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- Director
- Producer
- Actor
William Wyler was an American filmmaker who, at the time of his death in 1981, was considered by his peers as second only to John Ford as a master craftsman of cinema. The winner of three Best Director Academy Awards, second again only to Ford's four, Wyler's reputation has unfairly suffered as the lack of an obvious "signature" in his diverse body of work denies him the honorific "auteur" that has become a standard measure of greatness in the post-"Cahiers du Cinéma" critical community.
His directorial career spanned 45 years, from silent pictures to the cultural revolution of the 1970s. Nominated a record 12 times for the Academy Award for Best Director, he won three and in 1966, was honored with the Irving Thalberg Award, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences' ultimate accolade for a producer. So high was his reputation in his lifetime that he was the fourth recipient of the American Film Institute's Lifetime Achievement Award, after Ford, James Cagney and Welles. Along with Ford and Welles, Wyler ranks with the best and most influential American directors, including Griffith, DeMille, Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg.
Born Willi Wyler on July 1, 1902, in Mulhouse, Alsace (then a possession of Germany), to Jewish parents. His Swiss-born father, Leopold, started as a traveling salesman but later became a thriving haberdasher in Mulhouse. His mother, Melanie (née Auerbach; died February 13, 1955, Los Angeles, aged 77), was German-born, and a cousin of Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal Pictures. Melanie Wyler often took him and his older brother Robert to concerts, opera, and the theatre, as well as the early cinema. Sometimes at home his family and their friends would stage amateur theatricals for personal enjoyment.
He used his family connections to establish himself in the film industry. Upon being offered a job by his mother's first cousin, Universal Studios head Carl Laemmle, Wyler emigrated to the US in 1920 at the age of 18. After starting in Universal's New York offices as an errand boy, he moved his way up through the organization, ending up in the California operation in 1922. Wyler was given the opportunity to direct in July 1925, with the two-reel western The Crook Buster (1925). It was on this film that he was first credited as William Wyler, though he never officially changed his name and would be known as "Willi" all his life. For almost five years he performed his apprenticeship in Universal's "B" unit, turning out a score of low-budget silent westerns. In 1929 he made his first "A" picture, Hell's Heroes (1929), Universal's first all-sound movie shot outside a studio. The western, the first version of the "Three Godfathers" story, was a commercial and critical success.
The initial years of the Great Depression brought hard times for the film industry, and Universal went into receivership in 1932, partially due to financial troubles brought about by rampant nepotism and the runaway production costs rung up by producer Carl Laemmle Jr., the son of the boss. There were 70 Laemmle family members on the Universal payroll at one point, including Wyler. In 1935 "Uncle" Carl was forced to sell the studio he had created in 1912 with the 1912 merger of his Independent Motion Picture Co. with several other production companies. Wyler continued to direct for Universal up until the end of the family regime, helming Counsellor at Law (1933), the film version of Elmer Rice's play featuring one of John Barrymore's more restrained performances, and The Good Fairy (1935), a comedy adapted from a Ferenc Molnár play by Preston Sturges and starring Margaret Sullavan, who was Wyler's wife for a short time. Both films were produced by his cousin, "Junior" Laemmle. Emancipated from the Laemmle family, Wyler subsequently established himself as a major director in the mid-1930s, when he began directing films for independent producer Samuel Goldwyn. During this key period, he alternated between adaptations of famous plays and filming versions of classic novels. Willi would soon find his freedom fettered by the man with the fabled "Goldwyn touch," which entailed bullying his directors to recast, rewrite and re-cut their films, and sometimes even replacing them during shooting.
The first of the Wyler-Goldwyn collaborations was These Three (1936), based on Lillian Hellman's lesbian-themed play "The Children's Hour" (the Sapphic theme was jettisoned and sanitized into a conventional heterosexual love triangle due to censorship concerns, but it resurfaced intact when Wyler remade the film a quarter-century later). His first unqualified success for Goldwyn was Dodsworth (1936), an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' portrait of a disintegrating American marriage, a marvelous film that still resonates with audiences in the 21st century. He received his first Best Director Oscar nomination for this picture. The film was nominated for Best Picture, the first of seven straight years in which a Wyler-directed movie would earn that accolade, culminating with Oscars for both William Wyler and Mrs. Miniver (1942) in 1942.
