Advanced search
- TITLES
- NAMES
- COLLABORATIONS
Search filters
Enter full date
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
Only includes names with the selected topics
to
or just enter yyyy, or yyyy-mm below
to
1-50 of 68
- Director
- Writer
- Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Film director Douglas Sirk, whose reputation blossomed in the generation after his 1959 retirement from Hollywood filmmaking, was born Hans Detlef Sierck on April 26, 1897, in Hamburg, Germany, to a journalist. Both of his parents were Danish, and the future director would make movies in German, Danish and English. His reputation, which was breathed to life by the French nouvelle vague critiques who developed the "auteur" (author) theory of film criticism, casts him as one of the cinema's great ironists. In his American and European films, his characters perceive their lives quite differently than does the movie audience viewing "them" in a theater. Dealing with love, death and societal constraints, his films often depend on melodrama, particularly the high-suds soap operas he lensed for producer Ross Hunter in the 1950s: Magnificent Obsession (1954), All That Heaven Allows (1955) and his last American film, Imitation of Life (1959) (Sirk's favorite American film was the Western Taza, Son of Cochise (1954), which was shot in 3-D).
Sirk's path to crafting what are now considered paradigmatic dissections of conformist 1950s American society began when he was 14 years old, in his native Germany, when he discovered the theater. He was very influenced by William Shakespeare's history plays. The young Sirk also liked the cinema, particularly films starring Danish actress Asta Nielsen. Sirk credited Nielsen's films with providing him an early exposure to "dramas of swollen emotions".
After World War One he studied law at Munich University beginning in 1919, then transferred to Hamburg University, where he read philosophy and the history of art. Following in the vein of his father, he wrote for the newspapers to earn money, and also began to work in the theater. It was in his native Hamburg that he made his professional debut as a theatrical director, with 'Hermann Bossdorf''s "Bahnmeister Tod" ("Stationmaster Death") in 1922. Until forced to leave Germany with the rise of the Nazi dictatorship, Sirk developed into one of the leading theatrical directors in the Weimar Republic. He began directing shorts at UFA Studios in 1934, and made his first feature film, April, April! (1935), shooting it first in Dutch and then in German).
His cinema technique was influenced by his interest in painting, particularly the works of Daumier and Delacroix, which he later claimed left "their imprint on the visual style of my melodramas". He made eight films in all for UFA through 1937, and the German Minister of Propaganda who oversaw the film industry, Dr. Joseph Goebbels, was an admirer. However, he left Germany in 1937 after his second wife, stage actress 'Hilde Jary', had fled to Rome to escape persecution as a Jew. Sirk's first wife and the mother of his only child, Lydia Brinken, a follower of Adolf Hitler, had denounced Sirk and his relationship with Jary, necessitating their departure. Sirk never saw his son again, who died during World War Two.
Sirk and Jary eventually made it to the US by 1941, and he joined the community of émigré/refugee film people working in Hollywood. His first directorial stint in America was Hitler's Madman (1943), but it is for his work at Universal International in the 1950s for which he is primarily known. For producer Ross Hunter he made nine films, many of which involved the collaboration of Rock Hudson, cinematographer Russell Metty, screenwriter George Zuckerman and art director Alexander Golitzen.
"I was, and to a large extent still am, too much of a loner," he said in his retirement, and his partnership with Universal, Hollywood and American society at large was a love-hate relationship. He and his wife did not approve of the excesses of the Hollywood life style, such as nude women splashing around in producer Albert Zugsmith's pool during a party (he shot two films for Zugsmith). Even though he had his biggest success with the remake of "Imitation of Life" (winner of the Laurel Award given out by movie exhibitors for the most successful picture of 1959), he and his wife left the US for Switzerland after the movie wrapped. The move was partly due to poor health, but by 1959 he had had enough of America, which he never felt at home in. The couple lived in Lugano, Switzerland until his death in 1987.
When he retired from American filmmaking (he was to make only one more feature length film, in German, in 1963), his reputation was that of a second- or third-tier director who turned out glossy Hollywood soap operas, a sort of second-rate Vincente Minnelli without the saving grace of Minelli's undeniable genius for musicals. In the nearly half-century since, Sirk has become one of the most revered of Hollywood's auteurs.
