Frits van Dongen 19011975 born Hein van der Niet and sometimes billed as Philip Dorn was a Dutch actor who had a career in Hollywood As a teenager he moved out of his parental home to perform in an amateur theatre group his stage name Frits van Dongen already dates from that period In the early 1920s Van Dongen ended up in the professional stage but it was not until 1934 that he starred in his first film Op Hoop van Zegen This film marked his breakthrough as a film star in the Netherlands in 1935 he played in De Big van het Regiment De Kribbebijter and Op Stap and in 1936 in Rubber Van Dongen then left for Berlin to work with the likes of Veit Harlan and star in a number of successful German films In 1939 Van Dongen and his second wife Jewish actress Marianne van Dam left for the United States at the invitation of director Henry Koster who had directed Van Dongen in De Kribbebijter When he was given a sevenyear contract at MGM Van Dongen changed his name to Philip Dorn After making his American debut in 1940 with Enemy Agent he would frequently be cast as continental lover antiNazi German or refugee In 1952 he returned to Europe for several German films and a Dutch theatre tour with Lily Bouwmeester In 1953 he quit acting in films partly due to speech problems due to a concussion He retired for the rest of his life in California where he died
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