Wyler's potential greatness can be seen as early as "Hell's Heroes," an early talkie that is not constrained by the restrictions of the new technology. The climax of the picture, with Charles Bickford's dying badman walking into town, is a long tracking shot that focuses not on the actor himself but the detritus that he shucks off to lighten his load as he brings a baby back to a cradle of civilization. The scene is a harbinger of the free-flowing style that would become a hallmark of his work. However, it was with "Dodsworth" that Wyler began to establish his critical reputation. The film features long takes and a probing camera, a style that Wyler would make his own. Now established as Goldwyn's director of choice, Wyler made several films for him, including Dead End (1937) and Wuthering Heights (1939). Essentially an employee of the producer, Wyler clashed with Goldwyn over aesthetic choices and longed for his freedom. Goldwyn had demanded that the ghetto set of "Dead End" be spruced up and that "clean garbage" be used in the water tank representing the East River, over Wyler's objections. Goldwyn prevailed, as he did later with the ending of "Wuthering Heights." After he had finished principal photography on the film, Goldwyn demanded a new ending featuring the ghosts of Heathcliff and Cathy reunited and walking away towards what the audience would assume is heaven and an eternity of conjoined bliss. Wyler opposed the new ending and refused to shoot it. Goldwyn had his ending shot without Wyler and had it tacked onto the final cut. It was an artistic betrayal that rankled Wyler.
Goldwyn loaned out Wyler to other studios, and he made Jezebel (1938) and The Letter (1940) for Warner Bros. Working with Bette Davis in the two masterpieces, as well as in Goldwyn's The Little Foxes (1941), Wyler elicited three of the great diva's finest performances. In these films and his films of the mid-to-late 1930s, Wyler pioneered the use of deep-focus cinematography, most famously with lighting cameraman Gregg Toland. Toland shot seven of the eight films Wyler directed for Goldwyn: "These Three", Come and Get It (1936), "Dead End," "Wuthering Heights" (for which Toland won his only Academy Award), The Westerner (1940), "The Little Foxes" and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Compositions in Wyler pictures frequently featured multiple horizontal planes with various characters arranged in diagonals at varying distances from the camera lens. Creating an illusion of depth, these deep-focus shots enhanced the naturalism of the picture while heightening the drama. As the photography of Wyler's films was used to serve the story and create mood rather than call attention to itself, Toland was later mistakenly given credit for creating deep-focus cinematography along with another great director, Orson Welles, in Citizen Kane (1941). His first use of deep-focus cinematography was in 1935, with "The Good Fairy", on which Norbert Brodine was the lighting cameraman. It was the first of his films featuring deep-focus shots and the diagonal compositions that became a Wyler leitmotif. The film also includes a receding mirror shot a half-decade before Toland and Welles created a similar one for "Citizen Kane."
Wyler won his first Oscar as Best Director with "Mrs. Miniver" for MGM, which also won the Oscar for Best Picture, the first of three Wyler films that would be so honored. Made as a propaganda piece for American audiences to prepare them for the sacrifices necessitated by World War II, the movie is set in wartime England and elucidates the hardships suffered by an ordinary, middle-class English family coping with the war. An enthusiastic President Franklin D. Roosevelt, after seeing the film at a White House screening, said, "This has to be shown right away." The film also won Oscars for star Greer Garson and co-star Theresa Wright, for cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg and for Best Screenplay.
