The Best Actor 1929
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- Fritz Heinrich Rasp was the thirteenth child of a county surveyor. He was schooled from 1908-1909 at the Theaterschule Otto Königin in Munich where, due to a speech impediment, Rasp developed a Frankish dialect. Rasp debuted on the stage in 1909, as Amandus in Max Halbe's "Skandalstück Jugend" as the Münchner Schauspielhaus.
In May 1914, Rasp received a five-year contract in the Reinhardts Deutschem Theater in Berlin, which was interrupted by his military service to Germany from 1916 - 1918.1512 points - Actor
- Director
- Writer
Fritz Kortner was born on 12 May 1892 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was an actor and director, known for Pandora's Box (1929), Somewhere in the Night (1946) and The Hands of Orlac (1924). He was married to Johanna Hofer. He died on 22 July 1970 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany.1488 points- Semyon Svashenko was born on 1 September 1904 in Dergachi, Kharkov Governorate, Russian Empire [now Derhachi, Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine]. He was an actor, known for Shturmovye nochi (1931), Quiet Flows the Don (1957) and Tikhiy Don II (1958). He died on 23 November 1969 in Moscow, RSFSR, USSR [now Russia].793 points
- Albert Steinrück was born on 20 May 1872 in Wetterburg, Bad Arolsen, Hesse, Germany. He was an actor, known for Asphalt (1929), Helen of Troy (1924) and Der Richter von Zalamea (1920). He died on 10 February 1929 in Berlin, Germany.788 points
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Gustav Fröhlich was born on 21 March 1902 in Hanover, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Metropolis (1927), Leb' wohl, Christina (1945) and Seine Tochter ist der Peter (1955). He was married to Maria Hajek and Gitta Alpar. He died on 22 December 1987 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.788 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
Popular Hollywood leading man of late silents and early talkies. He is best remembered for his teaming with Janet Gaynor in 12 screen romances between 1927 and 1934. He retired from films in the early 1940s, but TV audiences of the 1950s would see him as Gale Storm's widower dad in the popular television series My Little Margie (1952).788 points- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Frantisek Lederer was born on November 6th, 1899, in Czechoslovakia. His father was a leather merchant, and young Frantisek began his working life as a department store delivery boy in Prague. He fell in love with acting from a young age, and was soon on stage touring Moravia and then all over Central Europe with people like Peter Lorre.
Lederer was easily lured into film by German actress Henny Porten and her producer husband. And it wasn't long before he was starring in the legendary German silent movie Pandora's Box (1929).
Whilst Lederer, who was using the German name of Franz, shifted from silents to talkies easily and was fast becoming one of Germany's top stars, he hadn't yet learned to speak any English.
By 1934, Lederer, (now using Francis), had begun working in America. And he was getting top billing too. Irving Thalberg had planned to make Lederer "the biggest star in Hollywood" but Thalberg's untimely death put a stop to that. But Lederer continued successfully in film and TV for many years.
After two brief marriages his third lasted 59 years. He invested in property well and made a fortune in the Canoga Park, California area. He founded the National Academy of Performing Arts on which his close friend Joan Crawford was on the Advisory Board. He loved to teach.
Lederer was still teaching the week before he died in 2000, aged 100 years.770 points- Actor
- Writer
- Producer
Charles Laughton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire, England, to Eliza (Conlon) and Robert Laughton, hotel keepers of Irish and English descent, respectively. He was educated at Stonyhurst (a highly esteemed Jesuit college in England) and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (received gold medal). His first appearance on stage was in 1926. Laughton formed own film company, Mayflower Pictures Corp., with Erich Pommer, in 1937. He became an American citizen 1950. A consummate artist, Laughton achieved great success on stage and film, with many staged readings (particularly of George Bernard Shaw) to his credit. Laughton died in Hollywood, California, aged 63.759 points- Hans Adalbert Schlettow was born on 11 June 1887 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He was an actor, known for Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler (1922), Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (1924) and Volga Volga (1928). He died on 30 April 1945 in Berlin, Germany.756 points
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Not much is known about the early life of darkly handsome "B" cowboy actor Tom Keene, who was born George Duryea on December 30, 1896, in Rochester, New York. However, he did arrive in Hollywood in the late 1920s after college studies at Columbia and Carnegie Tech and immediately made an impact as the leading man of the silent films The Godless Girl (1928), a Cecil B. DeMille picture opposite Lina Basquette, the social drama Marked Money (1928) and the MGM western Tide of Empire (1929) opposite Renée Adorée. Known for his sharp, pleasant looks and fitness, George continued in leads and seconds leads with such early talkies as the Sophie Tucker musical comedy Honky Tonk (1929) co-starring Lila Lee and the comedy romancer The Dude Wrangler (1930) with Ms. Basquette again.
