Bildt, Paul

Biography:

Paul Bildt was born on May 19, 1885 in Berlin, where he took acting classes with Friedrich Moest at the Reicher Academy for Performing Arts. His debut as an actor in 1905 was with a touring theater company in Hanover in 1905 and theater engagements followed in Leipzig and Dresden. He performed at many prestigious theaters in Berlin, including the Schiller Theater and Deutsches Theater, until 1954, after which he acted at the Kammerspiele in Munich.

 

Besides working as a theater actor and director, Bildt also worked in film. Gerhard Schätzler-Perasini cast him for his first film role in Gräfin Ankarström in 1909, and over the course of his life he appeared in over 150 films. Bildt was in great demand during the silent film era and a much sought-after character actor in the 1920s. He worked with the notable directors of German film history, including Slatan Dudow, Gustaf Gründgens, Veit Harlan, Falk Harnack, Helmut Käutner, Gerhard Lamprecht, F. W. Murnau, Robert A. Stemmle and Paul Verhoeven.  Bildt played alongside stars such as Henny Porten and Asta Nielsen, during the silent movie era, and later with Emil Jannings, Zarah Leander and Lilli Palmer.

 

After Hitler took power in 1933, Bildt was at risk of losing his job because of his marriage to the Jewish actress Charlotte Friedländer. Only the authority and influence of theater manager Gustaf Gründgens protected Bildt and allowed him to keep playing at the Prussian State Theater and Ufa film studios; of course, working at Ufa meant participating in various Nazi propaganda productions, including Veit Harlan’s Kolberg.

 

For the first five years after WWII, Bildt continued working in Babelsberg, but now for the East German DEFA film studios. Irgendwo in Berlin was his first film at DEFA, but already his eleventh production with director Gerhard Lamprecht, with whom he had been working since the mid-1920s. In the early 1950s, Bildt started working with West German film companies. Bildt died on March 13, 1957 in West Berlin.

 

 

Filmography:

1956 Anastasia – Die letzte Zarentochter (Anastasia: The Czar’s Last Daughter)
1955 Himmel ohne Sterne (Sky without Stars)
1955 Griff nach den Sternen (Reach for the Stars)
1955 Der 20. Juli (The Plot to Assassinate Hitler)
1952 Toxi
1950 Das kalte Herz (The Cold Heart)
1950 Der Rat der Götter (Council of the Gods)
1949 Unser täglich Brot (Our Daily Bread)
1949 Der Biberpelz (The Beaver Coat)
1948 Affaire Blum (The Blum Affair)
1947 Razzia (The Police Raid)
1946 Irgendwo in Berlin (Somewhere in Berlin)
1945 Kolberg
1938 Verwehte Spuren (Covered Tracks)
1937 La Habanera
1937 Der Berg ruft (The Mountain Calls)
1937 Madame Bovary
1936 Die Kreuzersonate (The Kreuzer Sonata)
1930 Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Case)
1927 Lützows wilde verwegene Jagd (Lützow’s Wild, Daring Hunt)
1918 Gefangene Seele (Trapped Soul)
1911 Sündige Liebe (Sinful Love)
1910 Gräfin Ankarström (Countess Ankarström)

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