Conrad Veidt

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Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt in The Spy in Black (1939).
Birth name	Hans Walter Konrad Veidt
Born	January 22 1893(1893-01-22) Potsdam, Germany
Died	April 3 1943 (aged 50) Hollywood, California, U.S.
Years active	1917-1943

Conrad Veidt (January 22 1893 – April 3 1943) was a German actor, well known for his roles in such films as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), The Thief of Bagdad (1940), and Casablanca (1942).

1 Early life and career
2 Flight from Germany
3 Later career
4 Selected filmography
5 External links

Early life and career

He was born Hans Walter Conrad Weidt in Potsdam, Germany. From 1916 until his death, he appeared in well over 100 movies. He appeared in two of the most well-known films of the silent era: as a murderous somnambulist in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and as a disfigured circus performer in The Man Who Laughs (1928). Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering gay rights film Anders als die Andern ("Different from the Others", 1919) and in Das Land ohne Frauen (1929), Germany's first talking picture.

Flight from Germany

Playing as The Stranger in The Passing Of The Third Floor Back (1935). Veidt (wearing the bow tie) is third from left.

Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime, and he emigrated from Germany in 1933 a week after marrying a Jewish woman, Illona Prager. He settled in the United Kingdom and continued making films, notably three with director Michael Powell: The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940).

Later career

He later moved to Hollywood, and starred in a few films, such as Nazi Agent - in which he had a dual role as a Nazi and as the Nazi's twin brother. But he is most well known in this period for playing the Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (1942). He died of a heart attack a year later, while playing golf in Los Angeles. Veidt sang the title song "Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay" of the 1933 film F.P.1. It was a flop at the time, but became a hit in the United Kingdom in 1980. Disc-jockey Terry Wogan had played it as a request on his breakfast show and was flooded afterwards with letters asking for a repeat.