Curt Bois


Curt Bois was a German actor with a career spanning over 80 years. He is best remembered for his performances as the pickpocket in Casablanca and the poet Homer in Wings of Desire.

Life and career

Bois was born to a German Jewish family in Berlin and began acting in 1907, becoming one of the film world's first child actors, with a role in the 1907 short film Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß. In 1909, he played the title role in Der Kleine Detektiv. Bois performed in theatre, cabaret, musicals, silent films, and "talkies" over his long acting career. He performed under Max Reinhardt and found success in 1928 in a Viennese stage production of "Charley's Aunt" at the Josefstadt Theater. He was a successful character comic, and for a while film studios tried to make him into a "German Harold Lloyd".
In 1934, institutionalized Anti-Semitism forced the Jewish Bois to leave his home in Nazi Germany for the United States. There he found work on stage on Broadway. By 1937, he had made his way to Hollywood and began acting in films, the best-known being Casablanca , in which he warns a befuddled English gentleman to be on guard against pickpockets while stealing the man's wallet. He had a notable supporting role in Caught, starring Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes, and James Mason; Ryan played a megalomaniacal industrialist openly based on Howard Hughes and Bois was Ryan's conflicted fixer, Franzi Kartos. Most of his Hollywood roles were small, but nevertheless Bois was in demand. After World War II, Bois decided it was safe to return to Germany, which he did in 1950.
Bois finished his life and career in Germany, first in the East, and then in the West. He appeared at the Schiller Theater and the Theater des Westens for many years. One of his final performances was in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin in 1987, portraying the aged poet Homer "who endlessly wanders Berlin in the hope of properly capturing the city on paper". He won the European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role. He played his last role in the 1989 short film Das letzte Band, ending a film career of 82 years. Bois died in Berlin at the age of 90.

Complete filmography

  • Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß
  • Der fidele Bauer – 1. Terzett: Ein Infant'rist, ein Artill'rist
  • Der fidele Bauer – 2. Terzett: Bauernmarsch
  • Der fidele Bauer – 3. Duettino zwischen Liesl und Heinerle
  • Der kleine Detektiv
  • Mutterliebe
  • Klebolin klebt alles
  • Ein neuer Erwerbszweig
  • Des Pfarrers Töchterlein
  • Das Geschenk des Inders as Child
  • Streichhölzer, kauft Streichhölzer!
  • BZ-Maxe & Co.
  • '
  • Tante Röschen will heiraten
  • Die Spinne
  • Abenteuer im Warenhaus
  • '
  • Das Unruhige Hotel
  • Der Dieb as Hellmuth
  • '
  • Der Gast aus der vierten Dimension
  • So'n kleiner Schwerenöter
  • The Oyster Princess as Conductor
  • She and the Three as Der Hilfsregisseur
  • When She Starts, Look Out as Ali ben Mokka
  • Der goldene Schmetterling as André Dubois, Ballettmeister
  • The Young Man from the Ragtrade as Moritz Spiegel
  • Countess Ironing-Maid
  • The Prince of Pappenheim as Egon Fürst
  • The Transformation of Dr. Bessel as Simche Regierer
  • Majestät schneidet Bubiköpfe
  • Anschluß um Mitternacht as Emil
  • Der Schlemihl as Hartwig
  • Ein steinreicher Mann as Curt
  • Hollywood Hotel as Dress Designer
  • Tovarich as Alfonso
  • Romance in the Dark as Von Hemisch
  • Gold Diggers in Paris as Padrinsky
  • The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse as Rabbit
  • Boy Meets Girl as Dance Director
  • Garden of the Moon as Maharajah of Sund
  • The Great Waltz as Kienzl
  • Hotel Imperial as Anton
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame as Student
  • The Lady in Question as Henri Lurette
  • Boom Town as Ferdie
  • He Stayed for Breakfast as Comrade Tronavich
  • Hullabaloo as Armand Francois
  • Bitter Sweet as Ernst
  • That Night in Rio as Salles
  • Hold Back the Dawn as Bonbois
  • Blue, White and Perfect as Friedrich Gerber, alias Nappy Dubois
  • The Tuttles of Tahiti as Jensen
  • My Gal Sal as De Rochemont
  • Pacific Rendezvous as Kestrin
  • Casablanca as Pickpocket
  • Destroyer as Yasha
  • Paris After Dark as Max
  • Princess O'Rourke as Count Peter de Candome
  • Swing Fever as Nick Sirocco
  • The Desert Song as François
  • Cover Girl as Chef at Danny McGuire's
  • Gypsy Wildcat as Valdi
  • Blonde Fever as Brillon
  • The Spanish Main as Paree
  • Saratoga Trunk as Augustin Haussy
  • Jungle Flight as Pepe
  • The Woman from Tangier as Parquit
  • Arch of Triumph as Tattooed Waiter
  • French Leave as Marcel
  • The Woman in White as Louis
  • Up in Central Park as Maitre d'
  • Let's Live a Little as Chemist
  • Caught as Franzi Kartos
  • Kiss in the Dark as Hugo Schloss
  • The Lovable Cheat as Count de la Brive
  • The Great Sinner as Jeweler / Money Lender
  • Oh, You Beautiful Doll as Zaltz
  • Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey as Pierre
  • Fortunes of Captain Blood as King Charles II
  • Androklus und der Löwe as Androklus
  • Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti as Johannes Puntila
  • The Haunted Castle as Hugo
  • Flüchtlingsgespräche as Ziffel
  • Der eingebildete Kranke as Argan
  • ' as Emil
  • Die hundertste Nacht as Iwakichi
  • Bert Brecht vor dem McCarthy-Ausschuß
  • Der Zauberberg as Naphta
  • Amerika oder der Verschollene as Karl Roßmann's father
  • Der Pott as Simon Norton
  • Der trojanische Sessel as Franz Seider
  • Strychnin und saure Drops
  • Das Rentenspiel as Grandfather
  • Das Idol von Mordassow
  • Liebe, Tod und Heringshäppchen as Friedrich Schlick
  • Die Alten kommen
  • Wochenendgeschichten
  • Bühne frei für Kolowitz as Benjamin Weiß
  • Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe
  • Gesucht wird... Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren
  • Das Boot ist voll as Lazar Ostrowskij
  • Flächenbrand as Bühler
  • Der Schützling as Leiser
  • Die feine englische Art: Täglich eine gute Tat as Lord Emsworth
  • Die feine englische Art: Hundeglück as Lord Emsworth
  • Die feine englische Art: Die Lady frißt as Lord Emsworth
  • Die feine englische Art: Blut wird fließen as Lord Emsworth
  • The Roaring Fifties
  • Wings of Desire as Homer