Jean-Luc Godard got the ball rolling in the April 1959 issue of "Cahiers du cinéma", in which he wrote a love letter to Sirk about his adaptation of the 'Erich Maria Remarque' novel A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958). But the true genesis of the Sirk cult was another "Cahiers" article, "L'aveugle et le Miroir ou l'impossible cinema de Douglas Sirk" ("The Blind Man and the Mirror or The Impossible Cinema of Douglas Sirk"), which was in the April 1967 issue. That issue of "Cahiers" also featured an extended interview with Sirk and a "biofilmographie". More converts came to the Sirk cult via Andrew Sarris, who popularized the "auteur" concept in his seminal 1968 work, " The American Cinema," Yb Gucci Gae ranked Sirk on "The Far Side of Paradise". Sarris faintly praised Sirk's handling of the soap elements of his Universal oeuvre by his not shirking from going for broke and stirring all the improbable elements of melodrama into a heady witches' brew; he also complemented his distinctive visual style. However, the major work that transformed Sirk's reputation was rooted in the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the man himself: Jon Halliday's 1971 book-long interview, "Conversations with Sirk", which made his critical reputation in the English-speaking world. The Sirk of Halliday's book is an intellectual with a thorough grasp of filmmaking. The book is must-reading for any student or practitioner of the cinema. The 1972 Edinburgh Film Festival featured a 20-film retrospective of Sirk, and in 1974, the University of Connecticut Film Society put on a complete retrospective of Sirk's American films. The rise of 'Rainer Werner Fassbinder' as the best and the brightest of the post-war German directors also burnished Sirk's reputation, as Fassbinder was an unabashed fan of his films. Fassbinder's films clearly were indebted to Sirk's melodrama, his mise-en-scene, and his irony (Fassbinder visited Sirk at his Swiss home, and the two became friends. Sirk later, with Fassbinder's encouragement, taught at the Munich film school).
Society is an omnipresent character in Sirk's films, as important as the characters played by his actors, such as Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson. Sirk's characters are buffeted by forces beyond their control, as their lives are delineated by cultural mores that constrain their behavior and their moral choices. In addition to this fatalism, Sirk's characters must contend with repression. It is the latter trope that recruits the most converts to the Sirk cult, as the forces of repression are "signalled" through the imagery of a Sirk film, which typically was crafted in collaboration with the Oscar-winning lighting cameraman Russell Metty when Sirk worked for Hunter at Universal. The plots of the movies that are at the core of the Sirk cult are rooted in problems that would be insurmountable but for the miracles provided by the deus ex machina known as the Hollywood Happy Ending.
While Sirk was glad that his reputation had waxed since his retirement and that he was now respected, he was uncomfortable with some of the criticisms of his work. He particularly was irritated by cineastes' labeling him an unequivocal critic of the American Way and of the social conformity of 1950s America. Many critics seemed to see Sirk as American cinema's equivalent to Bertolt Brecht, that is, a fierce critic of the bourgeoisie. Sirk, like many of his generation in Germany, had been influenced by Brecht (he had directed a production of Brecht/Kurt Weill's Three Penny Opera (1963) in Germany), but he did not feel that he was a brother-in-arms of the unabashed communist Brecht, as many of his critics would have it. Like one of his own characters, Sirk was now subjected to societal forced outside his control, quite unlike the worlds he had controlled as a director in Germany and the United States.
Ironically for the great ironist, when Douglas Sirk died on January 14, 1987, his reputation was not yet in full flower. He continues to exert his influence on a new generation of filmmakers all over the world.- Director
- Writer
- Producer
Robert Siodmak (8 August 1900 - 10 March 1973) was a German-born, American film director. He is best remembered as a thriller specialist and for a series of stylish, unpretentious Hollywood films noirs he made in the 1940s.
Siodmak (pronounced SEE-ODD-MACK) was born in Dresden, Germany, the son of Rosa Philippine (née Blum) and Ignatz Siodmak. His parents were both from Jewish families in Leipzig (the myth of his American birth in Memphis, Tennessee was necessary for him to obtain a visa in Paris during World War II). He worked as a stage director and a banker before becoming editor and scenarist for Curtis Bernhardt in 1925 (Bernhardt would direct a film of Siodmak's story "Conflict" in 1945). At twenty-six he was hired by his cousin, producer Seymour Nebenzal, to assemble original silent movies from stock footage of old films. Siodmak worked at this for two years before he persuaded Nebenzal to finance his first feature, the silent chef d'oeuvre, "Menschen am Sonntag" ("People on Sunday") in1929. The script was co-written by Billy Wilder and Siodmak's brother Curt Siodmak, later the screenwriter of "The Wolf Man" (1941). It was the last German silent and also included such future Hollywood artists as Fred Zinnemann, Edgar G. Ulmer, and Eugen Schufftan. His next film--the first at UFA to use sound--was the 1930 comedy "Abschied" for writers Emeric Pressburger and Irma von Cube, followed by "Der Mann, der seinen Mörder sucht," another comedy, yet quite different and unusual, a likely product of Billy Wilder's imagination (remade a noir, "DOA," in 1950). But in his next film, the crime thriller "Stürme der Leidenschaft," with Emil Jannings and Anna Sten, Siodmak found a style that would become his own.
