Carl Brisson
Carl Brisson, born Carl Frederik Ejnar Pedersen, was a Danish film actor and singer. He appeared in 13 films between 1918 and 1935, including two silent films directed by Alfred Hitchcock. In the 1934 film Murder at the Vanities, he introduced the popular song "Cocktails for Two".
Early years
Born in Copehnagen, Brisson was the son of Carl Pedersen and Kirsten Madstatter Pederseen. He had a brother. Before his acting and singing career, Brisson was a prizefighter. He won Denmark's amateur lightweight boxing championship when he was 15 and went on to become welterweight champion of Central Europe and Scandinavia. He boxed as Carl Pedersen, but when he became an entertainer he changed his last name to Brisson. That name "had been in Carl's family on his mother's side for a century, but went unused until Carl resurrected it for himself".Career
Brisson's stage debut came as a dancer when he performed with his sister in Denmark in 1916. He went on to sing in night clubs and revues while touring in South Africa and Sweden, and he performed in London and provincial music halls in England in 1921. An article in the South African Pictorial magazine in 1927 called him "the darling of the gods at the Palladium". Brisson's admirers included teenager Greta Lovisa Gustafsson. Her locker at a shop where she worked "was covered with pictures" of Brisson. After she carved "GG loves CB" on Brisson's dressing-room door, he mentioned her to Mauritz Stiller, who then sought her for his next film.Brisson attracted attention when he appeared as Prince Danilo in the 1923 London production of The Merry Widow at Daly's. He appeared in the same role when it was revived at the Lyceum Theatre the following year, and frequently reprised.
In August 1924, Brisson toured the provinces as Karl in Katja the Dancer, eventually returning to London to appear in The Apache at the London Palladium, and later made his British screen debut in Hitchcock's The Ring.
He starred in the "mystery show with music" radio program A Voice in the Night on the Mutual Broadcasting System that debuted on May 3, 1946.