In 1930, Tom found a strong above-the-title niche for several years as a cowboy hero of RKO "Poverty Row" westerns and given the more rugged marquee name of "Tom Keene." Such oaters include Pardon My Gun (1930), Sundown Trail (1931), Renegades of the West (1932), The Saddle Buster (1932), The Cheyenne Kid (1933), Cross Fire (1933) and Son of the Border (1933). Unlike other sagebrush stars of the time, such as Lash La Rue or William Boyd ("Hopalong Cassidy"), Tom's heroes took on different names and appearances -- wearing both black and white western outfits and hats -- and his characters were not two-fisted men by nature. As a result, he remained a second-string, less identifiable Western star for the duration of his career. He would also appear alongside or secondary to such other western stars such as Randolph Scott in Sunset Pass (1933) and Buster Crabbe in both Drift Fence (1936) and Desert Gold (1936)
Tom went on to star in several other "Poverty Row" western vehicles for not only Crescent Pictures Corporation (The Glory Trail (1936), Rebellion (1936), Old Louisiana (1937) (co-starring a very young Rita Hayworth), Battle of Greed (1937), Under Strange Flags (1937), Drums of Destiny (1937)), but for Monogram Pictures (God's Country and the Man (1937), Where Trails Divide (1937), The Painted Trail (1938), Wanderers of the West (1941), Western Mail (1942), Where Trails End (1942), Arizona Roundup (1942)).
The third, declining phase in Tom's film career occurred at this point. Changing his marquee name yet again to "Richard Powers," he pursued lesser roles in more quality non-westerns and even pursued stage work (Broadway's "The Barber Had Two Sons" in 1943) to help squelch the rugged stereotype, but it didn't work. Films during this period include Up in Arms (1944), the serial The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944), the Roy Rogers western Lights of Old Santa Fe (1944) (as a villain), San Quentin (1946), Dick Tracy's Dilemma (1947), Seven Keys to Baldpate (1947), Crossfire (1947), Berlin Express (1948), Red Planet Mars (1952), Dig That Uranium (1955), the cult "worst movie" classic Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) and the Rowan & Martin comedy film Once Upon a Horse... (1958). 1950's TV appearances included "Sky King," "The Adventures of Superman," "Hopalong Cassidy," "General Electric Theatre," "The Abbott and Costello Show," "The Millionaire," a recurring role in Disney's "Corky and White Shadow" series (as Sheriff Martin), "Fury," "Casey Jones" and "Ozzie and Harriet."
Tom retired in 1958 and delved into real estate and insurance fields for the short remainder of his life. Dying of cancer on August 4, 1963, Tom was survived by his second wife, Florence Ramsey, and a stepson. He was formerly married to actress Grace Stafford, who also provided the cartoon voice of Woody Woodpecker.754 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
Respected character actor of the silent and early sound period, specializing in cruel villains. The son of Kansas City policeman Noah Webster Beery and Frances Margaret Fitzgerald Beery, Noah Nicholas Beery and his younger brother Wallace Beery both left home in their teens, each seeking a career as a performer. Noah made his stage debut at the age of 16 and worked steadily in the theatre until his early 30s. Following his brother into films, he quickly established himself as a competent player and a familiar heavy in all sorts of films, particularly westerns. He never achieved the great fame of his younger brother, but succeeded in carving a memorable niche for himself in the history of film. His son Noah Beery Jr. became equally familiar as a character actor, though usually in more genial roles.754 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
George Baxter was born on 8 April 1905 in Paris, France. He was an actor, known for Marianne (1929), The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet (1952) and She Devil (1957). He was married to Anne Lewington. He died on 10 September 1976 in New York City, New York, USA.744 points- George Bancroft was raised in Philadelphia and attended high school at Tomes Institute (Philadelphia). He won an impressive appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis and graduated as a commissioned officer. He served in the Navy for the prescribed period of required service but no more. He decided to turn to show business, first as a theater manager. He worked in the old and fading minstrel show variety format into the 1920s but then decided to try his hand at acting. By 1923, he was good enough for Broadway and spent about a year there doing two plays. But he was already good enough for some early camera work for by 1921, so he had made his first appearance in the silent movie medium. Being a big man with dark features, he was a natural for heavies. And it seemed that early Westerns were an easy fit as well after his first four films. Through 1924 and into 1925, he did four, culminating with pay dirt in his appealing performance as rogue Jack Slade in the James Cruze Western The Pony Express (1925). With him was another up-and-coming character actor, Wallace Beery. Bancroft's acting made Paramount Pictures take a look at him as star material. His roles as tough guy took on more flesh into the later 1920s, especially in association with director Josef von Sternberg and his well-honed gangster films that started with Underworld (1927). Their work culminated with Sternberg's Thunderbolt (1929) for which Bancroft received an Oscar nomination. He was tops at the box office.
