Oskar Werner
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Oskar Werner
Biography
Universally regarded as one of Western Europe's foremost stage actors, Oskar Werner was 18 years old when he made his stage bow at the Burgtheater in his native Vienna. A lifelong pacifist, Werner did everything he could to avoid conscription in the Axis army during World War II; when he finally was forced into a uniform, he deserted at the earliest opportunity. After the war, Werner resumed his theatrical career, only reluctantly making his first film in 1948; "I am married to the theater, and the films are only my mistress" he would later declare. In 1951, he made his English-language film debut as "Happy," an enigmatic German POW, in 20th Century-Fox's Decision Before Dawn. When Fox reneged on its promise to develop Werner into a Hollywood star, he went back to his true love, the theatre, vowing to only appear in films that intrigued him. In 1955, he essayed the title role in Mozart, and also played a smaller but no less significant part as the student with the scarf in Ophuls' Lola Montes. Then it was back to the stage, culminating with his formation of Theatre Ensemble Oskar Werner in 1959. Werner's definitive screen performance was the romantic intellectual Jules in Francois Truffaut's Jules et Jim (1962), though it was his portrayal of the philosophical Dr. Schumann in Ship of Fools (1965) that earned the actor his only Oscar nomination. His friendship with Truffaut soured after their second collaboration, Fahrenheit 451 (1967); exhibiting profound disillusionment, Truffaut complained (not without justification) that Werner had become a "cold" performer. Oskar Werner died at the age of 62, just before he was scheduled to deliver a lecture at a German drama club. ~ Hal Erickson, RoviFilmography:
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Oskar Werner
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Oskar Werner
| Oskar Werner | |
|---|---|
 Werner in 1966 as Guy Montag |
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| Born | Oskar Josef 13 November 1922 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 23 October 1984 (aged 61) Marburg, Germany |
| Years active | 1939–1984 |
| Spouse | Elisabeth Kallina (1944–1952) Anne Power (1954–1968) |
| Children | Eleanore |
Oskar Werner (13 November 1922 – 23 October 1984) was an Austrian actor. He is best known for his film performances in Jules and Jim (1962), Ship of Fools (1965), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), and The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968). Werner received an Academy Award nomination in 1966, two BAFTA award nominations in 1966 and 1967, and won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1966.
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Early life
Born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer on 13 November 1922 in Vienna, Werner spent much of his childhood in the care of his grandmother, who entertained him with stories about the Burgtheater, the Austrian state theatre, where he was accepted at the age of eighteen by Lothar Müthel. He was the youngest person ever to receive this recognition. He made his theatre debut using the stage name Oskar Werner in October 1941.[1]
In December 1941, Werner was drafted into the Wehrmacht. As a pacifist and staunch opponent of Nazism, he was determined to avoid advancement in the military.
So many officers had been killed on the Russian front that they needed replacements desperately. And, I was for them the embodiment of the Aryan type. But I am a pacifist. I didn't want any responsibility, so I behaved stupidly. I fell from my horse and made mistakes reading the range finders on the cannon, and finally they kicked me out of training school.[2]
He was assigned to peeling potatoes and cleaning latrines instead of being sent to the Eastern Front. In 1944, he secretly married actress Elisabeth Kallina, who was half-Jewish.[citation needed] They immediately had a daughter, Eleanore. That December, he deserted the Wehrmacht and fled with his wife and daughter to the Wienerwald, where they remained in hiding until the end of the war.[1] He would later remember, "The artillery fire was constant for two and a half days. The shells hit all around our little hut and it was shaking like a leaf ... We knew that to go out there would be suicide, but it was better than to have to wait for execution."[3]
Early career
Werner returned to the Burgtheater, and also acted in productions at the Raimund Theater and the Theater in der Josefstadt, frequently playing character roles. He made his film debut in Der Engel mit der Posaune, directed by Karl Hartl, in 1948.[1] The following year he portrayed Ludwig van Beethoven's nephew Karl in Eroica.
