Actor Paul Henreid was born on this day in 1905 in Trieste, Austria-Hungary. (The son of a Swedish nobleman banker, his name at birth was Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau.) Look up "suave" in the dictionary and you'll see his picture. Most people remember him first as the brave and selfless Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (at right), but Henreid had an extensive acting career in Hollywood. He was also an accomplished director, especially in the (at the time) new medium of television, to which he had turned after being blacklisted following an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
My favorite Henreid role is in the tear-jerker, Now, Voyager, opposite Bette Davis. Henreid plays the unhappily married Jerry Durrance (strange name for the son of a Swedish baron), who finds love and fulfillment (unconsummated - it was the 1940s) with Davis' Charlotte Vale, who has befriended his sad daughter. Here's the famous final scene, with the famous two cigarettes. (If you haven't seen the movie, they can't be together because Jerry is too noble to divorce his alcoholic and disturbed wife.) The scene is...I know, I know, but golly! They don't make 'em like this anymore.
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Actor Paul Henreid was born on this day in 1905 in Trieste, Austria-Hungary. (The son of a Swedish nobleman banker, his name at birth was Paul Georg Julius Hernreid Ritter Von Wassel-Waldingau.) Look up "suave" in the dictionary and you'll see his picture. Most people remember him first as the brave and selfless Victor Laszlo in Casablanca (at right), but Henreid had an extensive acting career in Hollywood. He was also an accomplished director, especially in the (at the time) new medium of television, to which he had turned after being blacklisted following an investigation by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
My favorite Henreid role is in the tear-jerker, Now, Voyager, opposite Bette Davis. Henreid plays the unhappily married Jerry Durrance (strange name for the son of a Swedish baron), who finds love and fulfillment (unconsummated - it was the 1940s) with Davis' Charlotte Vale, who has befriended his sad daughter. Here's the famous final scene, with the famous two cigarettes. (If you haven't seen the movie, they can't be together because Jerry is too noble to divorce his alcoholic and disturbed wife.) The scene is...I know, I know, but golly! They don't make 'em like this anymore.
