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.
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 2.974 |
Birthday | 1892-03-02 |
Place of Birth | Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia, Germany [now Chernyshevskoe, Russia] |
Also Known As | Феликс Брессарт, |
1942
To Be or Not to Be
7.8/735
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, an acting troupe becomes embroiled in a Polish soldier's efforts to track down a German spy.
Watch Now
To Be or Not to Be
1930
The Three from the Filling Station
6.1/20
Die Drei von der Tankstelle, meaning The Three from the Gas Station, was advertised as a German operetta when release and with it’s star studded cast...
Watch Now
The Three from the Filling Station
1930
The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger
0/0
A meek clerk can no longer abide the nastiness of his boarding house proprietress and takes drastic action.
Watch Now
The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger
1939
Ninotchka
7.5/386
A stern Russian woman sent to Paris on official business finds herself attracted to a man who represents everything she is supposed to detest.
Watch Now
Ninotchka
1940
The Shop Around the Corner
8.135/736
Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous...
Watch Now
The Shop Around the Corner
1949
Take One False Step
5.5/16
Catherine Sykes disappears after a midnight drive with Professor Andrew Gentling . When she's presumed murdered, his friend Martha convinces him that...
Watch Now
Take One False Step
1940
Comrade X
5.8/22
An American reporter smuggling news out of Soviet Moscow is blackmailed into helping a beautiful Communist leave the country.
Watch Now
Comrade X
1943
Above Suspicion
6.5/30
Two newlyweds spy on the Nazis for the British Secret Service during their honeymoon in Europe.
Watch Now
Above Suspicion
1942
Crossroads
5.9/35
A French diplomat who's recovered from amnesia is blackmailed over crimes he can't remember.
Watch Now
Crossroads
1940
Edison, the Man
6.6/21
In flashback, fifty years after inventing the light bulb, an 82-year-old Edison tells his story starting at age twenty-two with his arrival in New Yor...
Watch Now
Edison, the Man
1940
It All Came True
5.8/16
After crooked nightclub owner murders a police informant, he blackmails his piano player to allow him to stay at his eccentric mother's boarding house...
Watch Now
It All Came True
1940
Third Finger, Left Hand
6.8/12
Magazine editor Margot Merrick pretends to be married in order to avoid advances from male colleagues. Unfortunately, things don't go to plan when Jef...
Watch Now
Third Finger, Left Hand
1941
Blossoms in the Dust
6.5/31
Edna marries Texan Sam Gladney, operator of a wheat mill. They have a son, who is killed when very young. Edna discovers by chance how the law treats...
Watch Now
Blossoms in the Dust
1944
The Seventh Cross
6.7/39
In Nazi Germany in 1936 seven men escape from a concentration camp. The camp commander puts up seven crosses and, as the Gestapo returns each escapee...
Watch Now
The Seventh Cross
1940
Escape
7.4/14
An American goes to pre-war Germany to find his mother and discovers her in a concentration camp. With the help of an American-born widowed countess h...
Watch Now
Escape
1945
Dangerous Partners
6.3/3
A young couple's accident could make them rich, if they can evade a Nazi spy ring.
Watch Now
Dangerous Partners
1944
Blonde Fever
4.4/6
Peter and Delilah are a married couple running a roadside café in Nevada. Their stable partnership turns rocky, though, with the arrival of the sultry...
Watch Now
Blonde Fever
1939
Swanee River
6.5/2
Swanee River is a 1940 American biopic about Stephen Foster, a songwriter from Pittsburgh who falls in love with the South, marries a Southern girl, t...
Watch Now
Swanee River
1946
I've Always Loved You
6.4/6
A beautiful young concert pianist is torn between her attraction to her arrogant but brilliant maestro and her love for a farm boy she left back home.
Watch Now
I've Always Loved You
1934
Peter
0/0
Starring Francisca Gaál in a breeches role. Dressed as a boy, a street musician gets a job pumping gas. When s/he starts to have feelings for her patr...
Watch Now
Peter
1933
Wie d'Warret würkt
0/0
Watch Now
Wie d'Warret würkt
1940
Bitter Sweet
5.8/5
A woman runs away with her music teacher in order to escape an arranged marriage, but they struggle to make ends meet.
Watch Now
Bitter Sweet
1941
Married Bachelor
5.8/3
A man's marriage suffers when he pretends to be a bachelor while promoting "his" best-selling book about married life (actually written by an eccentri...
Watch Now
Married Bachelor
1939
Bridal Suite
5.1/5
A carefree playboy with an aversion to marriage falls for a lass he meets in the French Alps.
Watch Now
Bridal Suite
1931
No More Love
7.5/3
An American millionaire, who had always bad luck with women, bets that he can live without them for five years. But after four and a half years travel...
Watch Now
No More Love
1931
Terror of the Garrison
0/0
Watch Now
Terror of the Garrison
1932
The Lucky Top Hat
0/0
Gottfried Jonathan, a small civil servant, lives as a lodger and is roommates with the blonde Käthe. Although she tries very hard, she can’t find a jo...
Watch Now
The Lucky Top Hat
1931
The Office Manager
0/0
Watch Now
The Office Manager
1946
Ding Dong Williams
5/1
Ding Dong Williams, a clarinet player who can neither read nor write music is employed at a motion picture studio. The studio plans to use him and his...
Watch Now
Ding Dong Williams
1930
Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du
0/0
The lively Anny meets the nice Dr. Jack Braun and throws everything in his life into disarray. As Jack is in the middle of divorce proceedings against...