With the rise of Nazism and following an attack in the press by Hitler's minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels in 1933 after viewing "Brennendes Geheimnis" ("The Burning Secret"), Siodmak left Germany for Paris. His creativity flourished, as he worked for the next six years in a variety of film genres, from comedy ("Le sexe fable" and "La Vie Parisienne" ) to musical ("La crise est finie," with Danielle Darrieux) to drama ("Mister Flow," "Cargaison blanche," "Mollenard"--compare Gabrielle Dorziat's shrewish wife with that of Rosalind Ivan's in "The Suspect"--and the superb "Pièges," with Maurice Chevalier and Erich Von Stroheim). While in France, he was well on his way to becoming successor to Rene Clair, until Hitler again forced him out. Siodmak arrived in Hollywood in 1939, where he made 23 movies, many of them widely popular thrillers and crime melodramas, which critics today regard as classics of film noir.
Beginning in 1941, he first turned out several B-films and programmers for various studios before he gained a seven-year contract with Universal Studios in 1943. The best of those early films are the thriller "Fly by Night" in 1942, with Richard Carlson and Nancy Kelly, and in 1943 the touching weepie "Someone to Remember," with Mable Paige in a signature role. As house director, his services were often used to salvage troublesome productions at the studio. On Mark Hellinger's production "Swell Guy" (1946), for instance, Siodmak was brought in to replace Frank Tuttle only six days after completing work on "The Killers." Siodmak worked steadily while under contract, overshadowed by high profile directors, like Alfred Hitchcock, with whom he had been often compared by the press.
At Universal, Siodmak made yet another B-film, "Son of Dracula"(1943), the third and best in a trilogy of Dracula movies (based on his brother Curt's original story). His second feature, and first A-film, was the Maria Montez/Jon Hall vehicle, "Cobra Woman" (1944), made in garish Technicolor (Montez's cobra dance alone is worth the price of admission).
His first all-out noir was "Phantom Lady" (1944), for staff producer Joan Harrison, Universal's first female executive and Alfred Hitchcock's former secretary and script assistant. A classic, however flawed, it showcased Siodmak's skill with camera and editing to dazzling effect, but no more so than in the iconic jam-session sequence with Elisha Cook Jr. in throes on the drums. Following the critical success of "Phantom Lady," Siodmak directed "Christmas Holiday" (1944) with Deanna Durbin and Gene Kelly (Hans J. Salter received an Oscar nomination for best music). Beginning with this film, his work in Hollywood attained the stylistic and thematic characteristics that are evident in his later noirs. "Christmas Holiday," adapted from a W. Somerset Maugham novel by Herman J. Mankiewicz, was Durbin's most successful feature, which she considered her only good film (and that Mankiewicz said was among his work in the 40s of which he was most proud). Siodmak's use of black-and-white cinematography and urban landscapes, together with his light-and-shadow designs, formed the basic structure of classic noir films. In fact, he often collaborated with cinematographers, such as Nicholas Musuraca, Elwood Bredell, and Franz Planer, to achieve in his films the Expressionist look he had cultivated in his early years at UFA (for "Christmas Holiday," he instructed Bredell in the use of deep-focus photography, which Gregg Toland had perfected for "Citizen Kane"). During Siodmak's tenure, Universal made the most of the noir style in "The Suspect," "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry" and "The Dark Mirror," but the capstone was "The Killers" in 1946, Burt Lancaster's film debut and Ava Gardner's first dramatic, featured role. A critical and financial success, it earned Siodmak his only Oscar nomination for direction in Hollywood (his German production "The Devil Strikes at Night" ("Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam"), based on the true story of serial killer Bruno Lüdke, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film in 1957). While still under contract at Universal, Siodmak worked on loan out to RKO for the thriller "The Spiral Staircase," which he edited freely, without taking screen credit. For 20th Century Fox and producer Darryl F. Zanuck, he directed, partly on location in New York City, the crime noir "Cry of the City" in 1948, and in 1949 for MGM he tackled its lux production "The Great Sinner," but the prolix script proved unmanageable for Siodmak who relinquished direction to the dependable and bland Mervyn LeRoy. On loan out to Paramount in 1949, he made for producer Hal B. Wallis his penultimate American noir "The File on Thelma Jordan," with Barbara Stanwyck at her most fatal--and sympathetic. That she can be both is owed entirely to Siodmak who saw in this film a thematic link with "The Suspect" and "The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry," with the failed lovers of these films and significantly their tragic conclusions (ten years later he addressed the same theme in "The Rough and the Smooth"). Perhaps his finest American noir--although not his last--is "Criss Cross" that was to reunite him not only with Lancaster, but also "The Killers" producer Mark Hellinger, who died suddenly before production began in 1949. Working without the hands-on control of Hellinger again, Siodmak was able to make this film his own as he could not the earlier film. Yvonne De Carlo's working-class femme fatal (a high mark in her career) completes the deadly triangle, along with Lancaster and Dan Duryea: the archetype of doomed attraction central to all Siodmak's noirs, but the one he could fully express to its nihilistic conclusion.
