Carl Esmond

Biography

Carl Esmond (born Willy Eichberger in Vienna in 1902, died in Brentwood, Los Angeles, in 2004) was an Austrian actor who built most of his English-language career in the United States after fleeing Nazi Germany in the late 1930s. Before Hollywood he had already made his name on stage and in film in Vienna and Berlin, and his career spans almost the whole of the twentieth century.

He worked as a bank clerk before turning to acting and studied at the university of music and performing arts in Vienna. He made his professional debut at the Burgtheater at 22 and in 1933 travelled to London for a musical, where he adopted the name he would use in English-language work. In European cinema he became a popular leading man in light romantic comedies and appeared in Max Ophuls' Liebelei. After settling in Hollywood in 1938 he often played Nazi villains during the war, though he also took more sympathetic parts in Sergeant York and The Story of Dr. Wassell. He worked with directors such as Cecil B. DeMille, Howard Hawks and Fritz Lang. After the war he became a familiar face in early television. In 1953 he returned briefly to Europe and made Lola Montès there under the name Eichberger. His last screen appearance came in a 1985 television film about Errol Flynn.

Key films

• Sergeant York (1941): a German major in a film about the First World War seen largely from the American side.
• The World in His Arms (1952): he plays Prince Semyon in this adventure romance set at sea.
• Lola Montès (1955): a small role as a doctor in Max Ophuls' final major film.
• From the Earth to the Moon (1958): he plays Jules Verne in this science fiction adaptation.
• Morituri (1965): he plays Busch in this war drama about prisoners sent on a dangerous mission.