Conrad Veidt

Personal Info

Known For Actor

Gender Male

Birthday 1893-01-22

Deathday 1943-04-03 (50 years old)

Place of Birth Berlin, Germany

Also Known As Veidt, Hans Walter Conrad Veidt, Конрад Файдт

Conrad Veidt

Biography

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as Different from the Others (1919), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), and The Man Who Laughs (1928). After a successful career in German silent film, where he was one of the best-paid stars of Ufa, he was forced to leave Germany in 1933 with his new Jewish wife after the Nazis came to power. They settled in Britain, where he participated in a number of films, including The Thief of Bagdad (1940), before emigrating to the United States around 1941, which lead to him having a supporting role in Casablanca (1942). From 1916 until his death, Veidt appeared in more than 100 films. One of his earliest performances was as the murderous somnambulist Cesare in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), a classic of German Expressionist cinema, with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover. His starring role in The Man Who Laughs (1928), as a disfigured circus performer whose face is cut into a permanent grin, provided the (visual) inspiration for the Batman villain the Joker, created in 1940 by Bill Finger. Veidt also starred in other silent horror films such as The Hands of Orlac (1924), another film directed by Robert Wiene, The Student of Prague (1926) and Waxworks (1924) where he played Ivan the Terrible. Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others, 1919), one of the first films to sympathetically portray homosexuality, although the characters in it do not end up happily. He had a leading role in Germany's first talking picture, Das Land ohne Frauen (Land Without Women, 1929). He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s and made a few films, but the advent of talking pictures and his difficulty with speaking English led him to return to Germany. During this period he lent his expertise to tutoring aspiring performers, one of whom was the later American character actress Lisa Golm.

Known For

Actor

2024
2008
Visual Effects: The Thief of Bagdad

as Jaffar (archival footage)

2000
The Many Faces of Dracula

as Self (archive footage)

1998
Universal Horror

as (archive footage)

1974
1943
Above Suspicion

as Hassert Seidel

1943
Casablanca

as Major Heinrich Strasser

1942
Nazi Agent

as Otto Becker / Baron Hugo von Detner

1942
All Through the Night

as Franz Ebbing

1941
The Men in Her Life

as Stanislas Rosing

1941
Whistling in the Dark

as Joseph Jones

1941
A Woman's Face

as Torsten Barring

1940
Escape

as General Kurt von Kolb

1940
Contraband

as Capt. Andersen

1940
1939
The Spy in Black

as Captain Ernst Hardt

1938
The Chess Player

as Le baron de Kempelen

1938
Tempête sur l'Asie

as Erich Keith

1937
Dark Journey

as Baron Karl Von Marwitz

1937
Under the Red Robe

as Gil de Berault

1935
King of the Damned

as Convict 83

1934
Bella Donna

as Mahmoud Baroudi

1934
Jew Süss

as Josef 'Jew Süss' Oppenheimer

1934
Wilhelm Tell

as Gessler

1933
The Wandering Jew

as Matathias / The Unknown Knight / Dr Matteos Battadios

1933
I Was a Spy

as Commandant Oberaertz

1933
F.P.1

as Maj. Ellissen

1933
The Only Girl

as Marquis de Pontignac

1932
Rome Express

as Zurta

1932
The Black Hussar

as Captain Hansgeorg von Hochberg

1932
Rasputin, Demon of the Women

as Grigori Rasputin

1931
Congress Dances

as Prince Metternich

1931
The Other Side

as Hauptmann Stanhope

1931
The Congress Dances

as Fürst Metternich

1931
The Man Who Committed the Murder

as Oberst Marquis de Sévigné

1930
The Love Storm

as Kingsley

1930
1930
The Last Company

as Hauptmann Burk

1929
The Last Performance

as Erik the Great

1929
Das Land ohne Frauen

as Dick Ashton

1928
The Man Who Laughs

as Gwynplaine / Lord Clancharlie

1927
A Man's Past

as Paul La Roche

1927
Napoleon

as Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade

1927
The Beloved Rogue

as King Louis XI

1926
The Flight in the Night

as Count di Nolli, Heinrich IV

1926
The Student of Prague

as Balduin, Student

1926
Should We Be Silent?

as Paul Hartwig, Maler

1926
Two Brothers

as Wenzel Schellenberg / Michael Schellenberg

1926
Impetuous Youth

as Renées Vater

1926
The Wife's Crusade

as Der Staatsanwalt

1925
1925
Le Comte Kostia

as Comte Kostia

1924
Husbands or Lovers

as Der Liebhaber, ein Dichter

1924
Waxworks

as Ivan the Terrible

1924
The Hands of Orlac

as Paul Orlac

1924
1924
1923
Wilhelm Tell

as Hermann Gessler

1923
Paganini

as Niccolo Paganini

1922
Lucrezia Borgia

as Cesare Borgia

1921
The Indian Tomb, Part II: The Tiger of Eschnapur

as Ayan, Majarajah of Eschnapur

1921
1921
Lady Hamilton

as Lord Nelson

1921
Landstraße und Großstadt

as Raphael, der Geiger

1921
Desire

as Ivan

1921
Liebestaumel

as Jalenko

1921
1921
Menschen im Rausch

as Professor Munk

1920
1920
Christian Wahnschaffe I: Weltbrand

as Christian Wahnschaffe

1920
Manolescu's Memoirs

as Manolescu

1920
Evening - Night - Morning

as Brilburn - Maud's brother

1920
Moriturus

as Wilmos, sanatorium director

1920
The Head of Janus

as Dr. Warren

1920
Kurfürstendamm

as The devil

1920
Die Augen der Welt

as Johannes Kay

1920
Patience

as Sir Percy Parker

1920
The Merry-Go-Round

as Petre Karvan

1920
1919
Eerie Tales

as Der Tod / Various Other Roles

1919
Wahnsinn

as Bankier Lorenzen

1919
Prinz Kuckuck

as Carl Kraker

1919
Prostitution II

as Alfred Werner

1919
1919
1919
Prostitution

as Alfred Werner

1919
Opium

as Dr. Richard Armstrong Jr.

1919
Nocturno der Liebe

as Frederic Chopin

1919
Die Mexikanerin

as Dr. von Dossen

1918
The Story of Dida Ibsen

as Erik Norrensen

1918
Colomba

as Henryk von Rhyn

1918
Diary of a Lost Woman

as Dr. Julius

1918
1917
Der Spion

as Steinau

1917
Wenn Tote sprechen

as Richard von Worth

1917
Fear

as Indian Priest

Director

1920
1919
Wahnsinn

as Director

Producer

1920