After "Miniver," Wyler went off to war as an officer in the U.S. Army Air Forces. One of his more memorable propaganda films of the period was a documentary about a B-17 bomber, The Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress (1944), He also directed the Navy documentary The Fighting Lady (1944), an examination of life aboard an American aircraft carrier. Though the later film won an Oscar as Best Documentary, "The Memphis Belle" is considered a classic of its form. The making of the documentary was even the subject of a 1990 feature film of the same name. "The Memphis Belle" focuses on the eponymous B-17 bomber and its 25th, and last, air raid flown from a base in England. The documentary features aerial battle footage that Wyler and his crew shot over the skies of Germany. One of his photographic crew, flying in another plane, was killed during the filming of the air battles. Wyler himself lost the hearing in one ear and became partially deaf in the other due to the noise and concussion of the flak bursting around his aircraft.
Wyler's first picture upon returning from World War II would prove to be the last movie he made for Goldwyn. A returning veteran like those portrayed in "The Best Years of Our Lives" (1946), this film won Wyler his second Oscar. The movie, which featured a moving performance by real-life veteran and double amputee Harold Russell, struck a universal chord with Americans and was a major box office hit. It was the second Wyler-directed picture to be named Best Picture at the Academy Awards. The film also won Oscars for star Fredric March and co-star Russell (who was also given an honorary award "for bringing hope and courage to his fellow veterans"), film editor Daniel Mandell, composer Hugo Friedhofer and screenwriter Robert E. Sherwood, and was instrumental in garnering the Irving Thalberg Award for Samuel Goldwyn, who also took home the Best Picture Oscar that year as "Best Years" producer.
Though Wyler elicited some of the finest performances preserved on film, ironically he could not communicate what he wanted to an actor. A perfectionist, he became known as "40-Take Wyler", shooting a scene over and over again until the actors played it the way he wanted. With his use of long takes, actors were forced to act within each take as their performances would not be covered in the cutting room. His long takes and lack of cutting slowed down the pacing of his films, providing a greater feeling of continuity within each scene and intimately involving the audience in the development of the drama. The story in a Wyler film was allowed to unfold organically, with no tricky editing to cover up holes in the script or to compensate for an inadequate performance. Wyler typically rehearsed his actors for two weeks before the beginning of principal photography.
While more actors won Academy Awards in Wyler movies, 14 out of a total of 36 nominations (more than any other two directors combined), few actors worked more than once or twice with him. Bette Davis worked on three films with him and won Academy Award nominations for each performance and an Oscar for "Jezebel." On their last collaboration, "The Little Foxes" (1941), Davis walked off the production for two weeks after clashing with Wyler over how her character should be played.
He proved hard on other experienced actors, such as Laurence Olivier in "Wuthering Heights," who gave credit to Willi for turning him from a stage actor into a movie actor. "This isn't the Opera House in Manchester," Wyler told Olivier, his way of conveying that he should tone down his performance. A year earlier, Wyler had forced Henry Fonda through 40 takes on the set of "Jezebel," Wyler's only direction being "Again" after each repeated take. When Fonda demanded some input on what he was doing wrong, Wyler replied only: "It stinks. Do it again." According to Charlton Heston, Wyler approached him early in the shooting of Ben-Hur (1959) and told him that his performance was inadequate. When a dismayed Heston asked him what he should do, "Be better" is all that Wyler could supply. In his autobiography, Elia Kazan, a famed "actor's director", tells how he offered advice to an actor acquaintance of his who was making a Wyler picture as he knew that the great director was inarticulate about acting and would be unable to give advice.
Wyler believed that after many takes, actors got angry and began to shed their preconceived ideas about acting in general and the part in particular. Stripped of these notions, actors were able to play at a truer level. It is a process that Stanley Kubrick would subsequently use on his post-2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) films, though to different results, creating an otherworldly anti-realism rather than the more naturalistic truth of a Wyler movie performance. His methods often meant that his films went over schedule and over budget, but he got results.
Wyler's reputation has suffered as he is not considered an "auteur," or "author" of his films. However, in his postwar career, he definitely was the auteur, or controlling consciousness, behind his films. Although he never took a screenwriting credit (other than for an early horse opera, Ridin' for Love (1926)), he selected his own stories and controlled the screenwriting, hiring his own writers in a development process that could take years. His postwar period films include The Heiress (1949), a fine version of Henry James' novel "Washington Square," with an Oscar-winning performance by Olivia de Havilland; Detective Story (1951), a police drama that takes place on a minimal, controlled set almost as restricted as that of Hitchcock's Rope (1948); and Roman Holiday (1953), which won Audrey Hepburn an Oscar in her first leading role. The other films of this period are Carrie (1952), The Desperate Hours (1955) and Friendly Persuasion (1956).
