Theodor Loos
German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 9175. Photo: Käthe Hirschfeld.
Theodor Loos (1883-1954) was a German stage and screen actor between the 1910s and the 1950s. He became famous for his parts in Fritz Lang’s German films.
Theodor August Konrad Loos was born in 1883 in Zwingenberg, Germany, as the son of a watchmaker and instrument manufacturer. After leaving school prematurely, he worked at an export firm for musical instruments in Leipzig and afterward for his uncle, an art dealer in Berlin, before deciding to become an actor. From 1913 on Loos played in theaters in Leipzig, Danzig and Frankfurt am Main, before performing in Berlin. In 1913 he also played his first film part and in 1915 his first leading role in the mystery drama Der geheimnisvolle Wanderer by William Wauer. Loos played in films by renowned directors such as Richard Oswald, Stellan Rye, Robert Wiene, Otto Rippert, and Robert Reinert. Memorable silent cinema titles are Die Rache des Homunculus (Otto Rippert, 1916) with Olaf Fönss, Christa Hartungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917) with Henny Porten, Es werde Licht! II (Richard Oswald, 1917-18) with Eva Speyer, Die singende Hand (Arthur Wellin, 1918) again with Speyer, Getrennte Welten (Arthur Wellin, 1918), Die Buße des Richard Solm (Arthur Wellin, 1918) with Else Kühne and Lia Borré, Nach dem Gesetz (Willy Grunwald, 1919) with Asta Nielsen, Der Reigen (Tichard Oswald, 1919) again with Nielsen, Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921-22) with Emil Jannings, Hanneles Himmelfahrt (Urban Gad, 1922). Loos played the title role in the humoristic period piece Friedrich Schiller (Curt Goetz, 1922-23) on the adolescent years of the German playwright, shot on location in Stuttgart. The film, the debut of the film director Goetz, was previously considered lost but rediscovered in recent years and fully restored.
Loos’ finest hour, however, came when Fritz Lang had him perform the cowardly king Gunther in his two-part sequel Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924). In the first part, Siegfrieds Tod, Gunther convinces Siegfried (Paul Richter) to conquer Brunhild (Hanna Ralph) for him, but when Brunhild discovers the fraud she urges Gunther to kill Siegfried, which he does with the help of Hagen von Tronje (Hans Adalbert Schlettow). In part two, Kriemhilds Rache, Siegfried’s wife Kriemhild (Margarethe Schön), brother of Gunther, takes revenge on the murderers of Siegfried, including her own brother. A few years after, Lang asked Loos back for the part of the secretary Joseph/Josaphat in his science-fiction film Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1925-1926). Other late silent films with Loos were a.o. Das Lebenslied (Arthur Bergen, 1927) with Erna Morena, Luther (Hans Kyser, 1927) starring Eugen Klöpfer, Bigamie (Jaap Speyer, 1927) with Maria Jacobini, Anastasia, die falsche Zarentochter (Arthur Bergen, 1928) with Elizza La Porta and Camilla von Hollay, Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (William Dieterle, 1929-30; Loos played Dr. Von Gudden), and Die stärkere Macht (Gennaro Righelli 1929) with Renée Heribel, Fritz Kortner and Alma Taylor.
