Conrad Veidt
Conrad Veidt
Hans Walter Conrad Veidtwas a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, The Man Who Laughs, and, after being forced to migrate to Britain by the rise of Nazism in Germany, his English-speaking roles in The Thief of Bagdad, and, in Hollywood, Casablanca. After a successful career in German silent film, where he was one of the best-paid stars of Ufa, he left Germany in 1933 with his new Jewish wife...
NationalityGerman
ProfessionMovie Actor
Date of Birth22 January 1893
CityBerlin, Germany
CountryGermany
It was like a physical impact, something vital and quick, happening to us both. And I knew, from that moment, that whatever happened between us, we might disagree, get on each other's nerves, quarrel, do each other harm, but we could never be indifferent.
I am indifferent if my spinach is leaf or creamed; if I work to fatiguing point or spend days doing nothing; if I smoke fifty cigarettes a day or none at all; if it rains or shines; if the dentist hurts, or the shoe pinches, or I secure a bargain.
I was elated by my success in my work, but shattered over my mother's death, and miserable about the way my marriage seemed to be foundering. And one day when my wife was away, I walked out of the house, and out of her life, trying to escape from something I could put no name to.
I think, myself, it is harder for two artists, both ambitious, both temperamental, both perhaps egotistical, to jog along equably in the necessarily restraining atmosphere of a double harness.
Have you ever walked late at night through a forest when you are first in love?
It is precisely as though I were possessed by some other spirit when I enter on a new task of acting, as though something within me presses a switch and my own consciousness merges into some other, greater, more vital being.
Nothing seems to come up to your expectations. But nothing I had heard about Hollywood was enough.
I can see now that I should have been strong enough to conquer myself.
So now it is time to disassemble the parts of the jigsaw puzzle or to piece another one together, for I find that, having come to the end of my story, my life is just beginning.
What use is there for a biography of myself? I'm just a movie actor.
When I was in a play in a theater, and all was going well on stage, I felt that the audience and I were somehow joined into one.