Siodmak immersed himself in the creative process and genuinely loved working with actors; in fact, he was considered an actor's director, discovering Burt Lancaster, Ernest Borgnine, Tony Curtis, Debra Paget, Maria Schell, Mario Adorf, and skillfully directing actresses, such as Ava Gardner, Olivia de Havilland, Dorothy McGuire, Yvonne de Carlo, Barbara Stanwyck, Geraldine Fitzgerald, and Ella Raines.[1]
He directed Charles Laughton (a close friend) and George Sanders, actors with indelible personas, and got from both perhaps the unlikeliest, most natural and under-played performances of their careers. He managed with Lancaster to capture a youthful vulnerability--despite the actor's age (he was 33)--that, watching him in "The Killers," surprises us even today. He accomplished the impossible and got a believable, dramatic performance from Gene Kelly who never before or since looked so (intentionally) frightening on screen. But above all, it must be acknowledged, he made audiences sit up and notice Ava Gardner and her potential to ruin men.
Before leaving Hollywood for Europe in 1952, following the problematic production "The Crimson Pirate" for Warner Bros. and producer Harold Hecht, his third and last film with Burt Lancaster (Siodmak dubbed the chaotic experience "The Hecht Follies"), Siodmak had directed some of the era's best films noirs (twelve in all), more than any other director who worked in that style. However, his identification with film noir, generally unpopular with American audiences, may have been more of a curse than a blessing.
He often expressed his desire to make pictures "of a different type and background" than the ones he had been making for ten years. Nevertheless, he ended his Universal contract with one last noir, the disappointing "Deported" (1951) which he filmed partly abroad (Siodmak was among the first refugee directors to return to Europe after making American films). The story is loosely based on the deportation of gangster Charles "Lucky" Luciano. Siodmak had hoped Loretta Young would star, but settled for the Swedish actress Marta Toren.
Those "different type" of films he had made--"The Great Sinner" (1949) for MGM, "Time Out of Mind" (1947) for Universal (which Siodmak also produced), "The Whistle at Eaton Falls" (1951) for Columbia Pictures (Ernest Borgnine's debut and Dorothy Gish's return to the screen)--all proved ill-suited to his noir sensibilities (although in 1952 "The Crimson Pirate," despite the difficult production, was a surprising and pleasing departure--in fact, Lancaster believed it was inspiration for the tongue-in-cheek style of the James Bond films).
The five months he collaborated with Budd Schulberg on a screenplay tentatively titled "A Stone in the River Hudson," an early version of "On the Waterfront," was also a major disappointment for Siodmak. In 1954 he sued producer Sam Spiegel for copyright infringement. Siodmak was awarded $100,000, but no screen credit. His contribution to the original screenplay has never been acknowledged.
Siodmak's return to Europe in 1954 with a Grand Prize nomination at the Cannes Film Festival for his remake of Jacques Feyder's "Le grand jeu" proved a misstep, despite its stars, Gina Lollobrigida (two of them) and Arletty in the role originated by Françoise Rosay, Feyder's wife. In 1955, Siodmak returned to the Federal Republic of Germany to make "Die Ratten," with Maria Schell and Curd Jurgens, winning the Golden Berlin Bear at the 1955 Berlin Film Festival. It was the first in a series of films critical of his homeland, during and after Hitler, which included the remarkable "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam," both thriller and social artifact of Germany under Nazi rule, shot in documentary style reminiscent of "Menschen am Sontag" and "Whistle at Eaton Falls," and in 1960, "Mein Schulfreund," an absurdist comedy, dark and strange, with Heinz Ruhmann as a postal worker attempting to reunite with childhood friend Hermann Goering. Between these films, and "Mein Vater, der Schauspieler" in 1956, with O. W. Fischer (the German Rock Hudson), he took a detour into Douglas Sirk territory with the sordid melodrama, "Dorothea Angermann" in 1959, featuring Germany's star Ruth Leuwerik. Later the same year he left Germany for Great Britain to film "The Rough and the Smooth," with Nadja Tiller and Tony Britton, yet another noir, but much meaner and gloomier than anything he had made in America (compare its downbeat ending with that of "The File on Thelma Jordan"). He followed with "Katia" also in 1959, a tale of Czarist Russia, with twenty-one-year-old Romy Schneider, mistakenly titled in America "The Magnificent Sinner," recalling--unfavorably--Siodmak's other costume melodrama. In 1961, "L'affaire Nina B," with Pierre Brasseur and Nadja Tiller (again), returned Siodmak to familiar ground in a slick, black-and-white thriller about a pay-for-hire Nazi hunter, which could be argued was the start of the many spy themed films so popular in the 1960s. In 1962, the entertaining "Escape from East Berlin," with Don Murray and Christine Kaufman, had all the characteristic style of a Siodmak thriller, but was one that he later dismissed as something he had made for "little kids in America." His work in Germany returned to programmers like those that had begun his career in Hollywood 23 years earlier. From 1964-1965, he made a series of films with former Tarzan Lex Barker: "Der Schut," "Der Schatz der Azteken," and "Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes," all taken from the western, adventure novels of Karl May and made for little kids in both Germany and America.