Watch Now
Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du
1930
The Tender Relatives
6/1
Watch Now
The Tender Relatives
1943
Three Hearts for Julia
6/1
When his wife threatens him with divorce, a reporter courts her again.
Watch Now
Three Hearts for Julia
1931
Excursion into Life
5/3
Felix Bressart, later one of the most delightful members of the Ernst Lubitsch "stock company," plays the title character in the Austrian comedy Hirse...
Watch Now
Excursion into Life
1941
Ziegfeld Girl
6.5/32
Discovery by Flo Ziegfeld changes a girl's life but not necessarily for the better, as three beautiful women find out when they join the spectacle on...
Watch Now
Ziegfeld Girl
1946
Her Sister's Secret
6.5/4
A WWII tale of romance that begins during New Orlean's "Mardi Gras" celebration when a soldier and a girl meet and fall in love. He asks her to marry...
Watch Now
Her Sister's Secret
1930
There is a woman who will never forget you
0/0
Watch Now
There is a woman who will never forget you
1935
Everything for the Company
0/0
Familial disputes surrounding a traditional business. Grandfather Sonndorfer allies himself with his grandson Otto, in order to bring his arrogant son...
Watch Now
Everything for the Company
1931
Fanfare about love
0/0
Caught by Archduke Max in an embarrassing situation with Marie-Charlote, Captain Rudi is forced into marriage. Yet he approaches actress Josefine, the...
Watch Now
Fanfare about love
1941
Kathleen
5/3
Kathleen is a twelve-year-old who lives in a big house with a nanny, a butler, maids, no mother and a father who is working most of the time. She drea...
Watch Now
Kathleen
1939
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
7.3/6
Three sisters who believe life is going to be easy, now that their parents are back together, until one sister falls in love with another's fiancé, an...
Watch Now
Three Smart Girls Grow Up
1930
Three days of middle arrest
5/1
When an attractive maid in a garrison town becomes pregnant, she reveals that one of three soldiers stationed there who had been chasing after her, is...
Watch Now
Three days of middle arrest
1936
Heut' ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben
0/1
Two twin brothers working in a Vienna fair and who are both gifted for singing meet different luck both in love and their careers.
Watch Now
Heut' ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben
1928
Liebe im Kuhstall
0/0
An impoverished nobleman would rather chase after the local milkmaid than seek a wealthy match, to the chagrin of his family.
Watch Now
Liebe im Kuhstall
1931
True Jacob
5/1
Watch Now
True Jacob
1931
Private Secretary
0/1
During hard times, a vivacious girl looks for an office job in the hope of landing a rich man. The director of the bank she works at flirts with her w...
Watch Now
Private Secretary
1944
Song of Russia
8/3
American conductor John Meredith and his manager, Hank Higgins, go to Russia shortly before the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. Meredith falls in l...
Watch Now
Song of Russia
1944
Greenwich Village
6/4
In 1922, a would-be classical composer gets involved with people putting on a musical revue.
Watch Now
Greenwich Village
1943
Don't Be a Sucker!
6.8/13
Propaganda short film depicting the rise of Nazism in Germany and how political propaganda is similarly used in the United States. The film was made t...
Watch Now
Don't Be a Sucker!
1946
The Thrill of Brazil
6/3
Steve, revue producer in Rio de Janeiro, is still in love with his ex-wife Vicki, his star Linda is in love with Steve and Tito is in love with Linda....
Watch Now
The Thrill of Brazil
1933
...und wer küßt mich?
5.8/2
Watch Now
...und wer küßt mich?
1945
Without Love
6.8/25
In World War II Washington DC, scientist Pat Jamieson's assistant, Jamie Rowan, enters a loveless marriage with him. Struggles bring them closer toget...
Watch Now
Without Love
1942
Iceland
5.7/3
Marine James Murfin, is unaware of Icelandic customs. When he flirts with Katina her Icelandic family take his actions as a proposal of marriage to Ka...
Watch Now
Iceland
1934
Salto in die Seligkeit
0/0
Watch Now
Salto in die Seligkeit
1948
A Song Is Born
6.5/42
The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub...
Watch Now
A Song Is Born
1930
Old Song
0/0
Watch Now
Old Song
1948
Portrait of Jennie
7.1/106
A mysterious girl inspires a struggling artist.
Watch Now
Portrait of Jennie
1934
C'était un musicien
0/0
When he is not conducting his orchestra, a talented young man invents a device to thwart car thieves.Associating himself with a rich Dutch baron, he f...
Watch Now
C'était un musicien
1932
Visul lui Tanase
6/1
Watch Now
Visul lui Tanase
1932
Holzapfel Knows Everything
0/0
An unemployed man who plays a concertina gets involved with a band of crooks and tries to frustrate a kidnapping, in this farcical caper.
Watch Now
Holzapfel Knows Everything
1935
Four and a Half Musketeers
0/0
A Hungarian-Austrian comedy and one of the last emigrant films made in Austria before the industry submitted to pressure from Nazi Germany and ceased...
Watch Now
Four and a Half Musketeers
1935
Ball at the Savoy
7/1
Musical comedy set in a Grand Hotel.
Watch Now
Ball at the Savoy
1942
Mr. and Mrs. North
4.5/6
Married sleuths (Gracie Allen, William Post Jr.) find a corpse in their closet and round up suspects.
Watch Now