Willy Fritsch

Willy Fritsch (27 January 1901 – 13 July 1973) was a German theater and film actor, a popular leading man and character actor from the silent-film era to the early 1960s. Biography Early life He was born Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch, the only son of a factory owner in Kattowitz (present-day Katowice) in the Prussian province of Silesia. After the bankruptcy of his father in 1912, the family moved to Berlin, where Fritsch Sr. worked as an employee of the Siemens-Schuckert company. Young Willy originally planned an apprenticeship as a mechanic, but soon began working as an extra at the Großes Schauspielhaus theatre. 1919–1932 From 1919 he attended Max Reinhardt's drama school at the Deutsches Theater, where he debuted with small roles and played as understudy at times side by side with Marlene Dietrich (i.e. Spring Awakening). He made his feature debut in films as a supporting player in 1920's Miss Venus and got his first important engagement in His Mysterious Adventure three years later. In 1925, Fritsch gained international attention by playing the leading role in the silent film A Waltz Dream directed by Ludwig Berger. Afterwards he was offered a United Artists contract, but refused to move to the United States, being concerned about his limited English. His career was pushed now through the UFA film company by being cast as a juvenile lover in silent comedies such as Chaste Susanne (1926), The Last Waltz (1927), Hungarian Rhapsody (1928), and Her Dark Secret (1929). Fritsch also starred in two silent films directed by Fritz Lang: the thriller Spies (1928) and the sci-fi film Woman in the Moon (1929), where he played serious characters. Again, these films gained him international success.