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