Theodor Loos’ first sound film was Die grosse Sehnsucht (Stefan Szekely 1930), in which he played the lead as a film director who turns an extra (Camilla Horn) into a star. Other early sound films with Loos were Ariane (Paul Czinner 1931) with Elisabeth Bergner, Die andere Seite (Heinz Paul 1931) with Conrad Veidt, Trenck (Ernst Neubach, Heinz Paul 1932) with Hans Stüwe and Dorothea Wieck, and Acht Mädels im Boot (Erich Waschneck 1932) with Karin Hardt. Returning to Fritz Lang, Loos was police commissioner Groeber in Lang’s masterpiece M (1931) and Dr. Kramm in Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933). The last-mentioned film was forbidden by the nazi’s because of its hidden criticism of Hitler and the Nazi regime, so it premiered in Budapest. In the 1930s Loos played not only countless film parts but also classic theater: Shakespeare, Schiller, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg, among which over 400 times in Peer Gynt. Under the Nazi regime, he was appointed "Staatsschauspieler" [state actor], performing in a.o. Thea von Harbou’s directorial debut Elisabeth und der Narr (1934) with Hertha Thiele and Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Der Student von Prag (Artur Robison 1935; Loos was the devilish Dr. Carpis), Schlussakkord (Douglas Sirk 1936) with Maria von Tasnady and Peter Bosse, Schatten über St. Pauli (Fritz Kirchhoff 1938) with Harald Paulsen, Veit Harlan’s films Der Herrscher (1936-37) with Emil Jannings, and Jud Süß (1940) with Ferdinand Marian, and Hans Steinhoff’s films Der alte und der junge König (1934-35) with Jannings, Robert Koch (1939) with again Jannings, Rembrandt (1942; Loos played Jan Six) and Gabriel Dambrone (1943). Other titles from the war era were Herbert Maisch’s Andreas Schlüter (1941-42), in which Loos played prince-elector Frederick III, opposite Heinrich George in the title role, and Titanic (Werner Klingler, Herbert Selpin 1943) which starred Sybille Schmitz and Hans Nielsen, and in which Loos played a German scientist. During the war, Loos was head of Künstlerischen Wortsendungen [artistic verbal emissions] at the German Radio. He was also in high places in artistic and cultural boards. Loos didn’t have to serve in the war because of his parts in (propaganda-) films but his two sons did and they both died in the war. At the end of the war, Loos fled via Prague to Salzburg but was rehabilitated by the French military government in 1947. He then performed again on stage in Tübingen and Stuttgart, and also became a radio announcer. In 1954 Loos played his last film part as a minister in Rosen aus dem Süden (Franz Antel), starring Maria Holst, and in the same year, he was awarded the Grossverdienstkreuz of the Bundesrepublik. Theodor Loos died 27.06.1954 in Stuttgart. All in all, Loos played in over 170 films.
Sources: www.filmportal.de, German and English Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Theodor Loos
German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm, no. 9175. Photo: Käthe Hirschfeld.
Theodor Loos (1883-1954) was a German stage and screen actor between the 1910s and the 1950s. He became famous for his parts in Fritz Lang’s German films.
Theodor August Konrad Loos was born in 1883 in Zwingenberg, Germany, as the son of a watchmaker and instrument manufacturer. After leaving school prematurely, he worked at an export firm for musical instruments in Leipzig and afterward for his uncle, an art dealer in Berlin, before deciding to become an actor. From 1913 on Loos played in theaters in Leipzig, Danzig and Frankfurt am Main, before performing in Berlin. In 1913 he also played his first film part and in 1915 his first leading role in the mystery drama Der geheimnisvolle Wanderer by William Wauer. Loos played in films by renowned directors such as Richard Oswald, Stellan Rye, Robert Wiene, Otto Rippert, and Robert Reinert. Memorable silent cinema titles are Die Rache des Homunculus (Otto Rippert, 1916) with Olaf Fönss, Christa Hartungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917) with Henny Porten, Es werde Licht! II (Richard Oswald, 1917-18) with Eva Speyer, Die singende Hand (Arthur Wellin, 1918) again with Speyer, Getrennte Welten (Arthur Wellin, 1918), Die Buße des Richard Solm (Arthur Wellin, 1918) with Else Kühne and Lia Borré, Nach dem Gesetz (Willy Grunwald, 1919) with Asta Nielsen, Der Reigen (Tichard Oswald, 1919) again with Nielsen, Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921-22) with Emil Jannings, Hanneles Himmelfahrt (Urban Gad, 1922). Loos played the title role in the humoristic period piece Friedrich Schiller (Curt Goetz, 1922-23) on the adolescent years of the German playwright, shot on location in Stuttgart. The film, the debut of the film director Goetz, was previously considered lost but rediscovered in recent years and fully restored.
