Felix Bressart
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.
The Shop Around the Corner
as PirovitchTwo employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are...
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To Be or Not to Be
as GreenbergDuring the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's...
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Ninotchka
as Comrade BuljanoffA stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who...
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Portrait of Jennie
as PeteA mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
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Ziegfeld Girl
as MischaDiscovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three...
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It All Came True
as The Great BoldiniAfter crooked nightclub owner murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to...
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Escape
as Fritz KellerAn American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration...
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Without Love
as Prof. GinzaIn World War II Washington DC, scientist Pat Jamieson's assistant, Jamie Rowan, enters a...
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Three Smart Girls Grow Up
as Music TeacherThree sisters who believe life is going to be easy, now that their parents are back together,...
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Edison, the Man
as Michael SimonIn flashback, fifty years after inventing the light bulb, an 82-year-old Edison tells his story...
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Crossroads
as Dr. Andre TessierA French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
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Bitter Sweet
as MaxIn order to avoid an arranged marriage with a man she doesn't love, Sarah Millick runs off to...
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A Song Is Born
as Professor GerkikoffThe story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to...
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Above Suspicion
as Mr. A. WernerTwo newlyweds spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon in Europe.
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Three Hearts for Julia
as Anton OttowayWhen his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.
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The Seventh Cross
as Poldi SchlammIn Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up...
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Comrade X
as Igor Yahupitz / VanyaAn American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful...
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Swanee River
as Henry KleberSwanee River is a 1940 American biopic about Stephen Foster, a songwriter from Pittsburgh who...
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Blonde Fever
as JohnnyPeter and Delilah are a married couple running a roadside café in Nevada. Their stable...
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Third Finger, Left Hand
as August "Gussie" WinkelMagazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male...
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Take One False Step
as Professor Morris AvrumCatherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's...
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Song of Russia
as PetrovAmerican conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the...
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Blossoms in the Dust
as Dr. Max BreslarEdna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. They have a son, who is killed when...
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Greenwich Village
as HoferIn 1922, a would-be classical composer gets involved with people putting on a musical revue.
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Bridal Suite
as MaxlA carefree playboy with an aversion to marriage falls for a lass he meets in the French Alps.
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Kathleen
as Mr. SchonerKathleen is a twelve-year-old who lives in a big house with a nanny, a butler, maids, no mother...
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Iceland
as Papa JonsdottirMarine James Murfin, is unaware of Icelandic customs. When he flirts with Katina her Icelandic...
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Dangerous Partners
as Professor BudlowA young couple's accident could make them rich, if they can evade a Nazi spy ring.
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I've Always Loved You
as Frederick HassmanA beautiful young concert pianist is torn between her attraction to her arrogant but brilliant...
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The Thrill of Brazil
as Ludwig KriegspielSteve, revue producer in Rio de Janeiro, is still in love with his ex-wife Vicki, his star Linda...
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Her Sister's Secret
as PepeA WWII tale of romance that begins during New Orlean's "Mardi Gras" celebration when a soldier...
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No More Love
as JeanAn American millionaire, who had always bad luck with women, bets that he can live without them...
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Mr. and Mrs. North
as Arthur TalbotMarried sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up...
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The Three from the Filling Station
as GerichtsvollzieherDie Drei von der Tankstelle, meaning The Three from the Gas Station, was advertised as a German...
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Married Bachelor
as Professor MilicA man's marriage suffers when he pretends to be a bachelor while promoting "his" best-selling...
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Don't Be a Sucker!
as Anti-Nazi TeacherPropaganda short film depicting the rise of Nazism in Germany and how political propaganda is...
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Everything for the Company
as Philipp SonndorferFamilial disputes surrounding a traditional business. Grandfather Sonndorfer allies himself with...
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Ding Dong Williams
as Hugo MeyerheldDing Dong Williams, a clarinet player who can neither read nor write music is employed at a...
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The Lucky Top Hat
as Gottfried Jonathan BankbeamterGottfried Jonathan, a small civil servant, lives as a lodger and is roommates with the blonde...
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Peter
as GrandfatherStarring Francisca Gaál in a breeches role. Dressed as a boy, a street musician gets a job...
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Private Secretary
as Bankdiener HaselDuring hard times, a vivacious girl looks for an office job in the hope of landing a rich man....
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Excursion into Life
as Hirsekorn - Schauspieler und ChauffeurFelix Bressart, later one of the most delightful members of the Ernst Lubitsch "stock company,"...
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Liebe im Kuhstall
as Der GerichtsvollzieherAn impoverished nobleman would rather chase after the local milkmaid than seek a wealthy match,...
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Four and a Half Musketeers
as Professor VolksmannA Hungarian-Austrian comedy and one of the last emigrant films made in Austria before the...
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Three days of middle arrest
as Franz NowotniWhen an attractive maid in a garrison town becomes pregnant, she reveals that one of three...
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Fanfare about love
as Major FröschenCaught by Archduke Max in an embarrassing situation with Marie-Charlote, Captain Rudi is forced...
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Heut' ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben
as Max KasparTwo twin brothers working in a Vienna fair and who are both gifted for singing meet different...
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Holzapfel Knows Everything
as Johannes Georg HolzapfelAn unemployed man who plays a concertina gets involved with a band of crooks and tries to...
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