Wyler returned to the western genre one last time with The Big Country (1958), a picture far removed in scope from his two-reeler origins, featuring Gregory Peck, Heston, and Wyler's old "Hell's Heroes" star Bickford. Burl Ives won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as the patriarch of an outlaw clan in conflict with Bickford's family. Wyler was next enlisted by producer Sam Zimbalist to helm MGM's high-stakes "Ben-Hur" (1959), a remake of its 1925 classic. It was a high-budget ($15 million, approximately $90 million when factored for inflation), wide-screen (the aspect ratio of the film is 2.76 to 1 when properly shown in 70mm anamorphic prints, the highest ratio ever used for a film) epic that the studio had spent six years preparing. Principal photography required more than six months of shooting on location in Italy, with hundreds of crew members and thousands of extras. Wyler was the overlord of the largest crew and oversaw more extras than any other film had ever used. Wyler's "Ben-Hur" grossed $74 million (approximately $600 million at today's ticket prices, ranking it #13 film in terms of all-time box office performance, when adjusted for inflation), the film was the fourth highest-grossing film of all-time when it was released, surpassed only by Gone with the Wind (1939), DeMille's The Ten Commandments (1956), and Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). "Ben-Hur" went on to win 11 Oscars out of 12 nominations, including a third Best Director Academy Award for Wyler. The 11 Oscars set a record since tied by Titanic (1997) and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
In the last decade of his career, he remade "These Three" as The Children's Hour (1961), a franker version of Hellman's play than his 1936 version. The Collector (1965) was his last artistic triumph, and he had his last hit with Funny Girl (1968), for which Barbra Streisand repeated Audrey Hepburn's success of 15 years earlier, wining an Oscar in her first lead role. Wyler's last film was The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970), an estimable failure that tackled the theme of racial prejudice, but which came out in the revolutionary time of Easy Rider (1969) and other such films and held little promise for such traditional warhorses as Wyler.
Although he reportedly dreamed of making more pictures, Wyler's failing health kept him from taking on another film. Instead, he and his wife Margaret Tallichet, the mother of his five children, contented themselves with travel. William Wyler died on July 27, 1981, in Beverly Hills, California.- Actress
- Director
Alix Bénézech was born on 25 September 1991 in Alsace, France. She is an actress and director, known for Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018), The 15:17 to Paris (2018) and On est (2022).- Writer
- Producer
- Director
Robert Wyler was born on 25 September 1900 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a writer and producer, known for Detective Story (1951), Roman Holiday (1953) and The Big Country (1958). He was married to Cathy O'Donnell. He died on 17 January 1971 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Actor
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Albert Schweitzer was born on January 14, 1875, in Kaysersberg, near Strasbourg, Elsass-Lothringen, Germany (now in Alsace, France). His father and both grandfathers were pastors and organists. His family had been devoted to education, religion and music for generations.
Schweitzer took music lessons from his grandfather, a church organist. He spoke German and French in his bilingual Alsace family, and later added English to his studies. From 1893-1899 he studied philosophy and theology at the University of Strasbourg, University of Berlin and the Sorbonne. In 1899 he completed a doctorate dissertation on the philosophy of Immanuel Kant. From 1905-1912 he studied medicine in Strasbourg and Paris, and received his MD degree in tropical medicine and surgery in 1912.
From the age of 9 Schweitzer started regular performances of organ music in his father's church and continued his organ recitals until the age of 89. In 1905 he wrote a biography of Johann Sebastian Bach, in French, then he rewrote and updated the Bach book--in German--in 1908, the version considered definitive. Schweitzer also published a book on organ building and playing in 1906. He was involved in the restoration of many valuable historic organs worldwide, including construction of the organ at his hospital in Lambarene, where he played music for his patients. He was described as the doctor who returns health to ill people and music to old organs. Albert Schweitzer made notable organ recordings of Bach's music in the 1940s and 1950s. Schweitzer based his interpretation on his profound knowledge of personality, education, religious and social life of Bach.
