Kurt Gerron
| Kurt Gerron | |
|---|---|
Comedy duo Sig Arno and Kurt Gerron, Berlin 1931
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| Born |
11 May 1897 Berlin, German Empire |
| Died | 28 October 1944 (aged 47) Auschwitz, Occupied Poland |
| Occupation | Actor, film director |
| Years active | 1920–1944 |
Kurt Gerron (11 May 1897 – 28 October 1944) was a German Jewish actor and film director.
Born Kurt Gerson into a well-off merchant family in Berlin, he studied medicine before being called up for military service in World War I. After being seriously wounded he was qualified as a military doctor in the German Army (despite having been only in his second year at university). After the war Gerron turned to a stage career, becoming a theatre actor under director Max Reinhardt in 1920. He appeared in secondary roles in several silent films and began directing film shorts in 1926.
Gerron's popular cinema breakthrough came with The Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel, 1930) opposite Marlene Dietrich. Two years before, Gerron originated the role of "Tiger" Brown in the 1928 premiere production of The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) at the Berlin Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, in which he also performed "Mack the Knife". With the show's international success, Gerron's name and recorded voice became well known across Europe.
After the 1933 seizure of power by the Nazis (known today as the Machtergreifung), Gerron left Nazi Germany with his wife and parents, traveling first to Paris and later to Amsterdam. He continued work there as an actor at the Stadsschouwburg and directed several movies. Several times he was offered employment in Hollywood through the agency of Peter Lorre and Josef von Sternberg, but refused to leave Europe.
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