Ullrich Haupt (actor, born 1915)
Ullrich Carl Haupt was an American-born German actor. His father, also named Ullrich Haupt, was a German actor who worked in Hollywood films, but he returned to Germany following his father's death in 1931.
Career
United States
Ulrich Carl Haupt was born in Chicago to Ullrich Haupt and Anna Maria Beaumes, both actors. He spent his early childhood in the United States. Although he grew up speaking English and his German later required some reacquisition, he became a notable actor within German-language theatre. Before turning to acting, Haupt worked in Los Angeles as a painter's assistant and initially intended to become a visual artist.Father's fatal accident
When Ullrich, Jr., was, his father, Ullrich Haupt, Sr. – after completing a role as Colonel von Axt in Ronald Colman's 1931 film, The Unholy Garden, with seven other people, including himself and his 8-year-old brother, Hans Haupt – went on a deer hunting trip in the San Rafael Mountains. His father died of an accidental gunshot wound August 5, 1931, at 8:50 in a remote area, at cabin – about six miles from Figueroa Mountain, and approximately 50 miles north of Santa Barbara.According to reports, Haupt's chauffeur, Carl Anderson, was unloading his 32.20 rifle when his glove caught the trigger, causing the firearm to discharge. The round struck Haupt in the elbow and severed an artery. Ullrich, Jr., with a guide from another hunting party, rode on horseback roughly fifteen miles to Santa Ynez to summon help. He returned at midnight to Davy Brown's cabin with a physician, Henry Gustaf Hanze, M.D., of Solvang, but Ullrich, Sr., had died at 8:50 of internal hemorrhage. Hanze himself had been injured en route when his horse fell, breaking two ribs. The horse was not injured.
Their home had been in Inglewood at 221 North Cedar Avenue.
Germany
In 1932, Ullrich, Jr., traveled to Berlin to study painting at the United State Schools for Fine and Applied Arts. His career direction shifted after attending a performance of Goethe's Faust, which inspired him to pursue acting instead.In 1936, Haupt was accepted to the State Drama School in Danzig, where he began his formal theatrical training in the final years before World War II. He made early stage appearances in Munich at the Bavarian State Theatre around 1940, and soon afterward joined the company directed by Gustaf Gründgens in Berlin.
Haupt’s early stage roles included youthful heroic characters such as Karl Moor in Friedrich Schiller's The Robbers, Leander in Franz Grillparzer's Des Meeres und der Liebe Wellen, and Leopold in Geschwister. Over time, his repertoire expanded to include comedy, and during the war years he also worked in film. By the end of World War II he was already well established and continued appearing in films into the mid-1950s.
Haupt's stage career extended over several decades, during which he was noted for his unaffected style and seemingly ageless stage presence. He became associated with the Neue Theater, where he was regarded as one of its formative ensemble members. In 1951 he returned to Düsseldorf, and in 1954 he joined the founding ensemble of a new stage in Hamburg.
Beginning in 1959, Haupt also worked as a director. His productions included Marcel Pagnol's Der goldene Anker and Monsieur Topaze. At the Schauspielhaus Zürich in 1968, he appeared as Klummann in Max Frisch's , staged by Leopold Lindtberg. He later returned to Hamburg's Thalia Theater, where he both acted and directed, including in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, a role demanding considerable psychological nuance.
Haupt continued to work in theatre into his later years, maintaining his reputation for clarity of performance and versatility of stage presence.
Selected filmography
The Comedians – Komödiant bei der NeuberinAlarmstufe V – Leutnant der FeuerschutzpolizeiDreaming – Johannes BrahmsKamerad Hedwig – Erich KönigDer Scheiterhaufen Die Kreuzlschreiber – Bauernbursche The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp – Hinrich PriggeHomesick for St. Pauli – Bob HartauDie Rechnung – eiskalt serviert – George DavisSpy Today, Die Tomorrow – General Forman Wegen Reichtum geschlossen Madam Kitty – ProfessorDerrick – Herr Schirmer / Georg HasslerTarget – Older AgentEscape from Sobibor – Sgt. WolfSpider's Web – Baron von KöckwitzInvolvement in the 1949 Axis Sally trial
In 1949, Haupt appeared as a witness for the United States government in the treason trial at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. against Mildred Gillars, widely known as "Axis Sally." Gillars, an American broadcaster employed by German radio during World War II, was charged with making propaganda broadcasts intended to undermine the morale of Allied troops, aimed a discouraging the Normandy invasion – launched June 6, 1944.Haupt testified that he and Gillars had both performed in a 1944 radio drama produced in Berlin and broadcast to American servicemembers. The program, sometimes referred to in later accounts as the “Vision of Invasion” broadcast, depicted an American mother learning of her son’s death during a hypothetical Allied landing in Western Europe. According to Haupt’s testimony, Gillars voiced the role of the mother, while he played the son.
Haupt told the court that he had been living and working as an actor in Germany during the war, and that he had been compelled to perform in state-produced broadcasts and theatrical productions. He stated that refusal to participate could have resulted in reprisals against himself and his family. Haupt also testified that although his mother was Jewish, he did not identify publicly as Jewish during the war and denied association with the Nazi Party.
Ullrich, living in New York City at the time of the trial, provided testimony primarily to establish corroboration of Gillars' participation in broadcasts cited by the prosecution.
At the time of the trial, Haupt was performing a role supporting Elisabeth Bergner in Goethe's play, Iphigenie auf Tauris at the Barbizon Plaza Theater at 58th and 6th Avenue.