Paul Henreid

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Paul Henreid
Publicity photograph, 1940s
Born
Paul Georg Julius Hernreid

(1908-01-10)January 10, 1908
Trieste, Austria-Hungary
DiedMarch 29, 1992(1992-03-29) (aged 84)
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
CitizenshipAmerica and Britain
Occupations
  • Actor
  • director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1933–1977
Spouse
Elizabeth "Lisl" Camilla Julia Gluck Henreid
​
​
(m. 1936)​
Children2

Paul Henreid (January 10, 1908 – March 29, 1992)[1] was an Austrian-American actor, director, producer, and writer. He is best remembered for two film roles: Victor Laszlo in Casablanca and Jerry Durrance in Now, Voyager, both released between 1942 and 1943.

Early life[edit]

Paul Henreid was born on January 10, 1908, as Paul Georg Julius von Hernreid in in Trieste, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was the son of Maria-Luise (Lendecke) and Karl Alphons Hernreid, a Viennese banker, born as Carl Hirsch, who had converted in 1904[citation needed] from Judaism to Catholicism, due to anti-semitism. Henreid's father died in April 1916,[2] and the family fortune had dwindled by the time he graduated from the exclusive Theresianische Akademie.[3][4]Von Henreid trained for the theatre in Vienna, over his family's objections[3]

Stage and film careers[edit]

Roles in Germany and Austria[edit]

Von Henreid had his stage debut under the direction of Max Reinhardt. Von Henreid then started acting in both German and Austrian films in the 1930s. During that period, he was strongly anti-Nazi, so much so that he was later designated an "official enemy of the Third Reich" and all his assets were seized.[4]

In 1934, Von Henreid tried to join the NS-Reichsfilmkammer (National Sozialistic Reich Film Chamber). The NS-Regime rejected him after discovering that he was half-Jewish. In 1937, he tried again to get a membership by a special permit. This request was personally rejected by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.[5]

Roles in the United Kingdom[edit]

In 1937, Von Henreid played Prince Albert in the first British stage production of Victoria Regina.[3] With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Von Henreid risked deportation from the United Kingdom or internment as an enemy alien. However, the actor Conrad Veidt (who later appeared alongside Henreid as Major Heinrich Strasser in the film Casablanca) vouched for him, and the British Government allowed Von Henreid to to remain and work in British films.[6]

In 1939, Von Henreid has a major supporting role as Max Staefel, a German teacher, in the film Goodbye, Mr. Chips. The next year, he received third billing as a German espionage agent in the thriller Night Train to Munich. In 1940, Von Henreid also performed in a minor role in the British musical comedy spy film Under Your Hat.

Roles for RKO, Warner Bros., and MGM[edit]

Paul Henreid and Bette Davis, Now, Voyager
Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid in Casablanca.

After relocating to the United States, Von Henreid played a doctor in the 1941 Broadway play, Flight to the West.[7] That same year, he signed a contract with the RKO film studio in Hollywood.[8] The studio dropped the "von" from his name to make it sound less Germanic. That year, Henreid became a citizen of the United States.[3] His first film for RKO was Joan of Paris, a 1942 war drama that became a big hit.[9]

Moving to Warner Brothers in 1942, the studio cast Henreid in Now, Voyager, playing the romantic lead opposite Bette Davis. His next role was as Victor Laszlo, a heroic anti-Nazi resistance leader in the 1942 Casablanca, with Claude Rains, Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Henreid then turned down the male lead alongside Davis in the 1943 dramatic film, Watch on the Rhine.[10]

Warner Brothers tried to consolidate Henreid's new status by co-starring him with Ida Lupino in the 1944 romantic drama, In Our Time. That same year, the studio cast him as a romantic lead with Eleanor Parker in Between Two Worlds. Also in 1944, Henreid played a lead role in The Conspirators, fighting Nazis with a supporting cast that included Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre. Henreid rejected another romantic lead with Davis in the 1944 film Mr Skeffington.[10]

Henreid returned briefly to RKO to play a pirate with Maureen O'Hara in the studio's 1945 release, The Spanish Main. Returning to Warner Bros., he was cast in 1946 in Devotion, a biopic of the Brontë family in which Henreid portrays Charlotte Bronte's husband, Arthur Bell Nicholls. He was cast again with Parker in the 1946 adaptation of the Somerset Maugham novel, Of Human Bondage.[11]

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) then borrowed Henreid from Warners to play the composer Robert Schumann in the 1957 film Song of Love, opposite Katharine Hepburn. Henreid wrote in his memoirs that he then bought out his Warner Brothers contract for $75,000. MGM offered him a long term contract for $150,000 a year, but he turned it down.[11]

Blacklisting and European roles[edit]

In his 1984 autobiography Ladies Man, Henreid recounts that he was one of a group of Hollywood stars who went to Washington D.C. to protest against the anti-Communist excesses of the House Committee on Un-American Activities [3] He says that the movie industry then blacklisted him from acting in major films for five years. He produced the film noir Hollow Triumph in 1948. The only film he was able to make during his blacklist period was the 1949 Rope of Sand, playing a villain opposite Burt Lancaster. The blacklist was eventually lifted.[12]

In 1950, Henreid made a low-budget film for Edward and Harry Danziger, So Young, So Bad, as a school psychiatrist. This film was followed by an offer from Sam Katzman to play the pirate Jean Lafitte in Last of the Buccaneers (1950).[13] Henreid then went to France for the 1951 romanced film Pardon My French. He then returned to Katzman for the 1952 film Thief of Damascus. He directed and played the lead role in For Men Only (1952), a college drama about hazing. Later, in the United Kingdom, he made the films Stolen Face (1952) and Mantrap (1953), then went back to Katzman for Siren of Bagdad (1953). [14]