In 1905 he began his medical studies at the University of Strasbourg, because he decided to go to Africa as a medical doctor rather than a pastor. His medical knowledge was in urgent need during an epidemic of sleeping sickness there. In 1913 he obtained his MD degree, but was turned down by the Paris Missionary Society because his very liberal views of Christ's teachings did not conform to the Society's orthodox beliefs. Schweitzer and his wife went to Lambarene, French Equatorial Africa (now Gabon), and started a hospital in a tent, gradually adding rooms for special cases of sleeping sickness, leprosy, paediatrics and surgery. After his release from French internment Schweitzer practiced medicine in Strasbourg from 1918-1923. In 1924 he returned to his hospital in Lambarene, which was to be restored after years of decay during his absence. There his medical practice included paediatrics, infectious diseases and epidemiology, as well as surgery and traumatology. His versatility in medicine helped to save many thousands of lives. Schweitzer donated his royalties from public performances and book publications to the hospital, which expanded to 500 beds by the 1950s. "Everyone must have his 'Lambarene'", said Schweitzer.
Schweitzer gained great reputation for writing "The Quest of the Historical Jesus" (1906). He was acclaimed for his two concise books on in 1905-1908. In 1917 Schweitzer and his wife were arrested by the French administration in Africa for being Germans, and sent to a French internment camp at the St. Remy mental institution. There Schweitzer was kept at the same room where Vincent Van Gogh lived before his suicide. The Schweitzers were prisoners of war until the end of the First World War in 1918. After his release Schweitzer gave a major speech about his "Reverence for Life" (1920). He spent six years in Europe and published "The Decay and the Restoration of Civilization" (1923) and "Civilization and Ethics" (1923), which he drafted during his captivity in St. Remy.
Schweitzer saved lives by his medical work, by writing and teaching and by advocating for peace and nuclear control. He admittedly followed the similar line as that of the Russian humanitarian and writer Lev Tolstoy. As the founder of a free public hospital, a writer and humanitarian, Schweitzer became the leading proponent of accessible medicine for all. He was also involved in the foundation of the Goethe Institute. From 1952 until his death Schweitzer worked against nuclear weapons together with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell. On December 10, 1953, Schweitzer was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. He donated his prize money to build a leprosy clinic in Lambarene. In 1957 Schweitzer co-founded The Committee for a sane Nuclear Policy.
As it was told, many girls adored Schweitzer, but Helene Bresslau offered him thoughtful partnership and practicality instead of flattery. Schweitzer and Helen began their relationship in 1898, as students. In many hundreds of their letters they only once used the word "love". Schweitzer called his medical work "the religion of love, actually put into practice." The disapproval, conservatism and shallowness of many Christian friends and even his own father did not stop him from his career change to medicine in 1905. Only Helene Bresslau understood him. In 1912 Schweitzer married her before they went to Equatorial Africa. It was a passionate, profound joining of souls. She trained as a nurse and became his assistant in medical work, in writing and in international public service. Their daughter, Rhena, was born in 1919, she later became the lab analyst at her father's hospital in Africa. His cousin Anne-Marie Schweitzer was the mother of Jean-Paul Sartre, who called Schweitzer 'Uncle Al'.
Schweitzer was a multifaceted person, a true Renessance man. He was a doctor, a pastor, a teacher, a writer, a musician, a father and husband, an international lecturer and the leading proponent of peace, all at the same time. He admired all people as brothers and sisters. His openness and helpfulness to strangers was disarming and ennobling. He was learning from simple people through his entire life, being himself patient, modest and humble. "Why are you traveling in the 4th class?" some official asked him - "Because there is no 5th class", answered Schweitzer.