In 1950, Werner journeyed to the United Kingdom to reprise the role he had played in Der Engel mit der Posaune in its English-language version, The Angel with the Trumpet, under the direction of Anthony Bushell. He and his wife divorced at about this time but remained friends.[1] He appeared in a few more German/Austrian films before going to Hollywood for a lead role in the 20th Century Fox war film Decision Before Dawn. When the subsequent roles promised by the studio failed to materialize, he returned to Europe and settled in Triesen, Liechtenstein in a home he designed and built with a friend. He returned to the stage and performed in Hamlet, Danton's Death, Henry IV, Henry V, Torquato Tasso, and Becket, among others. In 1954 he married Anne Power, the daughter of French actress Annabella and adopted daughter of Tyrone Power.[1]
After a period of inactivity in films, Werner appeared in five in 1955, among them Mozart, in which he played the title role, and Lola Montès, directed by Max Ophüls. It wasn't until 1962, when he appeared in Jules and Jim, that he began to draw critical acclaim and international recognition.
Later career
Werner's portrayal of the philosophical Dr. Schumann in the 1965 film Ship of Fools won him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. His portrayal of Jewish East German spy Fiedler in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and his second BAFTA nomination. In 1966, he played book-burning fireman Guy Montag in François Truffaut's film adaptation of the cult-classic Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. He played an orchestra conductor in Interlude and a Vatican priest loosely based on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Shoes of the Fisherman in 1968, the same year he divorced Power.
In the early 1970s, Werner returned to the stage and spent time traveling in Israel, Italy, Malta, France, and the United States.[1] He appeared in an episode of Columbo in 1975, and the following year made his final screen appearance in Voyage of the Damned, for which he received another Golden Globe nomination.
Werner was an alcoholic, which was a deciding factor in the decline of his health and career. His last stage appearance was in a 1983 production of The Prince of Homburg, and he made his last public appearance at the Mozart Hall in Salzburg ten days prior to his death. On 22 October 1984, Werner cancelled a reading at the Hotel Europäischer Hof in Marburg because he was feeling ill. He was found dead of a heart attack the following morning, two days after François Truffaut had died. He is buried in his adopted country of Liechtenstein.[1]
Filmography
- Hotel Sacher (1939), Liftboy
- Linen for Ireland (1939), Hotelpage
- Der Engel mit der Posaune (1948), Hermann Alt
- Eroica (1949), Karl
- The Angel with the Trumpet (1950), Herman Alt
- Das gestohlene Jahr (1951), Peter Brück
- Ruf aus dem Äther (1951), Der Student
- Wonder Boy (1951), Rudi
- Ein Lächeln im Sturm (1951), Francois Mercier
- Decision Before Dawn (1951), Cpl. Karl Maurer aka Happy
- The Last Ten Days (1955), Hauptmann Wüst
- Spionage (1955), Leutnant Zeno von Baumgarten
- Mozart (1955), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
- Lola Montès (1955), Student
- Ein gewisser Judas (1958, TV movie), Judas
- Jules and Jim (1962), Jules
- Venusberg (1963), voice
- Torquato Tasso (1964, TV movie), Torquato Tasso
- Ship of Fools (1965), Dr. Schumann
- The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), Fiedler
- Fahrenheit 451 (1966), Guy Montag
- Interlude (1968), Stefan Zelter
- The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Fr. David Telemond
- Columbo (1975, TV series), "Playback", Harold Van Wick
- Voyage of the Damned (1976), Professor Egon Kreisler[4]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Biography at www.oskarwerner.de.vu[dead link]
- ^ Armbrister, Trevor (8). "A Very Phony Profession". The Saturday Evening Post (21): 100.
- ^ Armbrister, Trevor (8). "A Very Phony Profession". The Saturday Evening Post (21): 100.
- ^ "Oskar Werner". Internet Movie Database. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0921459/. Retrieved 17 May 2012.
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Mentioned in
Playback: Columbo (TV Episode)
(1975 Mystery TV Episode)
Interlude
(1968 Drama Film)
Decision Before Dawn
(1951 War Film)
The Wonder Kid
(1950 Drama Film)
Annabella
(Actor, Drama/Comedy Drama)
» More