Alfred Schieske

Alfred Schieske (6 September 1908 – 14 July 1970) was a German actor.

Schieske was born in Stuttgart, the son of a German father and a French mother.

He studied acting with Willy Reichert made his stage debut at the Staatstheater Stuttgart at the age of 19.

Afterward, he played in Heidelberg, Esslingen and Bochum.

In 1940, he joined the Berlin Staatstheater, led by Gustaf Gründgens.

Schieske's son, Geriet Schieske (1945-2023), was also an actor.

After World War II, Schieske first went to Cologne, then to Berlin in 1947, where he had an engagement at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, working there until 1950.

He then worked at the Schiller and Schlosspark theaters in West Berlin, as well as in Düsseldorf, Recklinghausen and Jagsthausen.

He also played guest roles at other theaters.

Schieske's most important film role was in the 1948 DEFA production, the Blum Affair, playing Otto Bonte, a criminal investigator who saves a Jewish man falsely accused of a crime, saves him and brings the real culprit to justice.

In 1950 he played the role of camp commandant of Ravensbrück in the British film Odette.

Among the stage roles played by Schieske were Milota in König Ottokars Glück und Ende, Klesel in Ein Bruderzwist in Habsburg, Oberst Henry in Wilhelm Herzog's play about the Dreyfus Affair and Phil Cook in The Country Girl by Clifford Odets.

He played several roles in German productions of Shakespeare; Bolingbroke in Richard II, Clarence in Richard III and Sir Toby Belch (German: Tobias Rülps) in Twelfth Night.

He played Vladimir in Waiting for Godot, Adam in The Broken Jug, Götz in Götz von Berlichingen and Big Daddy in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

In the 1960s, he acted on television in adaptations of literary works, such as Wer einmal aus dem Blechnapf frißt and Jeder stirbt für sich allein with Edith Schultze-Westrum and Anneli Granget, based on Hans Fallada's novel, Every Man Dies Alone.

In 1961, in one of his most successful roles, he began playing Alfred P. Doolittle (Eliza's father) in the musical My Fair Lady, first in Berlin, then Hamburg.