Emil Jannings

Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings and wife (May 1929)
Born	Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz 23 July 1884(1884-07-23) Rorschach, Switzerland
Died	2 January 1950(1950-01-02) (aged 65) Strobl, Austria
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1914–1945

Emil Jannings (23 July 1884 – 2 January 1950) was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar. He later starred in a number of Nazi propaganda films and became close with Joseph Goebbels.

Early life

He was christened as Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of a German mother and an American father. While he was still young the family moved to Görlitz in Germany and in the town state theatre Jannings started his stage career. He worked in Bremen and Leipzig before joining the Max Reinhardt's theatre company in Berlin.

Career

Jannings was a theater actor who went into films. He starred in the 1922 film version of Othello and in F. W. Murnau's The Last Laugh (Der Letzte Mann, 1924), as a proud but aged hotel doorman who is demoted to a restroom attendant. Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films, playing the title character in Herr Tartüff (1925) and Mephistopheles in Faust (1926). He eventually started a career in Hollywood. In 1929 he won the Oscar for two films, The Way of All Flesh, and The Last Command.

His Hollywood career came to an end with the advent of talkies; his thick German accent was difficult to understand, and his dialogue was dubbed by another actor in the part-talkie The Patriot (1928), although after Jannings objected, his voice was restored. He returned to Europe, where he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in the 1930 film The Blue Angel, filmed in English simultaneously with its German version Der blaue Engel.

According to Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend [Simon and Schuster 2011], Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor vote -- he was the runner up. While researching her book, Orlean discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd, one of the biggest movies stars of his time, who won the vote. The Academy, however, was worried about being taken seriously if they gave the first Oscar to a dog, so they chose the runner up, Jannings instead. (See Susan Orlean: Throw Rin Tin Tin A Bone & Give Back The Pooch’s Best Actor Oscar, Deadline.com January 3, 2012.)

Later life

With Joseph Goebbels in 1938

During the Third Reich, he starred in several films which were intended to promote Nazism, particularly the Führerprinzip: The Youth of Frederick the Great (1935), Der Herrscher ("The Ruler" 1937), Ohm Kruger (Uncle Kruger, 1941) and The Dismissal of Bismarck (1942). Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named him "Artist of the State" in 1941.^{[citation needed]}

When troops of the Allied Powers entered Germany in 1945, Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, his active role in Nazi propaganda meant he was subject to denazification, and any comeback attempt was doomed. Jannings retired near Salzburg, Austria, and became an Austrian citizen in 1947. Very proficient in financial matters, he was one of the highest paid actors of his time.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Jannings died in 1950, aged 65, in Strobl, from liver cancer. His Best Actor Oscar is now on display at the Filmmuseum in Berlin.

