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

Born: Eydtkuhnen, East Prussia, Germany [now Chernyshevskoe, Russia], 1892-03-02

Died: 1949-03-17

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1928	Liebe im Kuhstall	Der Gerichtsvollzieher	0
2	1930	There is a woman who will never forget you		0
3	1930	The fight with the dragon or: The tragedy of the lodger		0
4	1930	The Tender Relatives	Onkel Emil	60
5	1930	The Three from the Filling Station	Gerichtsvollzieher	61
6	1930	Old Song	Jacques	0
7	1930	Three Days in the Guardhouse	Franz Nowotni	55
8	1930	Eine Freundin so goldig wie Du	Richard	0
9	1931	The Private Secretary	Bankdiener Hasel	0
10	1931	True Jacob	Böcklein	50
11	1931	Terror of the Garrison	Musketier Kulicke	0
12	1931	No More Love	Jean	75
13	1931	Fanfare about love	Major Fröschen	0
14	1931	Excursion into Life	Hirsekorn - Schauspieler und Chauffeur	50
15	1931	The Office Manager	Joachim Reißnagel	0
16	1932	Visul lui Tanase	star	60
17	1932	Holzapfel Knows Everything	Johannes Georg Holzapfel	0
18	1932	The Lucky Top Hat	Gottfried Jonathan Bankbeamter	0
19	1933	...und wer küßt mich?	Direktor Ritter	58
20	1933	Wie d'Warret würkt	Mr. Schramek	0
21	1934	C'était un musicien	Baron Vandernyff	0
22	1934	Salto in die Seligkeit	Kriegel, Geheimdetektiv	0
23	1934	Peter	Grandfather	0
24	1935	Everything for the Company	Philipp Sonndorfer	0
25	1935	Ball at the Savoy	Birowitsch	70
26	1935	Four and a Half Musketeers	Professor Volksmann	0
27	1936	Heut' ist der schönste Tag in meinem Leben	Max Kaspar	0
28	1939	Three Smart Girls Grow Up	Music Teacher	71
29	1939	Bridal Suite	Maxl	51
30	1939	Ninotchka	Comrade Buljanoff	75
31	1939	Swanee River	Henry Kleber	67
32	1940	The Shop Around the Corner	Pirovitch	81
33	1940	It All Came True	The Great Boldini	58
34	1940	Edison, the Man	Michael Simon	66
35	1940	Third Finger, Left Hand	August "Gussie" Winkel	68
36	1940	Escape	Fritz Keller	74
37	1940	Bitter Sweet	Max	58
38	1940	Comrade X	Igor Yahupitz / Vanya	59
39	1941	Ziegfeld Girl	Mischa	65
40	1941	Blossoms in the Dust	Dr. Max Breslar	66
41	1941	Married Bachelor	Professor Milic	58
42	1941	Kathleen	Mr. Schoner	50
43	1942	Mr. and Mrs. North	Arthur Talbot	45
44	1942	To Be or Not to Be	Greenberg	78
45	1942	Crossroads	Dr. Andre Tessier	59
46	1942	Iceland	Papa Jonsdottir	57
47	1943	Three Hearts for Julia	Anton Ottoway	60
48	1943	Above Suspicion	Mr. A. Werner	65
49	1943	Don't Be a Sucker!	Anti-Nazi Teacher	68
50	1944	Song of Russia	Petrov	80
51	1944	The Seventh Cross	Poldi Schlamm	67
52	1944	Greenwich Village	Hofer	60
53	1944	Blonde Fever	Johnny	44
54	1945	Without Love	Prof. Ginza	68
55	1945	Dangerous Partners	Professor Budlow	63
56	1946	Ding Dong Williams	Hugo Meyerheld	50
57	1946	The Thrill of Brazil	Ludwig Kriegspiel	58
58	1946	Her Sister's Secret	Pepe	65
59	1946	I've Always Loved You	Frederick Hassman	64
60	1948	A Song Is Born	Professor Gerkikoff	65
61	1948	Portrait of Jennie	Pete	71
62	1949	Take One False Step	Professor Morris Avrum	55

No.

Year

Title

Role

Vote Average

1928