Conrad Veidt
Biography
Conrad Veidt was a German and British character actor who appeared in more than a hundred films between 1917 and his death in 1943. He drew early notice for roles in Different from the Others (1919) and as the somnambulist Cesare in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and he played the disfigured hero of The Man Who Laughs (1928). His other silent horror work included The Hands of Orlac (1924). A spell in Hollywood in the late 1920s ended with his return to Germany; he later settled in Britain, became a British subject in 1939, and there made The Thief of Bagdad (1940) along with Contraband (1940) and The Spy in Black (1939), both for Michael Powell. He afterwards worked in the United States, where his best-known part was in Casablanca (1942) as Major Heinrich Strasser.
50years old at death
- Born Berlin
- Died Hollywood
- Star sign: AquariusThe sign runs January 20 to February 18
- Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (birth name)
Movie Career
- Films
- 14
- Career span
- 54 years1920 to 1974
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A first
Veidt's disfigured grin as the outcast servant in The Man Who Laughs gave the visual inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker.
First role
Veidt began acting after delivering a long prologue in a school Christmas play in 1911; the audience muttered that the rest of the play was not as good as he was.
Early training
Veidt took ten acting lessons from Albert Blumenreich for six marks, then auditioned for Max Reinhardt by reciting Goethe's Faust while Reinhardt looked out the window, and was hired as an extra for 50 marks a month.
A first
In 1929, Veidt took a leading part in Das Land ohne Frauen, which was Germany's first talking picture. The film is also known as Land Without Women.
Getting ready for a role
Conrad Veidt realized Hollywood would probably typecast him in Nazi roles, so his contract required that those parts always be villains.
Conrad Veidt movies on Netflix
Best known for
The films on Netflix they are best known for, with the part played in each.
Most often with
Michael Powell directed three of these films, Robert Wiene two. Two actors appear in three of them each. Pick a number on the chart or a name in the list to see the films they share.
Films together
Peter Lorre's page
Hay Petrie's page
Humphrey Bogart's page
Joan Crawford's page
Reginald Owen's page
John Barrymore's page
All films by Michael Powell
Robert WieneDirector, 2 films, 1920 to 1924
All films by Robert Wiene
Also two films together4 more actors
- Valerie HobsonContraband (1940) and The Spy in Black (1939)
- Eliot MakehamDark Journey (1937) and Rome Express (1932)
- June DuprezThe Thief of Bagdad (1940) and The Spy in Black (1939)
- Mary MorrisThe Thief of Bagdad (1940) and The Spy in Black (1939)
When several people share the same number of films, the ones with the most films on Netflix are in the chart.
Online
Official profiles and reference pages.