Return to Hollywood[edit]

In 1954, Henreid returned to MGM for a minor role in Deep in My Heart, his first "A" film in several years. He moved next to Columbia Pictures, where he appeared in the 1955 film Pirates of Tripoli for Katzman; and then, yet again, to MGM for a part in the 1956 Meet Me in Las Vegas. He also appeared at this time on Broadway in Festival.[14]

Paul Henreid, 1947

In the early 1950s, Henreid began directing both film and television productions. His directorial credits include American television episodes of:

Henreid also directed the 1956 film A Woman's Devotion, in which he played a supporting role, Girls on the Loose (1958), and Live Fast, Die Young (1958). In 1964, he directed Dead Ringer, which stars Bette Davis and features his daughter Monika Henreid in a minor role. While working as a director, Henreid continued to accept some small acting parts:

In 1973, prior to his last screen appearance in Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), Henreid returned to Broadway to perform in Don Juan in Hell.

Personal life and legacy[edit]

Henreid's grave at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica

Henreid married Elizabeth Camilla Julia "Lisl" Glück (1908–1993) in 1936; the couple adopted two daughters. In 1992, at age 84, Henreid died of pneumonia in Santa Monica, California after suffering a stroke.[3] He was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in 1960 honored Henreid with two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. One star, recognizing his film career, is located at 6366 Hollywood Boulevard. The second star, for his work in television, is located at 1720 Vine Street.[1][6]

Complete filmography[edit]

As actor[edit]

As himself or narrator[edit]

  • Hollywood Canteen (1944) – himself
  • Peking Remembered (1967 documentary) – narrator

As producer[edit]

As director[edit]

Film[edit]

Television[edit]

  • Maverick "Passage to Fort Doom" (1959)
  • The Californians (1957–1959), various episodes
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV series episode "The Landlady," "Cell 227," and 26 others (1957–1962)
  • The June Allyson Show (1960) episode 'The Lie'
  • The Virginian "Long Ride to Wind River" (1966)
  • The Big Valley (9 episodes)

(TV Series 1965–1968)

  • Johnny Staccato TV series episode 'The Mask of Jason', “A Nice Little Town’ (1960)

As writer[edit]

Music[edit]

Radio appearances[edit]

Year Program Episode/source Notes
5/10/43 Lux Radio Theatre "Now, Voyager" w/ Ida Lupino
9/10/45 Lux Radio Theatre "Experiment Perilous" w/ Virginia Bruce
10/1/45 Lux Radio Theatre "Mr. Skeffington" w/ Bette Davis
1/3/46 Suspense "Angel of Death"[15]
3/14/46 Suspense "No More Alice"[16]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Also the French version Dans la vie tout s'arrange (1952).

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b "Paul Henreid". Los Angeles Times. April 3, 1992.
  2. ^ "Am 21 April um 2/3 5 Uhr nachmittags verschied Herr Karl Henreid leitender Direktor der Deutschen Agrarbank fur Osterreich in Prag nach karzern schweren im 42 Jahre selnes arbeitsreichen sur dem Wohle meiner Famille und den Intercessen seines institutes gewidmsten Lebens" [On April 21 around 20 of 5 a.m., Mr. Karl Henreid, the chief director of the German Agricultural Bank for Austria in Prague, died after 42 years of difficult work for the well-being of his family and the interests of his employer.]. New Free Press (in German). April 25, 1916. p. 13. Retrieved April 12, 2020 – via Austrian National Library. Marie Henreid born Lendecke as wife, Paul Henreid, Robert Henreid as children...
  3. ^ a b c d e f Collins, Glenn (April 3, 1992). "Paul Henreid, Actor, Dies at 84; Resistance Hero in 'Casablanca'". The New York Times.
  4. ^ a b Folkart, Burt A. (April 3, 1992). "Paul Henreid, Who Gained Fame in 'Casablanca,' Dies". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ^ Weniger, Kay: 'Es wird im Leben dir mehr genommen als gegeben …': Lexikon der aus Deutschland und Österreich emigrierten Filmschaffenden 1933 bis 1945. 1. Auflage. Acabus Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8, S. 237–239.
  6. ^ a b "Paul Henreid". Hollywood Walk of Fame. October 25, 2019. Retrieved April 12, 2020.
  7. ^ "Flight to the West – Broadway Play – Original | IBDB". www.ibdb.com. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
  8. ^ "Flight to the West". Internet Broadway Database. as "Paul Hernried" (cast not verified)
  9. ^ "Paul Henreid: Biography". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved December 8, 2017.
  10. ^ a b Henreid, Paul; Fast, Julius (1984). Ladies man : an autobiography. St. Martin's Press. p. 166. ISBN 9780312463847.
  11. ^ a b Henreid p 184-185
  12. ^ Henreid p 193
  13. ^ Schallert, Edwin (February 23, 1950). "Drama: Paul Henreid to Star as Pirate; Bel Geddes, Ball Both Stagebound". Los Angeles Times. p. A11.
  14. ^ a b "Festival – Broadway Play – Original". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved November 16, 2017.
  15. ^ "Suspense – The Angel of Death". Escape and Suspense!. January 20, 2014.
  16. ^ Goldin, J. David (March 15, 2020). "Suspense!". Radio GOLDINdex. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved May 3, 2017.

External links[edit]

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