Henry Stuart
German postcard. Photo Rembrandt. Ross Verlag, nr. 1946/1.
Henry Stuart (1885-?) was a British-Swiss actor, director and writer, who worked mostly in German silent cinema.
Henry Stuart was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1885, as Court Henry Edouard Hess, the son of a British colonial employee. Shortly before 1900 he returned to Britain and grew up mostly in Paris. He visited art academy in Munich, planning to become painter. Shortly before World War One broke out, he was in Vienna, where he established his first contacts in the film world. During the war Stuart stayed in Britain, but afterwards returned to Germany and in 1922 he started his highly successful career as actor in silent cinema there, often performing the gentleman and noble lover. Probably his first part was a small one in Ein Glas Wasser (1922) by Ludwig Berger, followed by Die Perrücke (Berthold Viertel 1924) in which he played the major part of Julian, the lover of the Princess (Jenny Hasselqvist), whose husband (Otto Gebühr) tries to separate them . In the classic Die freudlose Gasse/Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst 1925), set during the Viennese Depression, Stuart plays Egon Stirner, the secretary of an international speculator. He is arrested for the murder of a lawyer’s wife, but the culprit is the penniless Maria Lechner (Asta Nielsen), in love with Stirner.
Next followed Die Strasse des Vergessens (Heinz Paul 1925) with Hella Moja, Das Abenteuer der Sybille Brant (Carl Froehlich 1925) with Henny Porten, Unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit (Conrad Wiene 1926) with Maly Delschaft, Schenk mir das Leben (Klaus Fery 1926), Liebelei (Jakob & Luise Fleck, 1926/27) with Fred Louis Lerch and Evelyn Holt, Die versunkene Flotte (Manfred Noa 1926) with Nils Asther, Die zwei und die Dame (Alwin Neuss 1926) with Agnes Esterhazy and Bernhard Goetzke, Derby (Max Reichmann 1926) with Barbara Annenkoff, Der Mann im Feuer (Erich Waschneck 1926) with Helga Thomas, Das Mädchen ohne Heimat (Constantin J. David 1926) with Jenny Hasselqvist, Wenn Menschen reif zur Liebe werden (J&L Fleck 1927) with Evelyn Holt, Die geheime Macht (Waschneck 1927) with Walter Rilla, Die Frau mit dem Weltrekord (Waschneck 1927) with Lee Parry, Der Bettler vom Kölner Dom (Rolf Randolf 1927) with Hanni Weisse, and Der Skandal in Baden-Baden (Waschneck 1928) with Brigitte Helm and Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur. In 1928 Stuart went to India to stage there the feature film Der Ring der Bajadere, as well as direct the documentaries Nuri, der Elefant and Der Maharadscha von Mysore hat Geburtstag (1929). Returned, Stuart played his last roles in silent film: the industrialist Erwin Voss in Das Recht auf Liebe (J&L Fleck 1929), and Kaiser Franz in the part-talkie Der Günstling von Schönbrunn (1929), starring Ivan Petrovich and Lil Dagover and directed by Erich Waschneck but Max Reichmann did the talking part direction.
In the sound era Stuart didn’t find much work. In 1933 he directed a short, Zwischen 12 und 2, based on the play Hotelratten. In 1938 he co-wrote the script for the Yiddish-American production The Power of Life. He became Swiss citizen and in 1941 he released the only feature sound film directed by him: Krischna. Abenteuer im indischen Dschungel, codirected and conscripted with Lola Kreuzberg, whose company had already produced Stuart’s films in India in 1928-1929. In 1942 Stuart played a British enemy in the colonial feature Germanin (Max W. Kimmich). In 1943 he had a little part as again a British lord in the all-star super-production Münchhausen (Josef von Baky 1943). In Berlin Stuart performed in particular at the Englischen Theater Deutscher Schauspieler and worked for the radio as well as manuscript and title translator. According to German Wikipedia, Stuart’s death year 1942, indicated in several online sources is wrong, but if he lived on, he didn’t act anymore.
Sources: IMDB, German Wikipedia, www.filmportal.de, www.cyranos.ch/smstua-e.htm.
