Conrad Veidt
Acting
🎂 1893-01-22
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.
Cast credits(120)
Major Heinrich Strasser
1943
Cesare
1920
Gwynplaine / Lord Clancharlie
1928
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade
1927
Jaffar
1940
Paul Orlac
1924
Otto Becker / Baron Hugo von Detner
1942
Gil de Berault
1937
Baron Karl Von Marwitz
1937
Captain Ernst Hardt
1939
Capt. Andersen
1940
Ivan the Terrible
1924
Self (archive footage)
2000
Franz Ebbing
1942
Hassert Seidel
1943
(archive footage)
1998
Torsten Barring
1941
General Kurt von Kolb
1940
Stanislas Rosing
1941
King Louis XI
1927
Zurta
1932
Paul Körner
1919
The Stranger
1935
Matathias / The Unknown Knight / Dr Matteos Battadios
1933
Maj. Ellissen
1933
Ayan, Majarajah of Eschnapur
1921
Joseph Jones
1941
Josef 'Jew Süss' Oppenheimer
1934
Dr. Warren
1920
Lord Nelson
1921
Self (archive footage)
1974
Erik the Great
1929
Alfred Werner
1919
Kramer
1918
Alfred Werner
1919
Gessler
1934
Paul La Roche
1927
Ayan, Majarajah of Eschnapur
1921
Cesare Borgia
1922
Fürst Metternich
1931
Self
1940
Minister
1920
Self
1924
Captain Hansgeorg von Hochberg
1932
Erich Keith
1938
Balduin, Student
1926
Der Maler
1921
Der Tod / Various Other Roles
1919
Hellgum
1925
Mahmoud Baroudi
1934
Sir Percy Parker
1920
Himself
1930
1926
Dr. Richard Armstrong Jr.
1919
1917
Jaffar (archival footage)
2008
1919
Commandant Oberaertz
1933
1927
Der Liebhaber, ein Dichter
1924
Convict 83
1935
Hauptmann Burk
1930
Dick Ashton
1929
Jalenko
1921
Paul Hartwig, Maler
1926
Der Staatsanwalt
1926
Comte Kostia
1925
Count di Nolli, Heinrich IV
1926
Oberst Marquis de Sévigné
1931
The devil
1920
Phineas Fogg
1919
Self
1928
Christian Wahnschaffe
1920
1919
1925
Don Carlos
1924
Kingsley
1930
Manolescu
1920
Niccolo Paganini
1923
Hektor Dalmore
1921
The clown
1920
Carl Kraker
1919
Schober
1918
Brilburn - Maud's brother
1920
1921
Marquis de Pontignac
1933
Dinja
1918
Hermann Gessler
1923
Bankier Lorenzen
1919
Frederic Chopin
1919
Dr. Julius
1918
Doktor Köstling
1918
Wenzel Schellenberg / Michael Schellenberg
1926
Hauptmann Stanhope
1931
Prince Metternich
1931
1919
Tossi
1921
1920
Renées Vater
1926
Grigori Rasputin
1932
Le baron de Kempelen
1938
Petre Karvan
1920
Steinau
1917
Professor Munk
1921
1919
Erik Norrensen
1918
Wilmos, sanatorium director
1920
Richard von Worth
1917
Christian Wahnschaffe
1921
Doktor Köstling
1918
1931
Raphael, der Geiger
1921
Johannes Kay
1920
Henryk von Rhyn
1918
Ivan
1921
1923
Satan
1918
Dr. von Dossen
1919
Indian Priest
1917
1920