- Character actor, stage director and singer whose career highlights were on the Berlin stage during the 1920's (particularly under the direction of Max Reinhardt and Erwin Piscator) and in Swiss exile during the Nazi era directing and acting in plays by Brecht, Shakespeare, Goldoni, Lorca and Pagnol at the Zürcher Schauspielhaus.
- Died, along with 28 others, in a train crash near Aitrang in the Allgäu on February 9 1971, three months prior to a planned worldwide tour with the play "Puntilla".
- Married to the dancer and writer Elfiede Kuhr (later named Jo Mihaly).
- Leonard Steckel should experience a late height with a world tour with Brecht's "Puntila", but his journey to Zurich ended in a train catastrophe by Aitrang with 28 dead men and women, among them Leonard Steckel.
- He made first experiences as a director from 1928.
- His up-and-coming film career was abruptly ended with the seizure of power of the National Socialists. When he got an engagement at the Zürcher Schauspielhaus in Switzerland in May 1933 he was able to evade from the menace danger in Germany together with his daughter and his wife Elfriede Kuhr - who was well-known as a writer with her pen name Jo Mihaly. From now on he was engaged at the theater most of the time, as an actor as well as a director.
- In Switzerland he staged over 120 premieres and first nights, normally from writers whose works were forbidden in Germany.
- Germany refused Leonard Steckel's entry after the war of not understandable reasons, only from the 50's he was able to gain a foothold again in his home country.
- Leonard Steckel became a demanded actor in the next years who appeared on many stages in Berlin and became well-known.
- To his most popular post-war movies belong "Der Hauptmann von Köpenick" (1956), "Der Arzt von Stalingrad" (1958), "Liebling der Götter" (1960), "Affäre Blum" (19 62) and "Grieche sucht Griechin" (1966).
- The actor Leonard Steckel already attracted attention with his acting talent in the school days and his teacher recommended him to the actor Paul Bildt, who got the first engagement for him in 1920.
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content