Otto Gebühr

Otto Gebühr
Portrait photo by Alexander Binder
Born	(1877-05-29)29 May 1877 Kettwig, German Empire
Died	14 March 1954(1954-03-14) (aged 76) Wiesbaden, West Germany
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	1917–1954

Otto Gebühr (29 May 1877 – 14 March 1954) was a German theatre and film actor, who appeared in 102 films released between 1917 and 1954. He is noted for his performance as the Prussian king Frederick the Great in numerous films.

Life

Born in Kettwig (today part of Essen) in the Rhine Province the son of a merchant, Gebühr attended the gymnasium secondary school in Cologne and completed a commercial training. Alongside he took drama lessons and began his acting career at the Görlitz city theatre. In 1898 he joined the ensemble of the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden and from 1908 performed at the Lessing Theater in Berlin. As a World War I volunteer he achieved the rank of a Lieutenant in the German Army.

After the war he worked with director Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. At the same time he obtained his first film performances with the help of his colleague Paul Wegener. He found the role of his lifetime in 1919, acting as King Frederick II in the historical drama Die Tänzerin Barberina directed by Carl Boese, modeled on the life of ballerina Barbara Campanini (1721–1799). The first part of the UFA Fridericus Rex tetralogy starring Otto Gebühr playing the title role was released in 1922, followed by several further so-called "Fridericus-Rex-movies". The series was heavily criticized by contemporaries for supporting a widespread negative stance towards the Weimar Republic democracy and the yearning for a leader in waiting. Gebühr continued his performances in the Nazi period from 1933 onwards, last performing in The Great King (German: Der Große König), a 1942 German wartime propaganda film directed by Veit Harlan referring to the historic Miracle of the House of Brandenburg, which received the rare "Film of the Nation" distinction.

Gebühr died at Wiesbaden in 1954. His final film, Die Blonde Frau des Maharadscha, was released eight years after his death.

Filmography

• Die Vase der Semirames (1918)
• Sündiges Blut (1919)
• Verrat und Sühne (1919)
• Das Mädchen aus der Ackerstraße (1920)
• Der Menschheit Anwalt (1920)
• Three Nights (1920)
• Whitechapel (1920)
• The Dancer Barberina (1920)
• Evening – Night – Morning (1920)
• The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)
• Ships and People (1920)
• The Fear of Women (1921)
• The Raft of the Dead (1921)
• Der Schrecken der roten Mühle (1921)
• Der Gang durch die Hölle (1921)
• Der Schatz der Azteken (1921)
• Der Schatten der Gaby Leed (1921)
• Sterbende Volker (1922, two parts)
• Fridericus Rex (1922-23, four parts)
• William Tell (1923)
• Der Geldteufel (1923)
• Das brennende Geheimnis (1923)
• Gobseck (1924)
• The New Land (1924)
• ...und es lockt ein Ruf aus sündiger Welt (1925)
• Passion (1925)
• The Wig (1925)
• The Fallen (1926)
• The Sporck Battalion (1927)
• The Old Fritz (1928)
• The Chaste Coquette (1929)
• Waterloo (1929)
• Scapa Flow (1930)
• Women for Golden Hill (1938)
• Nanon (1938)
• Much Ado About Nixi (1942)
• The Golden Spider (1943)
• When the Young Wine Blossoms (1943)
• And the Heavens Above Us (1947)
• The Prisoner (1949)
• Melody of Fate (1950)
• Three Girls Spinning (1950)
• The Lie (1950)
• Dr. Holl (1951)
• When the Evening Bells Ring (1951)
• Stips (1951)
• Sensation in San Remo (1951)
• Torreani (1951)
• Oh, You Dear Fridolin (1952)
• A Thousand Red Roses Bloom (1952)
• Fritz and Friederike (1952)
• When the Heath Dreams at Night (1952)
• Stars Over Colombo (1953)
• Street Serenade (1953)
• Red Roses, Red Lips, Red Wine (1953)
• Father Is Being Stupid (1953)
• The Blue Hour (1953)
• Have Sunshine in Your Heart (1953)
• Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben (1954)
• Rose-Girl Resli (1954)

Films with Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great

Further information: Prussian films

• 1920: Die Tänzerin Barbarina - director: Carl Boese
• 1921–23: Fridericus Rex – director: Arzén von Cserépy

Teil 1 - Sturm und Drang

Teil 2 - Vater und Sohn

Teil 3 - Sanssouci

Teil 4 - Schicksalswende

• The Mill at Sanssouci (1926) – director: Siegfried Philippi
• 1928: The Old Fritz – director: Gerhard Lamprecht

Teil 1 - Friede

Teil 2 - Ausklang

• 1930: The Flute Concert of Sanssouci – director: Gustav Ucicky
• 1932: Die Tänzerin von Sans Souci – director: Friedrich Zelnik
• 1933: Der Choral von Leuthen – director: Carl Froelich
• 1936. Heiteres und Ernstes um den großen König - director: Phil Jutzi
• 1936: Fridericus – director: Johannes Meyer
• 1937: Das schöne Fräulein Schragg – director: Hans Deppe
• 1942: Der große König – director: Veit Harlan

External links

• Otto Gebühr at IMDb
• Photographs and literature