Intelligent and versatile character actor, particularly adept at playing arch villains. In the 1920's, he acted on stage at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and made his first breakthrough playing 'Hamlet' in Stuttgart. On screen, he came to prominence as a criminal mastermind in
Im Namen des Volkes (1939); and in the title role of a notorious wife murderer in
Dr. Crippen an Bord (1942). Henceforth, he portrayed a variety of shady or tortured characters from priests and psychiatrists to heads of state.