Loos’ finest hour, however, came when Fritz Lang had him perform the cowardly king Gunther in his two-part sequel Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924). In the first part, Siegfrieds Tod, Gunther convinces Siegfried (Paul Richter) to conquer Brunhild (Hanna Ralph) for him, but when Brunhild discovers the fraud she urges Gunther to kill Siegfried, which he does with the help of Hagen von Tronje (Hans Adalbert Schlettow). In part two, Kriemhilds Rache, Siegfried’s wife Kriemhild (Margarethe Schön), brother of Gunther, takes revenge on the murderers of Siegfried, including her own brother. A few years after, Lang asked Loos back for the part of the secretary Joseph/Josaphat in his science-fiction film Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1925-1926). Other late silent films with Loos were a.o. Das Lebenslied (Arthur Bergen, 1927) with Erna Morena, Luther (Hans Kyser, 1927) starring Eugen Klöpfer, Bigamie (Jaap Speyer, 1927) with Maria Jacobini, Anastasia, die falsche Zarentochter (Arthur Bergen, 1928) with Elizza La Porta and Camilla von Hollay, Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (William Dieterle, 1929-30; Loos played Dr. Von Gudden), and Die stärkere Macht (Gennaro Righelli 1929) with Renée Heribel, Fritz Kortner and Alma Taylor.
Theodor Loos’ first sound film was Die grosse Sehnsucht (Stefan Szekely 1930), in which he played the lead as a film director who turns an extra (Camilla Horn) into a star. Other early sound films with Loos were Ariane (Paul Czinner 1931) with Elisabeth Bergner, Die andere Seite (Heinz Paul 1931) with Conrad Veidt, Trenck (Ernst Neubach, Heinz Paul 1932) with Hans Stüwe and Dorothea Wieck, and Acht Mädels im Boot (Erich Waschneck 1932) with Karin Hardt. Returning to Fritz Lang, Loos was police commissioner Groeber in Lang’s masterpiece M (1931) and Dr. Kramm in Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933). The last-mentioned film was forbidden by the nazi’s because of its hidden criticism of Hitler and the Nazi regime, so it premiered in Budapest. In the 1930s Loos played not only countless film parts but also classic theater: Shakespeare, Schiller, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg, among which over 400 times in Peer Gynt. Under the Nazi regime, he was appointed "Staatsschauspieler" [state actor], performing in a.o. Thea von Harbou’s directorial debut Elisabeth und der Narr (1934) with Hertha Thiele and Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Der Student von Prag (Artur Robison 1935; Loos was the devilish Dr. Carpis), Schlussakkord (Douglas Sirk 1936) with Maria von Tasnady and Peter Bosse, Schatten über St. Pauli (Fritz Kirchhoff 1938) with Harald Paulsen, Veit Harlan’s films Der Herrscher (1936-37) with Emil Jannings, and Jud Süß (1940) with Ferdinand Marian, and Hans Steinhoff’s films Der alte und der junge König (1934-35) with Jannings, Robert Koch (1939) with again Jannings, Rembrandt (1942; Loos played Jan Six) and Gabriel Dambrone (1943). Other titles from the war era were Herbert Maisch’s Andreas Schlüter (1941-42), in which Loos played prince-elector Frederick III, opposite Heinrich George in the title role, and Titanic (Werner Klingler, Herbert Selpin 1943) which starred Sybille Schmitz and Hans Nielsen, and in which Loos played a German scientist. During the war, Loos was head of Künstlerischen Wortsendungen [artistic verbal emissions] at the German Radio. He was also in high places in artistic and cultural boards. Loos didn’t have to serve in the war because of his parts in (propaganda-) films but his two sons did and they both died in the war. At the end of the war, Loos fled via Prague to Salzburg but was rehabilitated by the French military government in 1947. He then performed again on stage in Tübingen and Stuttgart, and also became a radio announcer. In 1954 Loos played his last film part as a minister in Rosen aus dem Süden (Franz Antel), starring Maria Holst, and in the same year, he was awarded the Grossverdienstkreuz of the Bundesrepublik. Theodor Loos died 27.06.1954 in Stuttgart. All in all, Loos played in over 170 films.
Sources: www.filmportal.de, German and English Wikipedia.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.