Tonio Selwart

Tonio Selwart was a German actor whose career moved from European stages to American theater and film. Born in Wartenberg and raised in Munich, he first studied medicine but chose acting instead. He trained as an actor and appeared in plays across Europe, including Shakespeare and the title role in The Prince of Homburg. In New York he took the lead in The Pursuit of Happiness for the Theatre Guild, a comedy that became his first major American success. His film debut came in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943), as a Nazi Gestapo chief, and he often played German officers. Other films included The North Star (1943), The Cross of Lorraine (1943), The Barefoot Contessa (1954), Senso (1954), and Anzio (1968). He also appeared on American television, and his later stage work included Brecht on Brecht and The Threepenny Opera. His final film, Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind (2018), was left unreleased for decades.