Henry Stuart
German postcard. Photo Rembrandt. Ross Verlag, nr. 1946/1.
Henry Stuart (1885-?) was a British-Swiss actor, director and writer, who worked mostly in German silent cinema.
Henry Stuart was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1885, as Court Henry Edouard Hess, the son of a British colonial employee. Shortly before 1900 he returned to Britain and grew up mostly in Paris. He visited art academy in Munich, planning to become painter. Shortly before World War One broke out, he was in Vienna, where he established his first contacts in the film world. During the war Stuart stayed in Britain, but afterwards returned to Germany and in 1922 he started his highly successful career as actor in silent cinema there, often performing the gentleman and noble lover. Probably his first part was a small one in Ein Glas Wasser (1922) by Ludwig Berger, followed by Die Perrücke (Berthold Viertel 1924) in which he played the major part of Julian, the lover of the Princess (Jenny Hasselqvist), whose husband (Otto Gebühr) tries to separate them . In the classic Die freudlose Gasse/Joyless Street (G.W. Pabst 1925), set during the Viennese Depression, Stuart plays Egon Stirner, the secretary of an international speculator. He is arrested for the murder of a lawyer’s wife, but the culprit is the penniless Maria Lechner (Asta Nielsen), in love with Stirner.
Next followed Die Strasse des Vergessens (Heinz Paul 1925) with Hella Moja, Das Abenteuer der Sybille Brant (Carl Froehlich 1925) with Henny Porten, Unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit (Conrad Wiene 1926) with Maly Delschaft, Schenk mir das Leben (Klaus Fery 1926), Liebelei (Jakob & Luise Fleck, 1926/27) with Fred Louis Lerch and Evelyn Holt, Die versunkene Flotte (Manfred Noa 1926) with Nils Asther, Die zwei und die Dame (Alwin Neuss 1926) with Agnes Esterhazy and Bernhard Goetzke, Derby (Max Reichmann 1926) with Barbara Annenkoff, Der Mann im Feuer (Erich Waschneck 1926) with Helga Thomas, Das Mädchen ohne Heimat (Constantin J. David 1926) with Jenny Hasselqvist, Wenn Menschen reif zur Liebe werden (J&L Fleck 1927) with Evelyn Holt, Die geheime Macht (Waschneck 1927) with Walter Rilla, Die Frau mit dem Weltrekord (Waschneck 1927) with Lee Parry, Der Bettler vom Kölner Dom (Rolf Randolf 1927) with Hanni Weisse, and Der Skandal in Baden-Baden (Waschneck 1928) with Brigitte Helm and Ernst Stahl-Nachbaur. In 1928 Stuart went to India to stage there the feature film Der Ring der Bajadere, as well as direct the documentaries Nuri, der Elefant and Der Maharadscha von Mysore hat Geburtstag (1929). Returned, Stuart played his last roles in silent film: the industrialist Erwin Voss in Das Recht auf Liebe (J&L Fleck 1929), and Kaiser Franz in the part-talkie Der Günstling von Schönbrunn (1929), starring Ivan Petrovich and Lil Dagover and directed by Erich Waschneck but Max Reichmann did the talking part direction.
In the sound era Stuart didn’t find much work. In 1933 he directed a short, Zwischen 12 und 2, based on the play Hotelratten. In 1938 he co-wrote the script for the Yiddish-American production The Power of Life. He became Swiss citizen and in 1941 he released the only feature sound film directed by him: Krischna. Abenteuer im indischen Dschungel, codirected and conscripted with Lola Kreuzberg, whose company had already produced Stuart’s films in India in 1928-1929. In 1942 Stuart played a British enemy in the colonial feature Germanin (Max W. Kimmich). In 1943 he had a little part as again a British lord in the all-star super-production Münchhausen (Josef von Baky 1943). In Berlin Stuart performed in particular at the Englischen Theater Deutscher Schauspieler and worked for the radio as well as manuscript and title translator. According to German Wikipedia, Stuart’s death year 1942, indicated in several online sources is wrong, but if he lived on, he didn’t act anymore.
Sources: IMDB, German Wikipedia, www.filmportal.de, www.cyranos.ch/smstua-e.htm.