His humor was legendary. His look resembled that of his friend Albert Einstein. Once on a train he was asked by two schoolgirls, "Dr. Einstein, will you give us your autograph?" He did not want to disappoint them, so he signed their autograph book: "Albert Einstein, by his friend Albert Schweitzer."
He died on September 4, 1965, in the hospital, which he founded in 1913, and was laid to rest in the ground of his hospital in Lambarene, Gabon.- Actor
- Director
After school-leaving examination Hans acted on several stages: Giessen, Stadttheater (1931); Heidelberg; Theater der Stadt Luebeck; Buehnen der Hansestadt Saarbruecken; Saarlaendisches Staatstheater (-1939; Prag, Deutsches Theater (1939-1945); Brunswick; Staatstheater Stuttgart; Wuerttembergisches Staatstheater (1946-1947). As Actor and Director he worked a long time in Hamburg at the Thalia-Theater (1947-1974). In Germany he is well known for his appearances in countless radio-plays.- Actor
- Director
- Writer
Alphonse Martell was born on 27 March 1890 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was an actor and director, known for Gigolettes of Paris (1933), Strings of Steel (1926) and The Buccaneer (1938). He died on 18 March 1976 in San Diego, California, USA.- Writer
- Composer
- Music Department
Kurt Heuser was born on 23 November 1903 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was a writer and composer, known for Der große Zapfenstreich (1952), Giovanni de Medici: The Leader (1937) and Un homme de trop à bord (1935). He died on 20 June 1975 in Ebersberg, Bavaria, Germany.- Actor
Sam Marx was born on 23 October 1859 in Alsace, France. He was an actor. He was married to Miene Schönberg. He died on 10 May 1933 in Los Angeles, California, USA.- Music Department
- Actor
- Composer
Composer, songwriter ("When Love Has Gone"), conductor, pianist, author and arranger, he came to the USA during World War I. He was a pianist in New York Ballrooms, then organized his own orchestra and toured the US in vaudeville. He was a pianist on radio, then a music director and arranger for radio and for television networks. He joined ASCAP in 1939, and his chief musical collaborators included W. Edward Breuder and Paul Rusincky. His other song compositions include "You're Everything That's Lovely", "In the Same Old Way", "In My Little Red Book", "The Wide Open Spaces", "Sam the Vegetable Man", "Let's Make Up a Little Party", and "If You Were Mine".- Hans Bethe was born on 2 July 1906 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was married to Rose Ewald. He died on 6 March 2005 in Ithaca, New York, USA.
- Rudy Lenoir was born on 20 April 1913 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was an actor, known for Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At! (1966), Fantomas (1964) and À rebrousse-poil (1961). He died on 23 November 1995 in Montfermeil, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.
- Gertrud Wolle was born on 11 March 1891 in Urbis, Alsace, Germany [now Urbès, Haut-Rhin, France]. She was an actress, known for The Hound of the Baskervilles (1937), Der Ball (1931) and Three from the Filling Station (1930). She died on 6 July 1952 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany.
- Actor
Victor Wetter was born on 11 June 1902 in Metz, Alsace-Lorraine, France. He was an actor. He died on 8 December 1990 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA.- Theo Shall was born on 24 February 1896 in Metz, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany [now Moselle, France]. He was an actor, known for Anna Christie (1930), Ten Minute Alibi (1935) and Ernst Thälmann - Führer seiner Klasse (1955). He died on 4 October 1955 in East Berlin, East Germany.
- Actor
- Additional Crew
Ulrich Frank was born on 2 February 1943 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was an actor, known for Lost Horizon (2010), The Simpsons: Hit & Run (2003) and Big Mäc (1985). He died on 17 April 2017 in Gauting, Bavaria, Germany.- Nusch Eluard was born on 21 June 1906 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany. She was married to Paul Éluard. She died on 28 November 1946 in Paris, France.
