Conrad Veidt

Conrad Veidt attended the Sophiengymnasium (secondary school) in the Schoeneberg district of Berlin, and graduated without a diploma in 1912, last in his class of 13. Conrad liked animals, theater, cinema, fast cars, pastries, thunderstorms, gardening, swimming and golfing. He disliked heights, flying, the number 17, wearing ties, pudding and interviews.

Veidt's first works for theater go back to the year 1913, first appearances in movies go back to the year 1916.

He enlisted in the Army Service Corps on December 28, 1914 and served on the Eastern Front during WWI near Warsaw. After five months and ill with jaundice, he was sent back to a military hospital in East Prussia.

Because of his features he was called on for unusual parts. He personified among other things an Indian prince in "Das Rätsel von Bangalor (1917) and also an Indian in "Das indische Grabmal" (1921).

In 1918 he met director Richard Oswald (1880-1963). From this connection resulted more than 20 films in the next few years, e.g. "Anders als die Anderen" (1919) about homosexuality and "Dürfen wir schweigen?" (1926) about syphilis.

Other prominent roles in German silent films included Different from the Others (1919) and Waxworks (1924). His third wife, Ilona (nicknamed Lily), was Jewish, although he himself wasn't. However, whenever he had to state his ethnic background on forms to get a job, he wrote: "Jude" (Jew).

A star of early German cinema, he became a sensation in 1920 with his role as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in Robert Wiene's masterpiece The Cabinet of Dr.

Caligari Full Sound (1920).

Daughter, with Radke, Viola Vera Veidt (b. 8/10/1925).

The part in the remake of "Der Student von Prag" (1926) represented a huge challenge for Conrad Veidt. He did this job brilliantly and he hadn't been afraid of a comparison with Paul Wegener in 1913. At the end of the same year Veidt had first contact with the USA. At the invitation of John Barrymore he shot "The Beloved Rogue - Der Bettelpoet".

Bob Kane, creator of Batman, used Veidt's appearance in The Man Who Laughs (1928) as an early model on which to base the appearance of "The Joker".

Veidt appeared in Germany's first talking picture, Bride 68 (1929), and made only one color picture, The Thief of Bagdad (1940), filmed in England and Hollywood. His most famous role was as Gestapo Maj.

That single playing generated numerous phone calls, and shortly thereafter the song appeared on a British compilation album called "Movie Star Memories" - a collection of songs from 1930s-era films compiled from EMI archives. The album was released by World Records Ltd. , and is now out of print but can still be ordered online ("Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay" is track 4 on side 2).

Ultimately, Bela Lugosi got the role, and Tod Browning directed the film, Dracula (1931). In his last German film, F. P.

1 Doesn't Answer (1932), Veidt sang a song called "Where the Lighthouse Shines Across the Bay.

He and Lily fled Germany in 1933 after the rise to power of Adolf Hitler, and he became a British citizen in 1939. Universal Pictures head Carl Laemmle personally chose Veidt to play Dracula in a film to be directed by Paul Leni based on a successful New York stage play: "Dracula".

" Although the record was considered a flop in 1933, the song became a hit almost 50 years later, when, in 1980, DJ Terry Wogan played it as a request on the Radio 2 breakfast show.

When he appeared there in the movie "Jew Süss" (1934) (not to confuse with the German film of 1940 of the same name), the negative voices of the socialistic Germany increased: "Conrad Veidt was payed for this betrayal of his native country - by the praise of the Jewish public. Whit it he is human no longer dignified that not even one finger in Germany moves to his praise." (Völkischer Beobachter 1934).

In 1940 he moved to the USA where he hoped for better film offers. He played together with Joan Crawford in "A Woman's Face" (1941) and took part in cult movie "Casablanca" (1943), which convened a multitude of emigrated stars of Europe. It was not granted to Conrad Veidt to witness the great success of Casablance. He died on the 3rd April 1943 - during a game of golf - because of a heart failure.

In 1998, his ashes were placed in a niche of the columbarium at the Golders Green Crematorium in north London.

[February 4 2004] His daughter Vera Viola passed away from a heart attack in her sleep at her New Orleans apartment.