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Oskar Werner (; born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer; 13 November 1922 – 23 October 1984) was an stage and cinema actor who reached international fame. His most prominent roles include two 1965 films, The Spy Who Came In from the Cold and Ship of Fools. For the former, Werner won a Golden Globe Award. For the latter, Werner received an Oscar nomination. Other notable films include Decision Before Dawn (1951), Lola Montès (1955), Jules and Jim (1962), Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), and Voyage of the Damned (1976).
Werner accepted both stage and film roles throughout his career. He won a New York Film Critics Circle Award, a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and was nominated two additional Golden Globes, as well as two BAFTA Awards, and an Academy Award, among other honors.
In December 1941, Werner was drafted into the Wehrmacht. As a pacifism and staunch opponent of Nazism, he was determined to avoid advancement in the army: He was assigned to peeling potatoes and cleaning latrines instead of being sent to the Eastern Front. In 1944, he secretly married actress , who was half Jews.Staff (6 September 2004). "Elisabeth Kallina" (in German language), Der Spiegel; retrieved 9 February 2013.
They had a daughter Eleanore. That December, he deserted the Wehrmacht and fled with his wife and daughter to the Vienna Woods (Vienna Woods), where they remained in hiding until the end of the war. He would later remember, "The artillery fire was constant for two and a half days. The shells hit all around our little hut and it was shaking like a leaf ... We knew that to go out there would be suicide, but it was better than to have to wait for execution."
In 1950, Werner journeyed to the United Kingdom to reprise the role he had played in Der Engel mit der Posaune in its English-language version The Angel with the Trumpet, directed by Anthony Bushell. He and his wife divorced at about this time but remained friends. He appeared in a few more German-Austrian films before going to Hollywood for a lead role in the 20th Century Fox war film Decision Before Dawn.
When the subsequent roles promised by the studio failed to materialize, he returned to Europe and settled in Triesen, Liechtenstein in a home he designed and built with a friend. He returned to the stage and performed in Hamlet, Danton's Death, Henry IV, Henry V, Torquato Tasso, and Becket.
After a period of inactivity in films, Werner appeared in five in 1955, including Mozart, in which he played the title role, and Lola Montès, directed by Max Ophüls. It was not until 1962, when he appeared in Jules and Jim, that he began to draw critical acclaim and international recognition.
In 1966, he played a book-burning fireman Guy Montag who rebels against a controlled society in François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. He played an orchestra conductor in Interlude and a Roman Curia priest loosely based on Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Shoes of the Fisherman in 1968.
In the early 1970s, Werner returned to the stage and spent time traveling in Israel, Italy, Malta, France, and the United States. He appeared in the episode of Columbo titled "Playback" in 1975, and the following year made his final screen appearance in Voyage of the Damned, for which he received another Golden Globe nomination. He had an uncredited role as a Wehrmacht Officer in the 1974 film The Odessa File.
Werner was also set to appear in Michael Cimino's love triangle drama Perfect Strangers alongside Roy Scheider and Romy Schneider. The film was two weeks into preproduction shooting when it was halted, due to a lot of political machinations at the studio.page 209
His last stage appearance was in a production of The Prince of Homburg in 1983, and he made his last public appearance in 1984 at the Mozart Hall in Salzburg ten days before his death.
Werner was an alcoholism, which contributed heavily to the decline of his health and career. He was cast in Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon as Captain Potzdorf, then replaced after a week, due to his drinking, by Hardy Krüger.
On 22 October 1984, he cancelled a reading at the Hotel Europäischer Hof in Marburg, feeling ill. He was found dead of a heart attack the following morning, at 61. He is buried in Liechtenstein.
Career
Early
Werner returned to the Burgtheater and acted in productions at the Raimund Theater and the Theater in der Josefstadt, frequently playing character roles. He made his film debut in Der Engel mit der Posaune, directed by Karl Hartl, in 1948. The following year he portrayed Ludwig van Beethoven's nephew Karl in Eroica.
Later
Werner's portrayal of the philosophical Dr. Schumann in the 1965 film Ship of Fools won him the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor and nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama, and the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actor. His portrayal of Fiedler in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965) won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture and his second BAFTA nomination.
Personal life
In 1944, while serving in the Wehrmacht, Werner secretly married actress Elisabeth Kallina, who was half Jews. The couple had a daughter, Eleanore. They divorced in 1952. In 1954, he married Anne Power, the daughter of French actress Annabella and adopted daughter of Tyrone Power. They were divorced in 1968. From 1965 to 1969, Werner was in a relationship with Diana Bennett Wanger, daughter of actress Joan Bennett, and they had one son, Felix Florian Werner, born 1966.
Filmography and television work
1938 Geld fällt vom Himmel 1939 Hotel Sacher Liftboy Linen from Ireland Hotelpage Uncredited 1948 The Angel with the Trumpet Hermann Alt 1949 Eroica Karl van Beethoven 1950 The Angel with the Trumpet Herman Alt 1951 Peter Brück Call Over the Air Der Student The Wonder Kid Rudi Ein Lächeln im Sturm Francois Mercier Decision Before Dawn Cpl. Karl "Happy" Maurer First American film. 1955 The Last Ten Days Hauptmann Wüst Espionage Lt. Zeno von Baumgarten Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Lola Montès Student 1958 Ein gewisser Judas Judas TV movie 1962 Jules and Jim Jules 1964 Torquato Tasso Torquato Tasso TV movie 1965 The Spy Who Came In from the Cold Fiedler Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
Nominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading RoleShip of Fools Dr. Schumann New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor
Nominated–Academy Award for Best Actor
Nominated–BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama1966 Fahrenheit 451 Guy Montag 1968 Interlude Stefan Zelter The Shoes of the Fisherman Fr. David Telemond 1975 Columbo Harold Van Wick Episode: "Playback" 1976 Voyage of the Damned Professor Egon Kreisler Nominated–Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
See also
External links
Categories: 1922 Births, 1984 Deaths, 20th-century Austrian Male Actors, Austrian Expatriate Male Actors In The United States, Austrian Expatriates In Liechtenstein, Austrian Male Film Actors, Austrian Male Television Actors, Austrian Military Personnel Of World War Ii, Austrian Pacifists, Austrian Soldiers, Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe Winners, Deserters, German Army Soldiers Of World War Ii, Male Actors From Vienna, People From Mariahilf
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