Anton Walbrook

Anton Walbrook (November 19, 1896 - August 9, 1967) was an Austrian actor who settled in the United Kingdom.

Life

He was born Adolf Wohlbruck in Vienna, Austria, descended from ten generations of actors. His father broke with tradition and was a circus clown. Walbrook studied with the director Max Reinhardt, built up a career in Austrian theatre and cinema.

In 1936 he went to Hollywood to reshoot dialogue for the multitnational The Soldier and the Lady (1937), in the process changing his name from Adolf to Anton. As a homosexual, his life in Austria was becoming intolerable under Nazi rule. Instead of returning he settled in England, and continued as working as a cinema actor. High points include the dashing, intense German officer Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff in The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), the tyrannical impresario in The Red Shoes (1948) and the ringmaster in La Ronde (1950). One of his most unusual films is the 1948 Queen of Spades, an odd, gothic chiller in which he co-starred with Edith Evans.

Co-star Moira Shearer said Walbrook was a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses and eating alone. He retired from films at the end of the 1950s, and in later years appeared on the European stage and television. He died of a heart attack in Garatshausen, Germany in 1967.

Selected films

In Austria