no other--even the works of literature upon which they were based merely had the ability to "invoke" images--film instead projected the image...no need for the imagination [pun intended]--it's powerful stuff). In regards to other influences of The Man Who Laughs, I would be remiss if I didn't also mention William Castle's 1961 cheap thrills Mr. Sardonicus (the film was based on a novella that can only be called a knock off by Ray Russell, who also wrote the screenplay and became an in-house screen writer for Castle). With all of that aside, one of Veidt's best performances of his silent Hollywood career came in The Last Performance--it's a somewhat short feature, with relatively unremarkable performances by the other actors; it's basically a romantic melodrama with horror elements. The film employs a number German expressionist styled visuals, many (if not most) of which feature Veidt. Again, this performance inspired a number of visual images that have been reused much later on (I am not kidding that the late 1960's animated series Scooby Doo, Where Are You? drew famously from this film both in visuals and plots). The film was a partial silent with talking sequences (bit of trivia: Bela Lugosi dubbed Veidt's voice for the Hungarian version f the film). During his time in Hollywood in the late 1920's, Veidt also worked as an acting tutor. Veidt returned to Germany and it's film industry with coming of the talkies, as he had such a heavy German accent that it did not "translate" well in English speaking roles. He appeared in the German production The Last Company (Die letzte Kompagnie), a film a in series of films based on Prussian war exploits of the nineteenth century; to my knowledge it was his first speaking role in a German film. In 1930, he also appeared in the German language version of the British film The Love Storm, Menschen im Käfig, in which he appeared with Fritz Kortner and Tala Birell. During this time, Veidt also got the chance to play Rasputin in the Adolf Trotz directed Rasputin, Demon with Women (1932). He did not stay there long however. Veidt's second marriage had been to a woman who both of aristocratic German and Jewish heritage; they had a daughter that was born in 1925. Though they divorced in 1932, the Nazi regime coming to power in 1933 was more than Veidt could stand; and he also married a Hungarian Jewish woman in 1933, that was more than the Nazi's would stand for. Veidt further inflamed the situation by filling out a questionnaire written up by Goebbels and imposed on the German film industry by listing his "race" as "Jew." He and his third wife fled the country for Britain, and then fled there for California at the start of World War II. He had spent the rest of the 1930's in the British film industry. In 1940, he took the lead in The Thief of Bagdad, a joint U.K. and U.S. production with filming locations in both countries. He then settled back into life in California in 1941, including a return to the American film industry, where he had a contract stipulation that if he were offered Nazi roles, they must be completely villainous. He made an appearance in the Joan Crawford/Melvyn Douglas film A Woman's Face (1941) directed by George Cukor; and in the Humphrey Bogart comedic crime vehicle All Through the Night (1942). He took the lead as identical twins in Nazi Agent in 1942, and his appearance in the Loretta Young film The Men in Her Life (1941) eerily matched his death just a few years later. My favorite from this period his career is the rather wacky comedy mystery Whistling in the Dark (1941) starring Ann Rutherford and Red Skelton. Of course, his turn as Major Heinrich Strasser in Michael Curtiz's Casablanca is the role everyone knows him for. Of the film, he remarked that thought it was a sad irony that his performance in the film was praised, when he was portraying the sort of character that had forced him from his homeland. It would also turn out to be his next to last film. In the 1930's Veidt had discovered that he had inherited his mother's heart condition, combining that with possible damage done by massive illness during the first World War and his constant chain smoking, it was only a matter of time before the condition caught up with him, despite his taking nitroglycerin to lessen the strain in his heart. One afternoon in the spring of 1943, Veidt collapsed on the golf course while playing with, among others, his own personal physician. His doctor pronounced him dead at the scene; it was the 3rd of April and his was only 50 years of age. His last film, Above Suspicion, another Joan Crawford film, was released the same year. He was cremated at Westwood Memorial and his ashes were originally interred at Ferncliff in New York, later moved (along with the ashes of his third wife) to the Columbarium at Golders Green in England in 1997.
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| Former niche at Ferncliff. |
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| Current location at Golders Green |
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