His return to Hollywood film-making in 1967 to make the wide-screen western "Custer of the West" was another disappointment (it had been a project originally intended for Akira Kurosawa). With Robert Shaw in the title role and his wife Mary Ure as Mrs. Custer, it is the oddest of the Custer film biographies, yet interesting in its contemporary portrayal of Custer's anti-social individualism.
He ended his career with a six-hour, two-part toga and chariot epic, "Kampf um Rom" (1968), a more campy work (perhaps intentionally) than "Cobra Woman" had been. There was a brief and profitable foray into television in Great Britain with the series "O.S.S." (1957-58). Siodmak was last seen publicly in an interview for Swiss television at his home in Ascona in 1971. He died alone in 1973 in Locarno, seven weeks after his wife's death.
The British Film Institute ran a retrospective of his career in April and May of 2015.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Gustav Fröhlich was born on 21 March 1902 in Hanover, Germany. He was an actor and director, known for Metropolis (1927), Leb' wohl, Christina (1945) and Seine Tochter ist der Peter (1955). He was married to Maria Hajek and Gitta Alpar. He died on 22 December 1987 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Carl Schell was born on 14 November 1927 in Wolfsberg, Carinthia, Austria. He was an actor, known for The Blue Max (1966), Escape from East Berlin (1962) and No Man's Land (1962). He was married to Stella Mooney and Candida Robert. He died on 6 June 2019 in Locarno, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
In the mid 1970s, as a young man not yet thirty, Malcolm McLaren owned and operated a London shop simply called "Sex" and dreamed of fame and fortune. He met a half formed group of teenage rock star hopefuls and fed them happy half truths about the great bands he had led to stardom. With his help in finding corner stone members John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) and Sid Vicious, those boys became the English punk rock legends Sex Pistols. The group met its ends less then four years later and McLaren walked away with a little bit of personal fame, but with most of his big dreams unfulfilled. Using his status as a legend maker McLaren would later manage such 80s punk influenced pop successes as Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow and Boy George, and even release albums of music under his own name. Though Malcolm McLaren has never achieved the Beatle-mania level of fame that he so clearly strives for, he's never strayed to far from the spotlight. Writing, producing and always looking for new talent to show the world, hopefully for a profit.- Herbert Fleischmann was born on 13 March 1925 in Nuremberg, Germany. He was an actor, known for Raumpatrouille - Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion (1966), Und Jimmy ging zum Regenbogen (1971) and The Bordello (1971). He was married to Ruth Leuwerik, Xenia Pörtner, Miriam Spoerri and Inge Winkler. He died on 5 April 1984 in Cavigliano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Actress
- Soundtrack
Marianne Hold was born on 15 May 1929 in Johannisburg, East Prussia, Germany [now Pisz, Warminsko-Mazurskie, Poland]. She was an actress, known for Schwarzwälder Kirsch (1958), Mein Schatz ist aus Tirol (1958) and Die Lindenwirtin vom Donaustrand (1957). She was married to Frederick Stafford. She died on 11 September 1994 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Emma Danieli was born on 14 October 1936 in Buscoldo, Curtatone, Lombardy, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Last Man on Earth (1964), Piccole donne (1955) and Spies Strike Silently (1966). She was married to Franco Morabito. She died on 21 June 1998 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Actor
- Director
- Writer
O.W. Fischer was born on 1 April 1915 in Klosterneuburg, Austria-Hungary. He was an actor and director, known for Ich suche dich (1956), Arms and the Man (1958) and Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein (1961). He was married to Anna Usell. He died on 29 January 2004 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Laura Solari was born on 5 January 1913 in Trieste, Austria-Hungary [now Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy]. She was an actress, known for Roman Holiday (1953), Duel of the Titans (1961) and Il vento m'ha cantato una canzone (1947). She was married to Oscar Semere and Arthur Roper Caldbeck. She died on 13 September 1984 in Bellinzona, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Composer
- Music Department
- Actor
Peter Thomas was born on 1 December 1925 in Breslau, Silesia, Germany [now Wroclaw, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a composer and actor, known for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), The Big Boss (1971) and Escape to Berlin (1961). He was married to Cordy Thomas. He died on 17 May 2020 in Lugano, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.- Lya Mara was born on 1 August 1897 in Riga, Russian Empire [now Latvia]. She was an actress, known for Kri-Kri, die Herzogin von Tarabac (1920), Charlotte Corday (1919) and Anna Karenina (1920). She was married to Frederic Zelnik. She died on 1 March 1960 in Ticino, Switzerland.
