Wolfgang Zilzer

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Wolfgang Zilzer, alias: Paul Andor, John Voigt, birth 20 Jan 1901 Cincinnati, Ohio, VS, died 26 Jun 1991 Berlijn, Duitsland, occupation: Acteur, son of Max Zilzer and Flora Helene NN
http://www.cyranos.ch/smzilz-e.shtml
Wolfgang Zilzer was born in the USA because of an engagment of his father to an American theater. Hos mother died briefly after his birth. In 1905 returned to Germany with his father. Only two years later Wolfgang Zilzer made his stage debut an d became a demanded child actor at German stages.

At the age of 14 he appeared in a film for the first time and could finish four more films as a juvenile, among others "Der Barbier von Filmersdorf" (15) and "Die Spinne" (16). In the 20's he became established as a shy man in different detectiv e movies and comedies in films like "Schuetzenliesl" (26), "Mata Hari" (27), "Venus im Frack" (27), "Die weisse Spinne" (27), "Alraune" (27) and "Therese Raquin" (28).

In 1931 he gave a guest appearance in the USA where he appeared in German versions of American movies. One year later he came back to Germany. After the assumption of power through the Nazis he emigrated to Paris but returned again to German y in 1935 and got involved in the Jewish culture alliance.

Because of the political situation he finally left Germany in 1937 and landed again in the USA. Thanks to Ernst Lubitsch he found work in the film "Bluebeard's Eighth Wife". Together with Lubitsch he appeared in further film adaptions like "Ninotc hka" (1939) and "To Be or Not To Be" (1942).
When he took part in Anti-Nazi films he acted under the pseudonym John Voigt in order not to endanger the life of his father who still lived in Berlin. Like other emigrants too Zilzer had a short entrance in "Casablanca" (1942) where he died in th e starting scene as a Resistance member.

In 1943 Wolfgang Zilzer decided to adopt the stage name Paul Andor because his real name was too complicated for the Americans to pronounce.
After the world war the demand for German actors became smaller and Zilzer concentrated more on theater. Occasionally he appeared on stage in Germany but returned to the USA over and over again.

The last years of his life he spent in Berlin where he died on the 26th of June 1991.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0956517/

Wolfgang Zilzer was born on January 20, 1901 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. He was an actor and writer, known for A Crime Does Not Pay Subject: 'Forbidden Passage' (1941), Enemy of Women (1944) and Evas Tèochter (1928). He was married to Lotte Palfi An dor. He died on June 26, 1991 in Berlin, Germany. See full bio »
Born:
January 20, 1901 in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Died:
June 26, 1991 (age 90) in Berlin, Germany
(divorced) to:
Lotte Mosbacher, alias: Lotte Palfi Andor, Charlotte Drechsler-Palfi, Lotte Andor, birth 28 Jul 1903 Bochum, Duitsland, died 8 Jul 1991 New York, VS, occupation: Actrice 1st marriage 2nd marriage, daughter of Felix Mosbacher and Betty Katzenstein
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0041616/bio
Was an aspiring Jewish stage actress in Germany and had to flee in 1934 with her first husband, the cutter (film editor) Victor Palfi, after the Nazis came to power. She played only bit parts in Hollywood, many of them uncredited. Her most memorab le roles were in Casablanca (1942), where she was "the woman who has to sell her diamonds" in order to escape the Nazis and in Marathon Man (1976), where she was "the woman on 47th street," chasing a Nazi who is trying to escape with robbed diamon ds.

In 1943, she married the German-American actor Wolfgang Zilzer (stage name: Paul Andor), who had been the "man with expired papers" in Casablanca (1942). The couple divorced in old age when the American-born Zizler wanted to die in Germany and hi s wife refused to return to her native country.

Gest. 08.07. 1991 in New York/ USA

Die aus einer buergerlichen juedischen Familie stammende Lotte Mosbacher steht zu Beginn ihrer Schauspieler-Karriere unter anderem in Darmstadt auf der Buehne. Kurz nach der Machtuebergabe an die Nationalsozialisten flieht sie 1934, zusammen mi t ihrem ersten Ehemann, dem Cutter Viktor Palfi, ueber Frankreich und Spanien in die Vereinigten Staaten. Der Vater ist bereits 1930 verstorben. Die Mutter kommt 1942 im Ghetto Litzmannstadt ums Leben.

In den Vereinigten Staaten finden Lotte und Viktor Palfi zunaechst keine Arbeit in ihrem eigentlichen Berufen und halten sich mit diversen anderen Jobs ueber Wasser: Sie arbeitet u.a. als Koechin, er verdient als Butler seinen Lebensunterhalt. Nac h ihrer Trennung wendet sich Palfi-Andor wieder der Schauspielerei zu und hat unter ihrem Kuenstlernamen 'Jean Brooks' 1939 ihr Hollywood-Debèut in einer kleinen Rolle in Anatole Litvaks Anti-Nazi-Streifen "Ich war ein Spion der Nazis" (Confessio ns of a Nazi Spy), bei dessen Dreharbeiten sie den in den Vereinigten Staaten geborenen, deutschstaemmigen Schauspieler Wolfgang Zilzer (Kèunstlername: Paul Andor) kennenlernt. 1942 verpflichtet sie Michael Curtiz fèur zwei kleine Rollen in sein em legendèarem Melodram Casablanca mit Humphrey Bogart und Ingrid Bergman in den Hauptrollen, sowie zahlreichen deutschsprachigen Schauspielern, die vor den Nazis geflohen sind (darunter Paul Henreid, Conrad Veith, Ilka Gruening, Ludwig Stoessel , Peter Lorre und Curt Bois).

Lotte Palfi und Wolfgang Zilzer heirateten 1943. Als mit dem Ende des Krieges Hollywoods Bedarf an deutschen Charakterdarstellern zurueckgeht, spielen die Eheleute vermehrt beim Theater. Fast ein Vierteljahrhundert spèater steht Lotte Palfi-Ando r dann doch wieder vor der Kamera, diesmal unter der Regie von John Schlesinger und an der Seite von Dustin Hofman in dem Thriller Der Marathon Mann, in einer kleinen, aber sehr eindrucksvollen Rolle: als ehemaliges KZ-Opfer, das seinen Peinige r auf der 47. Strasse in New York wiederekennt. Es folgten noch weitere Filmauftritte Lotte Palfi-Andors, so 1979 in Bob Fosses All That Jazz und 1983 in der Dudley Moore-Komoedie Lovesick. Mitte der 1980er-Jahre erscheinen ihre Lebenserinnerunge n unter dem Titel Memoiren einer unbekannten Schauspielerin in dem Sammelband Die fremden Jahre (Original: Years of Estrangement).

Kurz vor beider Tod 1991 wird ihre Ehe mit Wolfgang Zilzer geschieden, da Lotte Palfi-Andor nicht mit ihrem schwer erkrankten Mann in das von ihm gewuenschte Sterbeland Deutschland zurueckkehren will.

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