Emil Jannings
Emil Jannings was a Swiss-born German actor who was popular in Hollywood films in the 1920s. He was the first recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor for starring in The Last Command and The Way of All Flesh. Jannings remains the only German ever to win in that category.
He is best known for his films with F. W. Murnau and Josef von Sternberg, including 1930's The Blue Angel in Nazi Germany.
Early life
Jannings was born in Rorschach, Switzerland, the son of Emil Janenz, an American businessman from St. Louis, and his wife Margarethe, originally from Germany. Jannings held German citizenship; while he was still young the family moved to Leipzig in the German Empire and further to Görlitz after the early death of his father.Jannings ran away from school and went to sea. When he returned to Görlitz, his mother finally allowed him to begin a traineeship at the local theatre, starting his stage career. From 1901 onwards he worked with several theatre companies in Bremen, Nuremberg, Leipzig, Königsberg, and Glogau before joining the Deutsches Theater ensemble under director Max Reinhardt in Berlin. Permanently employed from 1915, Jannings met with playwright Karl Vollmöller, fellow actor Ernst Lubitsch, and photographer Frieda Riess, who after World War I, were contributors of Weimar Culture in 1920s Berlin. Jannings' breakthrough was in 1918 with his role as Judge Adam in Kleist's Broken Jug at the Schauspielhaus.
Career
Jannings was a theatre actor who went into films but remained dissatisfied with the limited expressive possibilities in the silent era. Having signed with UFA, he starred in Die Augen der Mumie Ma and Madame Dubarry, both with Pola Negri opposite him. He also performed in the 1922 film version of Othello and in F. W. Murnau's 1924 film The Last Laugh, as a proud but aged hotel doorman who is demoted to a washroom attendant. Jannings worked with Murnau on two other films, taking on the title role in Tartuffe, and as Mephistopheles in Faust.United States
His increasing popularity enabled Jannings to sign with Paramount Pictures and eventually follow Negri and Lubitsch to Hollywood. His first American film, The Way of All Flesh, directed by Victor Fleming, now lost, was released in 1927, and in the following year he performed in Josef von Sternberg's The Last Command. In 1929, Jannings won the first Best Actor Oscar for his work in both films. He and Sternberg also made Street of Sin, though they differed on Jannings' acting style.Jannings was dubbed in Lubitsch's part-talkie The Patriot, although his own voice was restored after Jannings objected. In Europe, he starred opposite Marlene Dietrich in 1930's The Blue Angel, which was filmed simultaneously in English and in German Der blaue Engel. Jannings' thick German accent was difficult to understand, ending his American career.
According to Susan Orlean, author of Rin Tin Tin: The Life and The Legend, Jannings was not actually the winner of the first best actor award, but the runner-up. While researching her book, Orlean thought she discovered that it was in fact Rin Tin Tin, the German Shepherd dog, one of the biggest movie stars of the day, who won the vote. The Academy, however, worried about not being taken seriously if the first Oscar went to a dog, awarded the trophy to the runner-up. However, this claim is otherwise unverified and labelled as untrue by most sources.
In 1960, Jannings was posthumously honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1630 Vine Street for his contributions to motion pictures.
Nazi Germany
After the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Jannings stayed on, prolonging his career by making State Films. He starred in several films promoting Nazism, in particular the Führerprinzip by presenting unyielding historical characters, in Der alte und der junge König, Der Herrscher directed by Veit Harlan, Robert Koch, Ohm Krüger, and Die Entlassung. He also took part in The Broken Jug directed by Gustav Ucicky. For his work in Nazi Cinema, Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels named Jannings an "Artist of the State"The filming of Wo ist Herr Belling? was aborted when troops of the Allied Powers entered Germany in 1945. Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette as proof of his ties to America. His substantial association with Nazi propaganda left him subject to denazification. Other actors resumed their careers, but Jannings never worked as an actor again.
As his former co-star Marlene Dietrich became a US citizen and influential anti-Nazi activist, spending much of the war entertaining troops on the front lines and broadcasting on behalf of the OSS, she particularly loathed Jannings for his Nazi ties, terming her former co-star a "ham".
Death
Jannings retired to Strobl near Salzburg, Austria, and became an Austrian citizen in 1947. He died in 1950, aged 65, from liver cancer. He is buried in the St. Wolfgang cemetery. His Best Actor Oscar is displayed at the Berlin Filmmuseum.Marriages
Jannings was married four times. His first three marriages ended in divorce, his last with his death. His last three marriages were to German stage and film actresses, Hanna Ralph, Lucie Höflich, and Gussy Holl. He had a daughter, Ruth-Maria, from his first marriage to Lucy Höfling.Cultural depictions
- Hilmar Eichhorn portrayed a fictionalized version of Jannings in Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino. This fictional Jannings dies at the end of the film.
- In 1972's Cabaret, singer Sally Bowles finds herself at a high-society dinner party; she tries to impress by suggesting that she is friendly with Emil Jannings.
- In Series 1 of the BBC's epic Second World War drama World on Fire American journalist Nancy Campbell, played by Helen Hunt, accepts an invitation from neighbours in Berlin to see the latest Emil Jannings film, saying: “Well, I love Emil Jannings, and I loved him in The Blue Angel.”
Filmography