Bancroft's various on-screen personas as bigger-than-life strong man was not far from his off-screen character as Hollywood notability got to him. It was recalled that he became more difficult to deal with as his ego grew. At one point, he refused to obey a director's order that he fall down after being shot by the villain. Bancroft declared, "One bullet can't kill Bancroft!" Although he stayed busy through the 1930s, he was older and stouter -- the stuff of featured characters. And Bancroft was also getting a lot of competition from younger character actors. In the early '30s, his roles continued to typecast him as lead heavies, but increasingly, he was cast as second tier -- if with more variety -- in later roles. He was paper editor MacWade in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936); a doctor in A Doctor's Diary (1937); a few sea captains along the way; and most memorably Marshal Curly Wilcox in the John Ford Western (his first with sound) Stagecoach (1939). Here he is particularly engaging tough lawman but with a big heart. Into the 1940s, he only did a handful of films. But he again had a rogue's spotlight with another name director -- Cecil B. DeMille -- in one of his always epic yarns. This time it was a Texas Ranger chasing a murderer over the Canadian border in North West Mounted Police (1940) with a stellar cast including Gary Cooper, everybody's favorite blond Madeleine Carroll, and Paulette Goddard as fleeing criminal, Jacques Corbeau's (Bancroft) daughter. By 1942, Bancroft had decided to move on, retiring with the intention of becoming a Southern California rancher. He quietly assumed this new role for a long run of 14 years before his passing.735 points - Actor
- Soundtrack
During World War I, Richard Arlen served in the Royal Canadian Flying Corps as a pilot, but he never saw combat. After the war he drifted round and eventually wound up in Los Angeles, where he got a job as a motorcycle messenger at a film laboratory. When he crashed into the gates of Paramount Pictures and suffered a broken leg, the studio provided prompt medical attention. Impressed by his good looks, executives also gave him a contract after he had recovered. Starting as an extra in 1925, Arlen soon rose to credited roles, but the quality of his work left much to be desired. However, he continued in films, and his big break came when William A. Wellman cast him as a pilot in the silent film Wings (1927) with Charles 'Buddy' Rogers and Clara Bow. The story of fighter aces would win the Oscar for Best Picture and Arlen would continue to play the tough, cynical hero throughout his career. Arlen appeared in three more pictures directed by Wellman, Beggars of Life (1928), Ladies of the Mob (1928) and The Man I Love (1929). In "Wings" he had a scene with a young actor named Gary Cooper. In 1929, he again worked with Cooper in the western The Virginian (1929), only this time Cooper was the star and Arlen was the supporting actor. While Arlen moved easily into sound, his career just bumped along. By 1935 he was working in such "B" pictures as Three Live Ghosts (1936). It was in 1935 that he became a freelance actor and his freelance career soon waned. In 1939, he signed with Universal and began working in its action films. In 1941 he moved to the Pine-Thomas unit at Paramount, where he appeared in adventure films. With the war on, most of his earlier films included war scenarios. By the end of the 1940s Arlen was becoming deaf and this seemed to signal the end of his career. However, he had an operation in 1949 that restored his hearing and he went on making a handful of adventures and westerns through the 1950s and working more in the 1960s. He made 15 westerns for producer A.C. Lyles, who worked with the old western stars.