- Writer
- Music Department
- Composer
Fritz Rotter was born on 3 March 1900 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. He was a writer and composer, known for The Mistress (1952), Woman in the Moon (1929) and The Comeback (1930). He died on 11 April 1984 in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland.- Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli was born on 5 January 1920 in Brescia, Lombardy, Italy. He was married to Giulia Linda Guidetti. He died on 12 June 1995 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Heiner Hesse was born on 1 March 1909 in Basel, Kanton Basel Stadt, Switzerland. He was married to Isa Hesse-Rabinovitch. He died on 7 April 2003 in Arcegno, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.
- Fromm came from a strictly religious Jewish family that had already produced numerous rabbis. He, too, originally wanted to pursue this career. Erich Fromm was already studying the Talmud at the age of 13. His reading also included the works of Ernst Bloch. He attended high school in Frankfurt and graduated with a high school diploma. From 1918 he studied law at the University of Frankfurt am Main. After two semesters he left Frankfurt and moved to Heidelberg. There he continued his studies in psychology, philosophy and sociology. The Free Jewish Teaching House was founded in 1920. Fromm was also among the founders. During this time a collaboration with Walter Benjamin emerged. In 1922 he completed his studies with a doctorate. He wrote his dissertation on the topic "Jewish Law. A Contribution to the Sociology of Diaspora Jewry". In 1926 he married the psychoanalyst Frieda Reichmann. During this time he also turned away from Orthodox Judaism. He began studying psychology and psychiatry in Munich. Among other things, he was a student of Karl Landauer.
In 1929 he completed his studies at the Psychoanalytic Institute in Berlin. With others he founded the South German Institute for Psychoanalysis based in Frankfurt am Main. He followed Max Horkheimer's call to the Frankfurt Institute for Social Research. There he worked with Theodor W. Adorno and Herbert Marcuse. He separated from his wife in 1941 and they divorced in 1942. Fromm fell ill with tuberculosis and went to Davos, Switzerland, in 1932 for almost a year. A year after the National Socialists came to power, he moved to New York, where the Institute for Social Research also emigrated. Fromm ran a psychoanalysis practice in New York. From 1934 to 1939 he taught at Columbia University in New York. When Adorno wanted to join the Institute for Social Research as a full member in 1939, Fromm declared his resignation. The following year he became a US citizen.
His work entitled "The Fear of Freedom" was published in 1941. It distinguishes him as the most established representative of neo-psychoanalysis. It differs from Siegmund Freud's psychoanalysis and focuses on social aspects as well as other drives. From 1941, Fromm held a professorship in psychology in Vermont. After his divorce, Fromm married Henny Gurland in 1944. Three years later, in 1947, his treatise "Psychoanalysis and Ethics" was published. In 1949 he left the USA and moved to Mexico. There he founded a practice in Mexico City. Two years later he was an associate professor of psychoanalysis at the university there. In 1952 his wife died. The following year he married Annis Freemann. His work "The Art of Loving" was published in 1956. The work not only received positive reviews from experts, but was also well received by the general public. Erich Fromm joined the American peace movement in 1957 and spoke out against the USA's political commitment to nuclear weapons.
In 1963 he founded the Mexican Psychoanalytic Institute. Two years later he retired. In the same year, the joint work "Humanist Socialism" was created, in which Herbert Marcuse and Ernst Bloch, among others, appear as authors. In 1974 he left Mexico and moved back to Europe. There he settled in Muralto in Ticino, Switzerland. In 1976 his work "Having and Being" was edited. The following year he suffered his second heart attack. In 1979 Fromm was awarded the Nelly Sachs Prize.
Erich Fromm died on March 18, 1980 in Muralto.
