From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Felix Bressart March 2 1892 March 17 1949 was a GermanAmerican actor of stage and screen Felix Bressart pronounced BRESSert was born in East Prussia Germany now part of Russia and was already a very experienced stage actor when he had his film debut in 1928 He started off as a supporting actor eg as the Bailiff in the boxoffice hit Die Drei von der Tankstelle 1930 but had soon established himself in leading roles of minor movies After the Nazis seized power in 1933 Jewishborn Bressart had to leave Germany and continued his career in Germanspeaking movies in Austria where Jewish artists were still relatively safe After no fewer than 30 films in eight years he emigrated to the United States One of Bressarts former European colleagues was Joe Pasternak now a successful Hollywood producer Bressarts first American film was Three Smart Girls Grow Up 1939 a vehicle for Universal Pictures top attraction Deanna Durbin Pasternak also selected the reliable Bressart to perform in a screen test opposite Pasternaks newest discovery Gloria Jean The influential German community in Hollywood helped to establish Bressart in America as his earliest American movies were directed by Ernst Lubitsch Henry Koster and Wilhelm Thiele director of Die Drei von der Tankstelle Bressart scored a great success in Lubitschs Ninotchka produced at MetroGoldwynMayer MGM signed Bressart to a studio contract in 1939 Most of his MGM work consisted of featured roles in major films like Edison the Man He combined his mildly inflected East European accent with a softspoken delivery to create kindly friendly characters as in Lubitschs To Be or Not to Be in which he sensitively recites Shylocks famous Hath not a Jew eyes speech from The Merchant of Venice Lubitsch also directed Bressart to similar effect in The Shop Around the Corner Bressart soon became a popular character actor in films like Blossoms in the Dust 1941 The Seventh Cross 1944 and Without Love 1945 Perhaps his largest role was in RKO Radio Pictures B musical comedy Ding Dong Williams filmed in 1945 Bressart billed third played the bemused supervisor of a movie studios music department and appeared in formal wear to conduct Chopins Fantasie Impromptu After almost 40 Hollywood pictures Felix Bressart suddenly died of leukemia at the age of 57 His last film was My Friend Irma 1949 the movie version of a popular radio show Bressart died during production forcing the producers to finish the film with Hans Conried In the final film Conried speaks throughout but Bressart is still seen in the long shots Description above from the Wikipedia article Felix Bressart licensed under CCBYSAfull list of contributors on Wikipedia
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