Bruno Kastner

Bruno Kastner was born on January 3, 1890 in Forst, Brandenburg, Germany as Bruno Richard Otto Kastner.

Elegant silent screen matinée idol, the son of a tax collector. In films from 1914, he appeared as romantic lovers and bon vivants opposite most of the major female stars of the period. He set up his own production company in 1922. His career was disrupted by a motorcycle accident in 1924, as a result of which he suffered severe injuries from which he never fully recovered. Having failed to make the transition to sound Kastner committed suicide by hanging himself in 1930.

In 1921 he was chosen as the best (in reality most popular) German actor - he was even ahead of Harry Liedtke and Max Landa.

In 1924 he had a serious accident with his motorcycle and had to take a break for one year. He concealed the consequence of the accident for good reason. Because if the female followers would have known that he wasn't a man any longer literally after the accident, they wouldn't have remained loyal to him. In spite of this serious accident he was able to continue his successful film career.

He was an actor and writer, known for Luther (1928), Zwischen zwei Welten (1919) and Das Herz des Casanova (1919). He was married to Ida Wüst.

The onset of sound films proved disastrous to Kastner's career in 1930 upon the release of his first talkie titled Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles) when filmgoers discovered that he stammered.

Kastner suffered from depression after his rapid career decline.. After two years of struggling to regain his public popularity, he rented a hotel room in Bad Kreuznach and committed suicide by hanging himself in June 1932.