Conrad Veidt
Biography
Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent film, where he was one of the best-paid stars of Ufa, he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 with his new Jewish wife after the Nazis came to power. They settled in Britain, where he participated in a number of films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which lead to him having a supporting role in Casablanca (1942).
From 1916 until his death, Veidt appeared in more than 100 films. One of his earliest performances was as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a classic of German Expressionist cinema, with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. His starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), as a disfigured circus performer whose face is cut into a permanent grin, provided the (visual) inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker, created in 1940 by Bill Finger. Veidt also starred in other silent horror films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924), another film directed by Robert Wiene, The Student of Prague (1926) and Waxworks (1924) where he played Ivan the Terrible.
Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919), one of the first films to sympathetically portray homosexuality, although the characters in it do not end up happily. He had a leading role in Germany's first talking picture, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women, 1929).
He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a few films, but the advent of talking pictures and his difficulty with speaking English led him to return to Germany. During this period he lent his expertise to tutoring aspiring performers, one of whom was the later American character actress Lisa Golm.
Known For
Acting
1920
asCesare
1943
asMajor Heinrich Strasser
1920
asDr. Warren
1917
asRichard von Worth
1924
asPaul Orlac
1921
asIvan
1940
asJaffar
1943
asHassert Seidel
1928
asGwynplaine / Lord Clancharlie
1926
asBalduin, Student
1919
asBankier Lorenzen
1924
asIvan the Terrible
1941
asTorsten Barring
1919
asDer Tod / Various Other Roles
1942
asFranz Ebbing
1974
asSelf (archive footage)
1942
asOtto Becker / Baron Hugo von Detner
1925
as
1941
asJoseph Jones
1937
asBaron Karl Von Marwitz
1939
asCaptain Ernst Hardt
1926
as
1929
asErik the Great
1931
as
1940
asCapt. Andersen
1927
asKing Louis XI
1935
asThe Stranger
1940
asGeneral Kurt von Kolb
2000
asSelf (archive footage)
1937
asGil de Berault
1932
asZurta
1933
asMatathias / The Unknown Knight / Dr Matteos Battadios
1934
asJosef 'Jew Süss' Oppenheimer
1925
asHellgum
1924
asDer Liebhaber, ein Dichter
1917
asIndian Priest
1921
asDer Maler
1921
asAyan, Majarajah of Eschnapur
1921
asAyan, Majarajah of Eschnapur
1923
asHermann Gessler
1933
asCommandant Oberaertz
1926
asCount di Nolli, Heinrich IV
1933
asMarquis de Pontignac
1938
asLe baron de Kempelen
1919
asPaul Körner
1931
asFürst Metternich
1932
asCaptain Hansgeorg von Hochberg
1922
asCesare Borgia
1926
asPaul Hartwig, Maler
1926
asDer Staatsanwalt
1934
asGessler
1921
asProfessor Munk
1930
asKingsley
1920
asSir Percy Parker
1933
asMaj. Ellissen
1920
asPetre Karvan
1935
asConvict 83
1918
asSatan
2008
asJaffar (archival footage)
1931
asPrince Metternich
1919
asAlfred Werner
1930
asHimself
1926
asWenzel Schellenberg / Michael Schellenberg
1932
asGrigori Rasputin
1921
asRaphael, der Geiger
1930
asHauptmann Burk
1931
asOberst Marquis de Sévigné
1919
as1919
asDr. von Dossen
1919
as1919
asFrederic Chopin
1919
as
1938
asErich Keith
1941
asStanislas Rosing
1940
asSelf
1931
asHauptmann Stanhope
1927
asDonatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade
1921
asLord Nelson
1920
asThe clown
1917
asSteinau
1920
asThe devil
1926
asRenées Vater
1919
asAlfred Werner
1919
asPhineas Fogg
1934
asMahmoud Baroudi
1920
asManolescu
1920
asChristian Wahnschaffe
1921
asChristian Wahnschaffe
1919
asDr. Richard Armstrong Jr.
1924
asDon Carlos
1923
asNiccolo Paganini
1927
asPaul La Roche
1924
asSelf
1918
asDr. Julius
1918
asErik Norrensen
1921
as
1918
asHenryk von Rhyn
1921
asJalenko
1920
asMinister
1919
asCarl Kraker
1921
asTossi
1920
asWilmos, sanatorium director
1929
asDick Ashton
1925
asComte Kostia
1927
as
1921
asHektor Dalmore
1917
as
1918
asDoktor Köstling
1918
asDoktor Köstling
1920
asBrilburn - Maud's brother
1918
asSchober
1918
asKramer
1918
asDinja
1928
asSelf
1998
as(archive footage)
1919
as1923
as1920
as1920
asJohannes Kay
1920
asProduction
1920
asCrew
Directing
1919
as1920
as