Cultural depictions

Hilmar Eichhorn portrayed a fictional version of Jannings in Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1914	Arme Eva
	Im Schützengraben
	Passionels Tagebuch
1916	Aus Mangel an Beweisen	Dr. Langer
	Die Bettlerin von St. Marien	Baron Gelsburg
	Frau Eva
	Im Angesicht des Toten	Paul Werner
	Das Leben ein Traum
	Nächte des Grauens
	Stein unter Steinen
1917	Das Fidele Gefängnis	Quabbe, the jailer	The Merry Jail (Europe: English title)
	Wenn vier dasselbe tun	Segetoff
	Hoheit Radieschen
	Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach	Wilhelm Rohrbach
	Der Zehnte Pavillon der Zitadelle
	Das Geschäft	S. H. Haßler
	Lulu
	Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari
	Die Seeschlacht
	Unheilbar
1918	Keimendes Leben, Teil 1	James Fraenkel, Börsenmarktler John Smith, amerikanischer Ingenieur
	Die Augen der Mumie Ma	Radu, an Arab	aka The Eyes of the Mummy
	Fuhrmann Henschel
	Nach zwanzig Jahren	Horst Lundin 'Korn'
1919	Rose Bernd	Arthur Streckmann
	Madame DuBarry	Louis XV	aka Passion
	Vendetta	Tomasso
	Die Tochter des Mehemed	Vaco Juan Riberda, Fabrikbesitzer
	Keimendes Leben, Teil 2
	Der Mann der Tat	Jan Miller
1920	Colombine
	Anna Boleyn	Henry VIII	aka Deception
	Der Schädel der Pharaonentochter	Osorcon, Pharao of Egypt
	Algol - Tragödie der Macht	Robert Herne
	Das Große Licht	Lorenz Ferleitner
	Kohlhiesels Töchter	Peter Xaver	aka Kohlhiesel's Daughters
1921	Die Ratten	Bruno
	Der Schwur des Peter Hergatz
	Danton	Danton	aka All for a Woman
	Der Stier von Olivera	General François Guillaume
	Die Brüder Karamasoff	Dimitri Karamasoff	aka The Brothers Karamazov
1922	Peter der Große	Peter der Große	aka Peter the Great (USA)
	Othello	Othello
	Das Weib des Pharao	Pharao Amenes	aka Loves of the Pharaoh
	Die Gräfin von Paris		aka The Countess of Paris (USA)
1923	Alles für Geld	S. I. Rupp
	Tragödie der Liebe	Ombrade	aka The Tragedy of Love (USA)
1924	The Last Laugh	Hotelportier (hotel porter)	The Last Laugh (USA)
	Nju - Eine unverstandene Frau	Ehemann	aka Husbands or Lovers (USA)
	Das Wachsfigurenkabinett	Harun al Raschid	aka Waxworks
1925	Varieté	Boss Huller	aka Jealousy (USA)
	Quo Vadis?	Nerone	Extant
	Liebe macht blind	Emil Jannings	aka Love Makes Us Blind
1926	Herr Tartüff	Tartüff
	Faust - Eine deutsche Volkssage	Mephisto	Extant
1927	The Way of All Flesh	August Schilling	Academy Award for Best Actor; Lost film
1928	Sins of the Fathers	Wilhelm Spengler	Extant
	The Patriot	Czar Paul I	Lost film
	Street of Sin	Basher Bill	Lost film
	The Last Command	Gen. Dolgorucki / Grand Duke Sergius Alexander	Academy Award for Best Actor; Extant
1929	Betrayal	Poldi Moser
	Fighting the White Slave Traffic
1930	Liebling der Götter	Albert Winkelmann	aka Darling of the Gods
	Der blaue Engel	Prof. Immanuel Rath	aka The Blue Angel (USA)
1932	Stürme der Leidenschaft	Gustav Bumke	aka Storms of Passion aka Tempest
1933	Die Abenteuer des Königs Pausole	King Pausole	aka The Adventures of King Pausole
	The Merry Monarch	King Pausole
1934	Der Schwarze Walfisch	Peter Petersen	aka The Black Whale (International: English title)
1935	Der Alte und der junge König - Friedrichs des Grossen Jugend	Friedrich Wilhelm I. König von Preussen	aka The Making of a King (USA)
1936	Traumulus	Direktor Prof. Niemeyer	aka The Dreamer
1937	Der Zerbrochene Krug	Adam, Dorfrichter	aka The Broken Jug
	Der Herrscher	Matthias Clausen	aka The Ruler
1939	Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes	Dr. Robert Koch
	Der Trichter. (Nr. III)		scenes deleted
1941	Ohm Krüger	Ohm Krüger	aka Uncle Kruger (International: English title)
1942	Die Entlassung	Bismarck	aka Bismarck's Dismissal (UK)
1943	Altes Herz wird wieder jung	Fabrikdirektor Hoffmann
1945	Wo ist Herr Belling?	Firmenchef Eberhard Belling	aka Where Is Mr. Belling?

Further reading

• Frank Noack: Jannings. Belleville, München 2009 ISBN 978-3-933510-50-1
• Carl Zuckmayer: Geheimreport. Hrsg. von Gunther Nickel und Johanna Schrön. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-89244-599-0; pp. 136–45
• Emil Jannings: Theater, Film - Das Leben und ich. Autobiographie. Berchtesgaden: Verlag Zimmer & Herzog, 1951. (posthumous)
• Herbert Ihering: Emil Jannings: Baumeister seines Lebens und seiner Filme. Heidelberg 1941

External links

• Emil Jannings at the Internet Movie Database
• Emil Jannings at Find a Grave
• Photographs of Emil Jannings