Besides movies, Arlen also appeared on television and in commercials. After leaving the business in the late 1960s, he was coaxed back to the screen for three small roles in films that were released the same year that he died.735 points- Actor
- Writer
- Soundtrack
Maurice Chevalier's first working job was as an acrobat, until a serious accident ended that career. He turned his talents to singing and acting, and made several short films in France. During World War I he enlisted in the French army. He was wounded in battle, captured and placed in a POW camp by the Germans. During his captivity he learned English from fellow prisoners. After the war he returned to the film business, and when "talkies" came into existence, Chevalier traveled to the US to break into Hollywood. In 1929 he was paired with operatic singer/actress Jeanette MacDonald to make The Love Parade (1929). Although Chevalier was attracted to the beautiful MacDonald and made several passes at her, she rejected him firmly, as she had designs on actor Gene Raymond, who she eventually married. He did not take rejection lightly, being a somewhat vain man who considered himself quite a catch, and derided MacDonald as a "prude". She, in turn, called him "the quickest derrière pincher in Hollywood". They made three more pictures together, the most successful being Love Me Tonight (1932). In the late 1930s he returned to Europe, making several films in France and England. World War II interrupted his career and he was dogged by accusations of collaboration with the Nazi authorities occupying France, but he was later vindicated. In the 1950s he returned to Hollywood, older and gray-headed. He made Gigi (1958), from which he took his signature songs, "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" and "I Remember it Well". He also received a special Oscar that year. In the 1960s he made a few more films, and in 1970 he sang the title song for Walt Disney's The Aristocats (1970). This marked his last contribution to the film industry.735 points- Actor
- Producer
- Writer
Douglas Fairbanks was born Douglas Elton Thomas Ullman in Denver, Colorado, to Ella Adelaide (nee Marsh) and Hezekiah Charles Ullman, an attorney and native of Pennsylvania, who was a captain for the Union forces during the Civil War. Fairbanks' paternal grandparents were German Jewish immigrants, while his mother, a Southerner with roots in Louisiana and Georgia, was of British Isles descent. From the age of five he was raised by his mother due to her husband's abandonment. She changed her sons' surnames to Fairbanks (her former husband's surname) and covered up their paternal Jewish ancestry.
He began amateur theater at age 12 and continued while attending the Colorado School of Mines. In 1900 they moved to New York. He attended Harvard, traveled to Europe, worked on a cattle freighter, in a hardware store and as a clerk on Wall Street. He made his Broadway debut in 1902 and five years later left theater to marry an industrialist's daughter.
He returned when his father-in-law went broke the next year. In 1915, he went to Hollywood and worked under a reluctant D.W. Griffith. The following year he formed his own production company. During a Liberty Bond tour with Charles Chaplin he fell in love with Mary Pickford with whom he, Chaplin and Griffith had formed United Artists in 1919. He made very successful early social comedies, then highly popular swashbucklers during the 'twenties. The owners of Hollywood's Pickfair Mansion separated in 1933 and divorced in 1936. In March 1936, he married and retired from acting.726 points- Actor
- Director
- Soundtrack
Conrad Nagel was born on 16 March 1897 in Keokuk, Iowa, USA. He was an actor and director, known for The Ship from Shanghai (1930), Quality Street (1927) and Kongo (1932). He was married to Michael Coulson Smith, Lynn Merrick and Ruth Helms. He died on 24 February 1970 in New York City, New York, USA.725 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
Willy Fritsch was born on 27 January 1901 in Kattowitz, Upper Silesia, Germany [now Katowice, Slaskie, Poland]. He was an actor, known for Woman in the Moon (1929), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Amphitryon (1935). He was married to Dinah Grace. He died on 13 July 1973 in Hamburg, Germany.725 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
This corpulent, balding character actor was a ubiquitous presence in German-speaking films for almost half a century. So much so, that a contemporary critic referred to him as 'the king of the supporting roles'. A baker's son, Sima had at first aspired to become a writer. When this somehow failed to materialise, he went on to study drama at Vienna Conservatory. His first theatrical engagement in 1919 took him to the Deutsche Theater in Prague. Afterwards, he was to divide his time on stage between Vienna and Berlin. From 1927, Sima came under the auspices of Max Reinhardt, who was astute enough to recognise his singular comic talent and had him cast in satirical or comedic roles.
