Wilhelm Anton Frohs Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018
Willi Forst, born Wilhelm Anton Frohs (7 April 1903 – 11 August 1980) was an Austrian actor, screenwriter, film director, film producer and singer. As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Filme. From the mid-1930s he also recorded many records, largely of sentimental Viennese songs, for the Odeon Records label owned by Carl Lindström AG.
[on his involvement during WW II in making films under the control of the Nazi regime] I never wasted much thought on the kind of films I was making. They came about by themselves, born of my relief at no longer having to "reproduce," and of the growing pressure exerted by the Nazis. My native country [Austria] was occupied by the National Socialists, and my work became a silent protest. Grotesque though it may sound, it is true that I made my most Austrian films at a time when Austria had ceased to exist.
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Fact
1
He made his first theater experiences on amateur stages and in 1919 he got a stage engagement in Teschen in spite of a missing acting training.
2
He died of cancer in Vienna in 1980 and is buried in Neustift am Walde.
3
Willi Forst couldn't continue his successes of the past years. Only the movie "Die Sünderin" was a box-office hit, not least because the movie was attacked and boycotted in the run-up to. The movie became the biggest scandal film of the German post-war film history because of a tiny nude scene of actress Hildegard Knef and because of the obvious glorifying of suicide.
4
As a debonair actor he was a darling of the German-speaking film audiences, as a director, one of the most significant makers of the Viennese period musical melodramas and comedies of the 1930s known as Wiener Filme.
5
He founded his own film company, Willi Forst-Film, in 1937 and considered a move to Hollywood the same year.
6
For "Leise flehen meine Lieder" (33) he wrote the script for the first time and he also directed the movie; scope of duties which he carried on in the following years.
7
Over different small theaters he came to the top and got a contract for the Berliner Metropo-Theater for operettas and revues in 1925. In 1928 followed an engagement to Max Reinhardt's "Deutsches Theater".
8
Following the annexation of Austria in 1938, he was much courted by the National Socialists but succeeded in avoiding overt political statement, concentrating entirely on the opulent period musical entertainment for which he was famous and which was much in demand during World War II.
9
Willi Forst reminds in memory as an elegant lady-killer, dressed in tails and top hat, who knew how to bewitch women.
10
After movies like "Im weissen Rössl" (1952), "Weg in die Vergangenheit" (1954), "Ein Mann vergisst die Liebe" (1955) and "Wien, Du Stadt meiner Träume" (1957) he withdrew from the film business with the words:: "My style is no longer in demand: I go off, a little bit battered, but in proud greatness
11
The 30's were definitely represented the height of his career. He became to a darling of the public with a string of musical comedies.
12
He gave international actress Senta Berger her first role.
13
Forst is today considered one of Europe's important early sound directors.
14
Together with the occupation of Austria he realized a string of movies which knew how to portray the spirit of Austria in an impressive way.
15
After the death of his wife in 1973 he lived a reclusive life in the Swiss canton of Tessin.
16
He had comparatively little success after the war with the exception of the film Die Sünderin ("The Sinner") (1950) starring Hildegard Knef, which became a scandal because of the protests of the Roman Catholic church against its nudity, the first in German-speaking cinema, but which subsequently attracted an audience of seven million people.
17
With the movie "Atlantic" (1929), his first sound film, he attracted huge attention because of a scene where he sat at the piano and sang a song during the ship was doomed to the sinking.
Son of a porcelain painter. Started acting in regional theatres, then in Vienna and at the Berlin Metropoltheater in operettas and revues. Joined Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in 1928. In films from 1920, often in villainous roles. Had a good voice, which contributed to him graduating to leading actor by the time sound arrived. Made his directing debut in 1933. Often contributed screenplays and acted in his own films. Had a reputation for visual style and detail in production design.
20
Twice caused controversy: the first time, by arousing the ire of Joseph Goebbels through his refusal to appear in the stridently anti-semitic film 'Jud Suess'. The second time, with conservative civic groups, for a nude long shot of Hildegard Knef in 'Die Suenderin' (1951).
$700,000
