Veidt, Conrad b. January 22, 1893; Berlin, Prussia d.April 3, 1943; Hollywood, California
German actor who often played Nazi characters in American movies from the beginning of World War II. With a long and skinny silhouette, Veidt is widely known for his unforgettable role as Cesare, the hypnotized robot-like victim of his master in Robert Wiene’s classic Das Cabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari, 1920).
After working on stage with Max Reinhardt in 1913 and playing expressionist dramas on stage (in Georg Kaiser’s Coral), Veidt appeared in some 125 films between 1917 and 1943. In Germany, Veidt played in horror movies for Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (Satanas, 1920; Der Januskopf [The Head of Janus], 1920; Der Gang in die Nacht [Journey into the Night], 1921), and also for Paul Leni (Patience, 1920; Das Wachsfi.gurenca.bi.nett [ Waxworks], 1924) and Richard Oswald (11 films). He reappeared in Wiene’s thriller Olracs Hande (Olrac's Hands, 1924) in which he plays a brilliant piano player who, after losing his hands in an accident, receives a transplant of new hands from an unknown deceased man, who apparently was a murderer. In Germany, Veidt was lucky enough to be part of many milestones from the expressionist era: he was in Paul Czinner’s melodrama titled Nju (Eine LJnverstandene Frau [Husbands or Lovers], 1924) and in the second version of Der Student von Prag (The Student from Prag 1926) directed by Henrik Galeen. A remarkable actor, Veidt also directed two biographical films (in which he also played) in 1923: Paganini and Lord Byron.Veidt spent a year in Hollywood in 1927 and appeared in silent films such as The Beloved Rogge (directed by Alan Crosland), A Mans Past (directed by George Melford), and the next year he had the leading role in Paul Leni’s The Man Who Laughs (1928), freely adapted from a novel by Victor Hugo. But the talkies revealed Veidt’s strong German accent. He went back to Germany from 1928 to 1934, and then left his native country to live in England with his Jewish spouse.
Among his last roles in Germany, Veidt was Chancellor Metternich in a famous musical, Der Kongress Tanzt (Congress Dances, 1932), directed by Erik Charell.Although he stayed in England from 1934 and worked in France in 1938, Veidt often returned to the United States after 1934. He received his British citizenship in 1939, but very soon afterward left for the United States. During the 1930s, Veidt showed his versatility as an actor, playing Jewish characters as well as Nazi spies. He personified a powerful Jew in the British version of Jud Suss directed by Lothar Mendes (1934, much different from the infamous Veit Harlan version from 1940). Because of his Aryan profile, Veidt portrayed Nazi characters in many U.S. antiNazi films from the beginning of World War II, the most famous being Jules Dassin’s Nazi Agent (1942) and, with Humphrey Bogart, in Vincent Sherman’s All Through the Night (1942). As many other directors, George Cukor also chose Veidt to be the villain in A Womans Face (1941). Veidt’s last great performance was in Michael Curtiz’s Casablanca (1943), where he was Major Strasser, from the German army.
Yves Laberge
See also Hollywood; Leni, Paul; Murnau, Friedrich Wilhelm; Reinhardt, Max
References and Further Reading
Soister, John T. Conrad Veidt on Screen. A Comprehensive Illustrated Filmography. Jefferson, NC, and London: McFarland, 2002.