- Director
- Actor
- Production Manager
Heinrich Lisson was born on 18 August 1867 in Gebweiler, Alsace, Germany [now Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a director and actor, known for Ans Vaterland, ans teure (1915), Brandung (1915) and Piff und Paff... Strategen (1915). He died on 6 January 1933 in Berlin, Germany.- Hans-Joachim Grubel was born on 7 January 1944 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was an actor, known for Sperling (1996), Solinger Rudi (1991) and Weltmeister (1994). He was married to Gabriele Schramm. He died on 4 August 2004 in Berlin, Germany.
- Karl Brandt was born on 8 January 1904 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was married to Anni Rehborn. He died on 2 June 1948 in Landsberg am Lech, Bavaria, Germany.
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Léon Boëllmann was born on 25 September 1862 in Alsace, France. Léon is known for Affair in Monte Carlo (1952), About Endlessness (2019) and Kraina plachu (2019). Léon died on 11 October 1897 in Paris, France.- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Charles Münch was born on 26 September 1891 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He is known for Apt Pupil (1998), Phantom Thread (2017) and Children of Paradise (1945). He died on 6 November 1968 in Richmond, Virginia, USA.- Hermann Meyer-Falkow was born on 16 March 1898 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was an actor, known for The Csardas Princess (1934), Kongo-Express (1939) and Last Stop (1935). He died on 1 August 1963.
- Producer
- Production Manager
- Editor
Originally an export salesman he began to work in film business in 1924. In 1928 he was given commission by the Ufa to build another production group besides the one of Erich Pommer. After his last Ufa production Amphitryon (1935) he emigrated to the UK in 1935 where he worked with cinematographer Sepp Allgeier for Gaumont-British and later joined Alexander Korda's film production. In 1939 he worked and lived in Switzerland. Between 1941 and 1943 he tried a comeback to the Ufa several times, but he was disliked in nazi Germany. 1949 he founded the Carlton Film GmbH in Munich, Germany. For the next ten years he produced films joined by some of his former colleagues, besides others Josef von Báky and Georg Wilhelm Pabst.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Oskar Joost Orchester was born on 9 June 1898 in Wissembourg, Alsace, France. He was an actor, known for Suite Française (2014), Der Herr Finanzdirektor (1931) and Keinen Tag ohne Dich (1933). He died on 29 May 1941 in Berlin, Germany.- Composer
- Soundtrack
Pete Wyoming Bender was born on 14 September 1943 in Neuf-Brisach, Alsace, France. He was a composer, known for Luise knackt den Jackpot (1995), So You Think You Can Dance (2005) and Abenteuer Ruhrpott (2001). He died on 15 February 2014 in Berlin, Germany.- Friedrich Kolander was born on 12 November 1904 in Straßburg, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany [now Strasbourg, Grand Est, France]. He was an actor, known for Van Gogh (1969), So war Herr Brummell (1967) and Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst! (1967). He died on 29 January 1979 in West Berlin, West Germany.
- Production Manager
- Actor
- Director
Conny Carstennsen was born on 8 December 1888 in Colmar, Alsace, Germany [now Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a production manager and actor, known for Zwölf Herzen für Charly (1949), Wer nimmt die Liebe ernst...? (1931) and Die Dubarry (1951). He died on 14 June 1957 in Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany.- Elly Heuss-Knapp was born on 25 January 1881 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. She was a director, known for Katharine (1938). She was married to Theodor Heuss. She died on 19 June 1952 in Bonn, Germany.
- Charles Kuentz was born on 18 February 1897 in Ranspach, Alsace, Germany. He died on 7 April 2005 in Colmar, Alsace, France.
- Music Department
Louis Langrée was born in 1961 in Alsace, France. He is known for Great Performances at the Met (2007), A. Thomas: Hamlet (2019) and Mozart: Zaide (2008). He is married to Aimée Olmsted Clark. They have two children.- Hans Georg von Friedeburg was born on 15 July 1895 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He died on 17 May 1945 in Flensburg, Germany.
- Robert Wurtz was born on 16 December 1941 in Straßburg, Alsace, German Occupied France [now Strasbourg, Grand Est, France]. He has been married to Hélène since 5 July 1980. They have one child.
- Benoît Moerlen was born on 6 February 1956 in Colmar, Alsace, France.
