Joseph Schildkraut facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Joseph Schildkraut
Schildkraut, 1953
Born	(1896-03-22)22 March 1896 Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)
Died	21 January 1964(1964-01-21) (aged 67) New York City, U.S.
Burial place	Hollywood Forever Cemetery
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1915–1964
Spouse(s)	Elise Bartlett ​ ​ (m. 1923; div. 1930)​ Marie McKay ​ ​ (m. 1932; died 1962)​ Leonora Rogers ​ (m. 1963)​
Parent(s)	Rudolph Schildkraut (father)

Joseph Schildkraut (born March 22, 1896 – died January 21, 1964) was a talented actor from Austria who also became an American citizen. He was famous for his roles in movies and on stage. He won an Oscar, which is a very important award for actors, for his role as Captain Alfred Dreyfus in the movie The Life of Emile Zola (1937). Later, he was nominated for other big awards, like a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy, for playing Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959).

Early Life

Joseph Schildkraut was born in Vienna, Austria. His father, Rudolph Schildkraut, was also a famous actor on stage and in movies. Joseph's family was Jewish.

In 1910, when he was about 14, Joseph traveled with his father to the United States. He returned to Europe in 1913. Soon after, he started training to be an actor with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, Germany. He began his acting career on stages in Germany and Austria, then moved into films. Joseph Schildkraut moved to the U.S. in 1920 and acted in many plays on Broadway, which is a famous theater district in New York City. One of his notable roles was in a play called Peer Gynt.

Acting Career

Schildkraut with opera singer Maria Olszewska, 1932

In 1921, Joseph Schildkraut played the main character in the first American stage show of Liliom. This play later became the basis for the popular musical Carousel. He then started working in silent movies, which were films without spoken dialogue, only music and captions. Even though he was making movies, he still returned to the stage sometimes.

He had early success in films. He played the Chevalier de Vaudrey in D. W. Griffith's Orphans of the Storm (1921), starring Lillian Gish. Later, he was in Cecil B. DeMille's big film The King of Kings (1927), where he played Judas Iscariot. His father, Rudolph, also appeared in this movie. Joseph Schildkraut also acted in the 1929 film version of Show Boat, where he played Gaylord Ravenal.

Major Awards and Roles

Schildkraut won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Alfred Dreyfus in The Life of Emile Zola (1937). This was a very important achievement. He also received praise for playing the ambitious duc d'Orléans in the historical movie Marie Antoinette (1938). Another memorable performance was as the bad guy Nicolas Fouquet in The Man in the Iron Mask (1939).

Joseph Schildkraut is perhaps most remembered today for playing Otto Frank in both the original stage play and the 1959 film version of The Diary of Anne Frank. He was also a busy character actor, appearing in many guest roles on early television shows. For example, he played Claudius in a 1953 TV show of Hamlet. Schildkraut even hosted his own short TV series called Joseph Schildkraut Presents from 1953 to 1954.

In 1961, he appeared in an episode of The Twilight Zone called "Deaths-Head Revisited". He later played an elderly man in another episode of the same show, "The Trade-Ins", in 1962. In 1963, he was nominated for a Best Actor Emmy Award for his guest role on the TV series Sam Benedict.

Personal Life

Joseph Schildkraut was married three times. His first marriage was to actress Elise Bartlett in 1923, but they divorced in 1931. He then married Mary McKay in 1932, and they were together until she passed away in 1962. In 1963, Schildkraut married Leonora Rogers, who survived him.

Joseph Schildkraut passed away at his home in New York City from a heart attack.

For his great work in the movie industry, Joseph Schildkraut has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You can find it at 6780 Hollywood Boulevard. He is buried in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Filmography

See also

• List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees
• List of actors with Academy Award nominations