Sima's screen career commenced in 1921. He made limited headway until the arrival of sound. All of a sudden, he started to average several films per year, often acting in commercially successful pictures like Die Fledermaus (1931), So ein Flegel (1934), Liebe, Tod und Teufel (1934), Glückskinder (1936), Gasparone (1937), Frau im Strom (1939) and Jenny und der Herr im Frack (1941). His stock-in-trade character was the surly curmudgeon: sometimes villainous, cigar-chewing and choleric, sometimes shifty and scheming, all the while deceptively amiable. At other times, he provided effective, often scene-stealing comedy relief, as pompous, easily deflatable editors, industrialists or burgomasters. Sima continued, unabated, during the post-war era, alternating comedies with romantic melodramas. In 1967, he was forced into retirement following a heart attack, retreating to his horse-breeding stud near Vienna.
During the national socialist era, Sima's stance towards the ruling regime seemed ambivalent. On the one hand, he vociferously applauded Austria's 'Anschluss' with Germany. He went as far as to join the NSDAP, ostensibly, in order to continue performing. On the other hand, Sima appears also to have been associated with at least one resistance cell during the 1940's. Perhaps, that curious ambiguity accounted for his receiving the one major award of his prolific career, the Filmband in Gold, only just prior to his death in June 1969.718 points- Gustav Diessl was an Austrian artist, film and stage actor. He studied art, painting and sculpture in Vienna. From 1921 he worked in Berlin as an actor for G.W. Pabst in his silent film, "Abgründe" (1928). In 1929 he played in The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) ("The White Hell of Pitz Palu"). After that he became famous in USA, but returned to Germany after making only one film in Hollywood. He also played in Italian films. After a short-lived first marriage, he cohabited with Camilla Horn for a couple of years, but in 1938 he married opera star Maria Cebotari, with who he had two sons; one of them lives today in England and the other one in New Zealand. Gustav Diessl died, much too young,in Vienna.718 points
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Nils Asther was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1897 and raised in Malmö, Sweden, by his wealthy Swedish parents. After attending the Royal Dramatic Theater School in Stockholm, he began his stage career in Copenhagen. His film debut came in 1916 when the director Mauritz Stiller cast him in the lead role (as an aspiring actor, appropriately enough) in the Swedish film Vingarne (1916). After working with Victor Sjöström in Sweden and Michael Curtiz in Germany, Asther moved to Hollywood in 1927, where his exotic looks landed him romantic roles with co-stars such as Greta Garbo, Pola Negri, and Joan Crawford. Although his foreign accent was a hindrance in "talkies", his Hollywood career continued until 1934 when he was blacklisted for breaking a contract and went to Britain for four years. After his return to Hollywood in 1938, his career declined and by 1949 he was driving a truck. In 1958, he returned to Sweden, where he remained until his death, making occasional appearances in television and on stage.712 points- Actor
- Soundtrack
An All-American halfback while attending the University of Alabama, Johnny Mack Brown chose the silver screen over the green grass of the football field when he graduated. Signed to a contract with MGM in 1926, Brown debuted in Slide, Kelly, Slide (1927) with William Haines in a film about - baseball. This was followed by The Bugle Call (1927), which starred the fading Jackie Coogan. In 1928 he appeared in the last Norma Shearer silent film, A Lady of Chance (1928). After that, he worked with Greta Garbo, Marion Davies and Mary Pickford. His muscular good looks only carried him so far in films, however, and by 1930 he had yet to find his place. At MGM Clark Gable was taking the roles that Brown was up for, so he went into a western for director King Vidor, Billy the Kid (1930). While Vidor did not want him for the part to begin with, the picture was successful; however, Brown's career at MGM soon ended. By 1933 he was still making westerns, but they were for low-rung studios like Mascot. More westerns at even lower-rung Supreme Pictures followed, as well as serials like Wild West Days (1937) at Universal. In 1943 Brown took his boots over to Monogram Pictures, where he made over 60 westerns. He started off as "Nevada Jack McKenzie" in the Rough Riders series, but the name soon changed to Johnny. As with most of the early cowboy stars, he was a hero to millions of young children and consistently among the top ten money-makers in westerns from 1942-50. The bubble burst, though, just as it did for Allan Lane, in 1953, as the days of the "B" western came to an end.712 points