- Cinematographer
- Camera and Electrical Department
- Director
Joseph-Louis Mundwiller was born on 10 April 1886 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a cinematographer and director, known for Le brasier ardent (1923), Le lion des Mogols (1924) and La maison du mystère (1923). He died on 9 July 1967 in Enghien-les-Bains, Val-d'Oise, France.- Actress
- Soundtrack
Elisabeth Grümmer was born on 31 March 1911 in Niederjeutz, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany [now Yutz, Thionville, Moselle, France]. She was an actress, known for Mozart's Don Giovanni (1955), Don Giovanni (1961) and Civilisation (1969). She was married to Detlef Grümmer. She died on 6 November 1986 in Warendorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.- Costume Designer
Jean Schlumberger was born on 26 May 1877 in Gebweiler, Alsace, Germany [now Guebwiller, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a costume designer, known for Siren of Atlantis (1949), Avec André Gide (1951) and Portrait souvenir (1960). He was married to Suzanne Weyher. He died on 25 October 1968 in Paris, France.- Cinematographer
Jules Kruger was born on 12 July 1891 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was a cinematographer, known for Behold the Man (1935), La fin du monde (1931) and End of the World (1931). He died on 13 December 1959 in Clichy, Hauts-de-Seine, France.- Actress
- Additional Crew
Madame De Bodamere was born on 15 February 1873 in Alsace, Lorraine, Germany. She was an actress, known for Love and Glory (1924), Tess of the Storm Country (1922) and Rosita (1923). She died on 5 November 1945 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA.- Anne-Marie Duchemin was born on 25 May 1963 in Alsace, France. She is an actress, known for Tant qu'il y aura des femmes (1987).
- Theodor Eicke was born on 17 October 1892 in Hudingen, Alsace-Lorraine, Germany [now Hampont, Moselle, France]. He was married to Bertha Schwebel. He died on 26 February 1943 in Mikhaylovka, Oryol Oblast, USSR [now Russia].
- Composer
- Music Department
- Soundtrack
Michel Hausser was born on 7 February 1927 in Colmar, Alsace, France. He was a composer, known for Popdown (1969), Chelsea Bird (1971) and NDR Jazz Workshops (1958). He died on 26 January 2024 in France.- Actress
- Writer
Vera Hartegg was born on 28 May 1902 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany. She was an actress and writer, known for Request Concert (1940), Die Frau am Scheidewege (1938) and Der Feuerteufel (1940). She was married to Michael Regensburger and Konstantin Hierl. She died on 1 October 1981.- Jean Arp was born on 16 September 1887 in Straßburg, Alsace, Germany [now Strasbourg, Bas-Rhin, France]. He was a writer and actor, known for Poem: I Set My Foot Upon the Air and It Carried Me (2003), Die Glocken sind auf falscher Spur (1971) and 1-Paart-Dorp (1991). He died on 7 June 1966 in Basel, Switzerland.
- Writer
- Actor
René Ehni was born on 29 April 1935 in Eschentzwiller, Alsace, France. He was a writer and actor, known for Thibaud (1968), Les Gammas! Les Gammas! (1974) and Mange ta soupe (1997). He died on 18 June 2022 in France.- Special Effects
- Director
- Writer
Aline Fischer was born on 31 March 1981 in Alsace, France. She is a director and writer, known for Meteor Street (2016), Der grüne Stern (2014) and BloodRayne (2005).- Actor
- Stunts
Brian McAllistair was born on 2 July 1980 in Alsace, France. He is an actor, known for Frank (2014), The Two Brians (1997) and The Perfect Posse (1992).- Willy Kramp was born on 18 June 1909 in Mülhausen, Alsace, Germany [now Mulhouse, Haut-Rhin, France]. He was a writer, known for Das Lamm (1964). He was married to Helene Keuch. He died on 19 August 1986 in Schwerte, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.
- Pierre de Vizcaya was born on 5 July 1894 in Alsace, France. He died on 15 July 1933 in Paris, Île-de-France, France.