Shortly after his death, the complete edition of his works was published. In 1981 he was posthumously awarded the Goethe plaque from the city of Frankfurt. - Actor
- Composer
- Music Department
Helmut Zacharias was born on 27 January 1920 in Berlin, Germany. He was an actor and composer, known for Scheidungsgrund: Liebe (1960), Oberwachtmeister Borck (1955) and Königin der Arena (1952). He was married to Hella. He died on 28 February 2002 in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland.- Guido Pancaldi was born on 2 December 1922 in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland. He died on 3 October 2011 in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Hilde Jary was born on 22 August 1899 in Berlin, Germany. She was an actress, known for O alte Burschenherrlichkeit (1925) and Mirage de la vie (1983). She was married to Douglas Sirk. She died in 1989 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Gábor Vaszary was born on 7 June 1897 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary [now Hungary]. He was a writer, known for Mámi (1937), Monpti (1957) and Mit siebzehn beginnt das Leben (1953). He died on 22 May 1985 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Lisa Wenger was born on 23 January 1858 in Bern, Kanton Bern, Switzerland. Lisa was a writer, known for Le mariage de Véréna (1938). Lisa died on 17 October 1941 in Carona, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.
- Lisa Tetzner was born on 10 November 1894 in Zittau, Saxony, Germany. She was a writer, known for Zärtliches Geheimnis (1956), Die schwarzen Brüder (1983) and Die schwarzen Brüder (2013). She died on 2 July 1963 in Carona, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Harry Kahn was born on 11 August 1883 in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He was a writer, known for L'homme qui assassina (1931), El hombre que asesinó (1932) and Stamboul (1931). He was married to Martha-Maria Gehrke and Alice Meyer. He died on 18 July 1970 in Massagno, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Ketty Fusco was born on 5 August 1926 in Naples, Campania, Italy. She was an actress, known for The Butterfly's Dream (1994), Fondovalle (1998) and L'avvocato (2003). She died on 18 February 2021 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Paul Mederow was born on 30 June 1887 in Stralsund, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. He was an actor, known for 1914, die letzten Tage vor dem Weltbrand (1931), Trouble Backstairs (1935) and Wenn wir alle Engel wären (1936). He died on 17 December 1974 in Brissago, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Additional Crew
- Writer
Giorgio Strehler was born on 14 August 1921 in Barcola, Trieste, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. He was a writer, known for Die Sommerfrische (1965), Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1967) and Il giardino dei ciliegi (1978). He was married to Rosita Lupi and Andrea Jonasson. He died on 25 December 1997 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Actor
- Writer
Piero Scanziani was born on 17 August 1908 in Chiasso, Ticino, Switzerland. He was an actor and writer, known for L'oceano ci chiama (1957). He died on 27 February 2003 in Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland.- Writer
- Additional Crew
Franz Schulz was born on 22 March 1897 in Prague, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary [now Czech Republic]. He was a writer, known for The Fighting Guardsman (1945), Born to Sing (1942) and The Night Is Young (1935). He died on 4 May 1971 in Muralto, Ticino, Switzerland.- Theodor Plievier was born on 12 February 1892 in Berlin, Germany. He was a writer, known for Festival (1963) and Stalingrad (1963). He was married to Margarete Grote, Hildegard Piscator and Maria Stoz. He died on 12 March 1955 in Avegno, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Alfred Andersch was born on 4 February 1914 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. He was a writer, known for Redhead (1962), Winterspelt 1944 (1978) and Die Entwaffnung (1968). He was married to Gisela Dichgans and Angelika Albert. He died on 21 February 1980 in Berzona, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Fernando Corena was born on 22 December 1916 in Carouge, Geneva, Switzerland. He was an actor, known for Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1967), The Metropolitan Opera Presents (1977) and Bravo Pavarotti (2010). He was married to Elisabeth Boldt. He died on 26 November 1984 in Castagnola, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Additional Crew
- Art Department
Paul Klee was born on December 18, 1879, in Munchenbuchsee, near Berne, Switzerland. His father, named Hans Klee, was a music teacher. Young Klee started lessons in music and art at the age of 7. He studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. There his teacher was Franz von Stuck, who also taught Wassily Kandinsky. After graduation in 1901, Klee traveled to Italy and then back to Switzerland. He lived in Bern until 1906, then settled in Munich. There he joined Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and other avant-garde artists, and became associated with the art movement Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). In Munich Klee married Bavarian pianist Lily Stumpf; they had on son.
Klee was impressed by the quality of the light in Mediterranian countries. After his first visits to Italy, he also visited Tunisia in 1914, and Egypt in 1928. These visits greatly influenced Klee's painting making color central to his art. He developed his own style in a loose association with Expressionism, Cubism, and Surrealism. Klee used a combination of oil paint with watercolor and ink in his works. He sometimes included music notation, hieroglyphs, and other ornamental elements in his compositions. From 1921-1931 Klee maintained close association with Wassily Kandinsky and had a teaching position at Bauhaus. Later he taught at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art. Klee and other avant-garde artists were denounced by the Nazis as "degenerate art" in 1933. His home in Dessau was searched by police and by Nazi paratroopers and Klee was fired from teaching position. He fled to Switzerland the same year. Soon Klee started loosing his eyesight and was later diagnosed with scleroderma. He died on June 29, 1940, in Muralto-Locarno, Switzerland.
