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| Emil Jannings |
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| Born: 1884 |
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Distinguished German actor, most popular in the silent era, when he
worked for such major directors as Lubitsch, Murnau and E.A. Dupont,
often in prestigious roles such as Mephisto in Muranu‘s Faust. His
greatest role, however, was in his first sound film, Josef von
Sternberg's The Blue Angel, where he gives a performance of
overwhelming tragic intensity as the bourgeois professor
manipulated by Marlene Dietrich's heartless tramp. Jannings' manner
is often heavy-handed, but his best performances are very powerful.
Sadly he blotted his copybook later on by appearing in Nazi propaganda
films such as the stylish (though reprehensible) Ohm Kruger, and after
the war he was forced into retirement.
Alex Jacoby
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