Acting
Feb 26, 1910
Nuremberg, Germany
Wolfgang Preiss
Acting
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wolfgang Preiss (27 February 1910 at Nuremberg - 27 November 2002 at Baden-Baden) was a German theatre, film and television actor. The son of a teacher, in the early 1930s Preiss studied philosophy, German and drama. He also took private acting classes with Hans Schlenck, making his stage début in Munich in 1932. He went to appear in various theatre productions in Heidelberg, Königsberg, Bonn, Bremen, Stuttgart and Berlin. In 1942 he made his film début - he was exempted from military service specifically - in the UFA production Die grosse Liebe with Zarah Leander. After the end of the Second World War Preiss returned to the theatre, and from 1949 worked extensively dubbing films into German. In 1954 he returned to film acting, appearing in Alfred Weidenmann's Canaris. The following year Preiss played the lead role of Claus von Stauffenberg in Falk Harnack's film Der 20. Juli, which dramatised the 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. This role brought Preiss to popular attention and also the 1956 Federal Film Award. From now on Preiss was largely typecast in the role of the upright and obligation-conscious German officer to the other A-list actor playing the Fanatic (I.E. Paul Scofeld in The Train) a part he played in many films, later reprising it in numerous international productions, predominantly in Italy and the USA, while occasionally playing a more typically cynical or brutal Nazi officer. Preiss appeared in such productions as The Longest Day (1962), Otto Preminger's The Cardinal (1963), and with Jean-Paul Belmondo in Is Paris Burning? (1966). He starred alongside Burt Lancaster in John Frankenheimer's The Train (1964), Frank Sinatra in Von Ryan's Express (1965), Robert Mitchum in Anzio (1968), with Richard Burton, in the title role of Erwin Rommel in Raid on Rommel (1971), and The Boys From Brazil (1978) with Gregory Peck. He also appeared in several Italian language films, credited as "Luppo Prezzo", and played Field Marshal Von Rundstedt in Richard Attenborough's all-star war epic A Bridge Too Far (1977). In addition, for the cinema-going public of West Germany he became the epitome of the evil genius in his role as Doctor Mabuse, a role he first played in 1960 (following Rudolf Klein-Rogge) in Fritz Lang's The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse. He went on to play the role four more times. In the 1980s Preiss turned to television, notably playing General Walther von Brauchitsch in the American TV mini-series Winds of War and War and Remembrance, based on the books of Herman Wouk. In 1987 received a second Federal Film Award for his outstanding work in film. In film dubbing Preiss provided the voice for such actors as Lex Barker, Christopher Lee, Anthony Quinn, Claude Rains, Richard Widmark, as well as that of Conrad Veidt as "Major Strasser" in the remastered version of Casablanca. Description above from the Wikipedia article Wolfgang Preiss, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Feature Films (121)
The attractive Oberleutnant Paul Wendlandt is stationed in North Africa as a fighter pilot. While in Berlin to deliver a report he is given a day's leave, and on the stage of the cabaret theatre "Skala" sees the popular Danish singer Hanna Holberg. For Paul it is love at first sight. When Hanna visits friends after the end of the performance, he follows her, and speaks to her in the U-Bahn. After the party in her friends' flat, he accompanies her home and chance throws them further together when an air raid warning forces them to take cover in the air raid shelter. Hanna reciprocates Paul's feelings, but after a night spent together Paul has to return immediately to the front. There now follows a whole series of misunderstandings, and one missed opportunity after another. While Hanna waits in vain for some sign of life from Paul, he is flying on missions in North Africa. When he tries to visit her in her Berlin flat, she is giving a Christmas concert in Paris.
The Great Love
As the Allied forces approach Paris in August 1944, German Colonel Von Waldheim is desperate to take all of France's greatest paintings to Germany. He manages to secure a train to transport the valuable art works even as the chaos of retreat descends upon them. The French resistance however wants to stop them from stealing their national treasures but have received orders from London that they are not to be destroyed. The station master, Labiche, is tasked with scheduling the train and making it all happen smoothly but he is also part of a dwindling group of resistance fighters tasked with preventing the theft. He and others stage an elaborate ruse to keep the train from ever leaving French territory.
The Train
Dr. Mabuse has been locked away for years in an insane asylum. Suddenly crimes start occurring and no one knows the culprit. A detective goes to visit the Doctor to find some sort of clues to the robberies.
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
Television & Series (36)
The exploits of four Allied soldiers — three Americans and one Englishman — who are part of a long-range desert patrol group in the North African campaign during World War II. Their mission: "to attack, harass and wreak havoc on Field Marshal Rommel's vaunted Afrika Korps".
The Rat Patrol
Against the backdrop of world events that led to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, Victor 'Pug' Henry is a career naval officer who, along with his family, learns to navigate the waters of his dangerous times in the late 1930s.
The Winds of War
Das Kriminalmuseum was a German television series. It ran from 1963 to 1970 on ZDF and was one of its first programs. Each episode began with a tracking shot through an unspecified crime museum, stopping at one of the displays, whose story was then told. Each episode was between 60 and 75 minutes long and featured different actors as the criminal commissioner. The best known was Erik Ode, who in 1969 moved to Der Kommissar, appearing in 97 episodes. The theme music of the series was written by German composer Martin Böttcher, who also composed the complete scores for five episodes.
Das Kriminalmuseum
Tatort is a long-running German/Austrian/Swiss crime television series set in various parts of these countries. The show is broadcast on the channels of ARD in Germany, ORF in Austria and SF1 in Switzerland.