Paul Klee was one of the most lyrical and whimsical artists of his time. He produced more than eight thousand works of art. Half of his heritage was saved from being liquidated under the Washington Convention, over four thousand works now belong to Paul Klee Centre in Berne, Switzerland. A painting by Paul Klee was recently sold for $7,500,000 at an auction.- Karl Erb was born on 25 June 1926 in Belp, Bern, Switzerland. He was an actor, known for Der schwarze Blitz (1958) and Sportpanorama (1977). He died on 5 September 2018 in Muralto, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Writer
- Director
- Actor
Gerhard Menzel was born on 29 September 1894 in Waldenburg, Silesia, Germany [now Walbrzych, Dolnoslaskie, Poland]. He was a writer and director, known for The Sinner (1951), Ein Blick zurück (1944) and Flüchtlinge (1933). He was married to Marthe Florimant Servais. He died on 4 May 1966 in Comano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Giovanni Orelli was born on 30 October 1928 in Bedretto, Ticino, Switzerland. He was a writer, known for Matlosa (1981), San Gottardo (1977) and Cerchiamo per subito operai, offriamo... (1974). He was married to Ester Viscardi. He died on 3 December 2016 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Diether Stolze was born on 5 February 1929 in Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany. He died on 24 October 1990 in Bellinzona, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.
- Director
- Actor
- Writer
Hans Trommer was born on 18 December 1904 in Zürich, Switzerland. He was a director and actor, known for Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (1941), Romeo and Juliet in the Village (1941) and Zum goldenen Ochsen (1958). He died on 28 February 1989 in Ticino, Switzerland.- Hans Rosbaud was born on 22 July 1895 in Graz, Styria, Austria-Hungary. He died on 29 December 1962 in Carabietta, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Hans Ruesch was born on 17 May 1913 in Naples, Campania, Italy. He was married to Maria Luisa de la Feld. He died on 27 August 2007 in Lugano, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.
- Rose Veldtkirch was born on 2 June 1891 in Altlandsberg, Germany. She was an actress, known for Der Tunnel (1915), Der Sohn der Magd (1919) and Der Mann mit den drei Frauen (1920). She died on 27 September 1971 in Vigarello, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Franz Wurm was born on 16 March 1926 in Praha, Czechoslovakia. Franz was a writer, known for Die fixe Idee (1967). Franz died on 29 September 2010 in Ascona, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Sydney Blow was born on 6 March 1878 in Clapham, London, England, UK. Sydney was a writer, known for Where Is This Lady? (1932), The Double Event (1921) and Lord Richard in the Pantry (1930). Sydney was married to Hilda Trevelyan. Sydney died on 31 May 1961 in Castagnola, Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Transportation Department
Silvio Moser was born on 24 April 1941 in Zurich, Switzerland. He is known for Le Mans (1971) and Formula 1 (1950). He died on 26 May 1974 in Locarno, Ticino, Switzerland.- Robert Farquarson was born on 6 November 1877 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Man They Couldn't Arrest (1931) and Captivation (1931). He died on 11 January 1966 in Ticino, Switzerland.
- Renato Carenzio was born on 23 July 1913 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Renato was a composer, known for Canto per te (1953). Renato was married to Giulietta Simionato. Renato died on 15 October 1985 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Guido Almansi was born on 20 November 1931 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He died on 11 July 2001 in Mendrisio, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Jack Trommer was born on 29 October 1905 in Zürich, Kanton Zürich, Switzerland. He was a composer, known for Romeo und Julia auf dem Dorfe (1941), Al canto del cucù (1942) and S'Margritli und d'Soldate (1940). He died on 25 August 1990 in Russo, Ticino, Switzerland.
- Soundtrack
Cordy Thomas was born on 26 July 1927 in Germany. She was married to Peter Thomas. She died on 22 February 2017 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.- Additional Crew
Paul Lang was born on 3 October 1894 in Basel, Kanton Basel Stadt, Switzerland. Paul is known for They'll Never Surrender (1934) and The Legend of William Tell (1934). Paul died on 10 September 1970 in Gaido, Cantone Ticino, Switzerland.- Goran Ebel was born on 20 April 1941 in Köslin, Western Pomerania, Germany. He was an actor, known for Trauer muß Elektra tragen (1970), Anker auf und Leinen los! (1968) and Polizeistation (1973). He died on 2 December 2019 in Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland.