Willy Fritsch
Willy Fritsch | |
---|---|
Born | Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch 27 January 1901 |
Died | 13 July 1973 | (aged 72)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1921–1964 |
Spouse | Dinah Grace (d. 1963) |
Children | Thomas 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
1919–1932
From 1919 he attended
In 1929, he spoke the first sentence in a German
At the end of the Weimar era, he was one of the best paid actors in Germany, drawing large crowds of fans wherever he appeared. Even palm court music was composed for him: Ich bin in Willy Fritsch verliebt (I'm In Love With Willy Fritsch), 1931.[1] Besides, Friedrich Holländer dedicated a Couplet to him the same year: Gebet einer 15 3/4-Jährigen - Warum ist der Willy Fritsch so schön? (Prayer Of A 15 3/4 Year Old: Why Willy Fritsch Is Such A Cutie) was written for the opening of the famous Tingel Tangel Theater in Berlin.
1933–1945
When
Though he had joined the
1945–1964
After the war, he moved to
Personal life
Fritsch was married to artistic dancer Dinah Grace in 1937 and became a father of two sons. The younger one, Thomas Fritsch, was a successful actor as well.
Fritsch died of a
Filmography
Silent films
- Miss Venus (1921)
- Raid (1921)
- Die kleine Midinette (1921)
- Gelbstern (1921)
- Der Heiratsschwindler (1922)
- Der blinde Passagier (1922)
- Hallig Hooge (1923)
- His Mysterious Adventure(1923)
- Die Fahrt ins Glück (1923)
- Mother and Child (1924)
- Guillotine (1924)
- Express Train of Love (1925)
- The Farmer from Texas (1925)
- Dancing Mad(1925)
- A Waltz Dream (1925)
- The Girl with a Patron (1925)
- The Wooing of Eve (1926)
- The Prince and the Dancer (1926)
- The Boxer's Bride (1926)
- Chaste Susanne(1926)
- A Sister of Six (1926)
- The Last Waltz (1927)
- His Late Excellency (1927)
- The Woman in the Cupboard (1927)
- Guilty (1928)
- Spies (1928)
- Because I Love You (1928)
- Docks of Hamburg (1928)
- Hungarian Rhapsody (1928)
- Her Dark Secret (1929)
- Woman in the Moon (1929)
Sound films
- Melody of the Heart (1929)
- Waltz of Love (1930)
- Hocuspocus (1930)
- The Three from the Filling Station (1930)
- Burglars (1930)
- Her Grace Commands (1931)
- In the Employ of the Secret Service (1931)
- Der Kongress tanzt (1931)
- Ronny (1931)
- The Cheeky Devil (1932)
- A Mad Idea (1932)
- A Blonde Dream (1932)
- I by Day, You by Night (1932)
- Season in Cairo (1933)
- Waltz War (1933)
- Des jungen Dessauers große Liebe (1933)
- Die Töchter Ihrer Exzellenz (1934)
- The Island (1934)
- Prinzessin Turandot (1934)
- Amphitryon (1935)
- Black Roses (1935)
- Boccacchio (1936)
- Lucky Kids (1936)
- Men Without a Fatherland (1937)
- Seven Slaps (1937)
- Gewitterflug zu Claudia (1937)
- Between the Parents (1938)
- The Girl of Last Night (1938)
- By a Silken Thread (1938)
- A Prussian Love Story (1938)
- Woman at the Wheel (1939)
- Die Geliebte (1939)
- Streit um den Knaben Jo (1939)
- Die unvollkommene Liebe (1940)
- Die keusche Geliebte (1940)
- Das leichte Mädchen (1940)
- Dreimal Hochzeit (1941)
- Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten (1941)
- Leichte Muse (1941)
- Vienna Blood (1942)
- Attack on Baku (1942)
- Beloved World (1942)
- A Salzburg Comedy (1943)
- Liebesgeschichten (1943)
- Die Gattin (1943)
- Junge Adler (1944)
- Die Fledermaus (1944–1946)
- Film Without A Title(1948)
- Finale (1948)
- Hallo - Sie haben Ihre Frau vergessen (1948)
- Twelve Hearts for Charly (1949)
- Derby (1949)
- Schatten in der Nacht(1949)
- Kätchen für alles (1949)
- The Beautiful Galatea (1950)
- Wonderful Times (1950)
- Mädchen mit Beziehungen (1950)
- King for One Night (1950)
- You Have to be Beautiful(1951)
- Maya of the Seven Veils (1951)
- The Heath is Green(1951)
- The Dubarry (1951)
- Mikosch Comes In (1952)
- Holiday From Myself (1952)
- At the Well in Front of the Gate (1952)
- We'll Talk About Love Later (1953)
- Lady's Choice (1953)
- When the White Lilacs Bloom Again (1953)
- Hungarian Rhapsody (1954)
- At the Order of the Czar (1954)
- Maxie (1954)
- Walking Back into the Past (1954)
- The Star of Rio (1955)
- Three Days Confined to Barracks (1955)
- The Happy Wanderer (1955)
- Love Is Just a Fairytale (1955)
- The Three from the Filling Station (1955)
- Black Forest Melody (1956)
- Where the Ancient Forests Rustle (1956)
- Das Donkosakenlied (1956)
- As Long as the Roses Bloom (1956)
- Der schräge Otto (1956)
- Two Hearts in May (1958)
- Schwarzwälder Kirsch (1958)
- Tunis Top Secret (1959)
- Mit Eva fing die Sünde an (1958) / The Bellboy and the Playgirls (re-edited 1962)
- Hunting Party (1959)
- Sweetheart of the Gods (1960)
- Wenn die Heide blüht" (1960)
- What Is Father Doing in Italy? (1961)
- Isola Bella (1961)
- Der Himmel kann warten (TV, 1962)
- Jazz und Jux in Heidelberg / Verliebt in Heidelberg (1963)
- Rauf und runter (TV, 1964)
- I Learned It from Father (1964)
In popular media
In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Lilian Harvey's duet with Willy Fritsch from the 1936 film Lucky Kids, "Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn" ("I wish I was a chicken") can be heard playing on a phonograph in the basement scene "La Louisiane" as well as in the extended scene "Lunch With Goebbels", as Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) happily sings a portion of the song after deciding to hold a private screening of the film. After the screening, cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), under the alias "Emmanuelle Mimieux", comments on liking Lilian Harvey in the film—to which an irritated Goebbels angrily insists her name never be mentioned again in his presence. The song as performed by the Comedian Harmonists remains popular in Germany to this day.
References
Literature
- Heike Goldbach: Ein Feuerwerk an Charme – Willy Fritsch. Der Ufa-Schauspieler. Über eine große Filmkarriere in wechselhaften Zeiten. tredition, Hamburg 2017. ISBN 978-3-7439-1290-8
External links
- Willy Fritsch at IMDb
- Photographs of Willy Fritsch
- Stockholm trängs och ser Willy Fritsch (Orig.). Several thousand fans welcome Willy Fritsch at Stockholm Central Station. Swedish Newsreel, January 1934. File: Swedish Film Institute/National Library of Sweden