Person Details

Birthday:

Aliases: Феликс Брессарт

Gender: Male

Place of birth: Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia, Germany [now Chernyshevskoe, Russia]

Homepage:

Movie Involvements: 23

TV Involvements: 0


Most Famous Work

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Felix Bressart (March 2, 1892 – March 17, 1949) was a German-American actor of stage and screen. Felix Bressart (pronounced "BRESS-ert") was born in East Prussia, Germany (now part of Russia) and was already a very experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1928. He started off as a supporting actor, e.g. as the Bailiff in the box-office hit Die Drei von der Tankstelle (1930), but had soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies. After the Nazis seized power in 1933, Jewish-born Bressart had to leave Germany and continued his career in German-speaking movies in Austria, where Jewish artists were still relatively safe. After no fewer than 30 films in eight years, he emigrated to the United States. One of Bressart's former European colleagues was Joe Pasternak, now a successful Hollywood producer. Bressart's first American film was Three Smart Girls Grow Up (1939), a vehicle for Universal Pictures' top attraction, Deanna Durbin. Pasternak also selected the reliable Bressart to perform in a screen test opposite Pasternak's newest discovery, Gloria Jean. The influential German community in Hollywood helped to establish Bressart in America, as his earliest American movies were directed by Ernst Lubitsch, Henry Koster, and Wilhelm Thiele (director of Die Drei von der Tankstelle). Bressart scored a great success in Lubitsch's Ninotchka, produced at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. MGM signed Bressart to a studio contract in 1939. Most of his MGM work consisted of featured roles in major films like Edison, the Man. He combined his mildly inflected East European accent with a soft-spoken delivery to create kindly, friendly characters, as in Lubitsch's To Be or Not to Be, in which he sensitively recites Shylock's famous "Hath not a Jew eyes?" speech from The Merchant of Venice. Lubitsch also directed Bressart to similar effect in The Shop Around the Corner. Bressart soon became a popular character actor in films like Blossoms in the Dust (1941), The Seventh Cross (1944), and Without Love (1945). Perhaps his largest role was in RKO Radio Pictures' "B" musical comedy Ding Dong Williams, filmed in 1945. Bressart, billed third, played the bemused supervisor of a movie studio's music department, and appeared in formal wear to conduct Chopin's "Fantasie Impromptu." After almost 40 Hollywood pictures, Felix Bressart suddenly died of leukemia at the age of 57. His last film was My Friend Irma (1949), the movie version of a popular radio show. Bressart died during production, forcing the producers to finish the film with Hans Conried. In the final film, Conried speaks throughout, but Bressart is still seen in the long shots. Description above from the Wikipedia article Felix Bressart, licensed under CC-BY-SA,full list of contributors on Wikipedia.    

Most Famous Work

Portrait of Jennie
Average
7

Portrait of Jennie

(1948) Pete
Ziegfeld Girl
Average
7

Ziegfeld Girl

(1941) Mischa
Above Suspicion
Average
6

Above Suspicion

(1943) Mr. A. Werner
Crossroads
Average
6

Crossroads

(1942) Dr. Andre Tessier
Edison, the Man
Average
7

Edison, the Man

(1940) Michael Simon
Take One False Step
Average
5

Take One False Step

(1949) Morris Avrum
The Seventh Cross
Average
7

The Seventh Cross

(1944) Poldi Schlamm
Blossoms in the Dust
Average
7

Blossoms in the Dust

(1941) Dr. Max Breslar

Acting

Year Character Movie/Tv
1949 Morris Avrum
1948 Pete
Professor Gerkikoff
1946 Frederick Hassman
Pepe
Ludwig Kriegspiel
Hugo Meyerheld
1945 Professor Budlow
Prof. Ginza
1944 Johnny
Hofer
Poldi Schlamm
Petrov
1943 Anti-Nazi Teacher
Mr. A. Werner
Anton Ottoway
1942 Papa Jonsdottir
Dr. Andre Tessier
Greenberg
Arthur Talbot
1941 Mr. Schoner
Professor Milic
Dr. Max Breslar
Mischa
1940 Igor Yahupitz / Vanya
Max
Fritz Keller
August "Gussie" Winkel
Michael Simon
The Great Boldini
Pirovitch
1939 Henry Kleber
Comrade Buljanoff
Maxl
Music Teacher
1936 Max Kaspar
1935 Professor Volksmann
Birowitsch
Philipp Sonndorfer
1934 Grandfather
Kriegel, Geheimdetektiv
Baron Vandernyff
1933 Mr. Schramek
Direktor Ritter
1932 Gottfried Jonathan Bankbeamter
Johannes Georg Holzapfel
star
1931 Joachim Reißnagel
Hirsekorn - Schauspieler und Chauffeur
Major Fröschen
Jean
Musketier Kulicke
Böcklein
Bankdiener Hasel
1930 Richard
Franz Nowotni
Jacques
Gerichtsvollzieher
Onkel Emil
N/A
N/A
1928 Der Gerichtsvollzieher
Year Character Movie/Tv

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