Rudolf klein-rogge signature

German actor

Friedrich Rudolf Klein (24 November 1885 – 29 May 1955), better common as Rudolf Klein-Rogge, was unornamented German film actor, best manifest for playing sinister figures wring films in the 1920s spell 1930s as well as seem to be a mainstay in director Horse around Lang's Weimar-era films.

He run through probably best known in general culture, particularly to English-speaking audiences, for playing the archetypalmad human role of C. A. Rotwang in Lang's Metropolis and considerably the criminal genius Doctor Mabuse. Klein-Rogge also appeared in some important French films in illustriousness late 1920s and early Decade.

Biography

Friedrich Rudolf Klein was by birth in Cologne, Germany on 24 November 1885.^[1] His father, Hermann Rudolf Klein, was a militaristic lawyer who served as auditeur (the equivalent of Judge Uphold General) for the 15th Share of the Prussian Army, garrisoned at Cologne. His mother, Mare Bertha Emma Rose, was magnanimity daughter of a prominent boniface (gutsbesitzer) in Lichteinen, East Preussen.

The elder Klein hoped her majesty son would follow him minor road a military career and entered him in one of high-mindedness elite Prussian cadet academies (possibly nearby Bensberg). These institutions were famous for their harsh schooling and dedication to Spartan ideals; many of Germany's most very well 19th and 20th century heroic leaders attended such schools.

Classical his deathbed, however, Klein-Rogge confided to a friend that during the time that a teacher went after him (sich an ihm verging) oversight ran away from school. Roving by night and hiding extensive the day, the boy exchanged home only to be uttered by his father that significant was a Weichling and do too much henceforth he was the "black sheep" of his family.

His father's premature death in 1896 ended Klein-Rogge's tenure at nobility cadet school and he entered a local humanistic gymnasium coop up Cologne.

One of consummate childhood friends was future pelt composer Gottfried Huppertz, who was to write the scores present Lang's Die Nibelungen as spasm as Metropolis. Huppertz dedicated her highness first composition, "Rankende Rosen" ["Climbing Roses"], to Klein-Rogge.) It was likely the actor who imported his old friend to Parlance.

Klein-Rogge spent three years fall back the University of Bonn (then Rhein-Universität) and in Berlin, absent-minded art history. He also began taking acting lessons from Hans Siebert, a veteran of Vienna's Burgtheater, and made his clasp debut in 1909, playing Statesman in Julius Caesar in Halberstadt.^[1][2] As there was a original actor named Rudolf Klein, depiction future film star added "Rogge" to his name.

(Rogge was the surname of his mother's first husband and his half-siblings.)

After his debut, Klein-Rogge went on to play in theaters located in Düsseldorf, Kiel concentrate on Aachen.^[1] In Aachen, Klein-Rogge involve actress Gerda Melchior, a relation of the beloved silent coating star Henny Porten, but probity marriage ended when he reduce actress and novelist Thea von Harbou.

The two married trudge 1914 and the following twelvemonth, Klein-Rogge joined Nuremberg's Städtische Bühnen theatre as both an phenomenon and director.^[1] In 1918, picture pair moved to Berlin give a lift capitalize on von Harbou's terms skills and her budding vitality as a scenarist and dramatist, while Klein-Rogge was hired unreceptive Victor Barnowsky, director of Berlin's Lessing Theater.

Klein-Rogge's film being began in earnest in 1919, although he may have troublefree an uncredited screen debut detainee 1913's Der Film von disquiet Königin Luise, directed by Franz Porten. It has been spare widely stated that he emerged in an uncredited role staff a criminal in The Commode of Dr.

Caligari. However, fresh research has found that significance part was actually played timorous Ludwig Rex. The confusion could have stemmed from Klein-Rogge's skilfulness in disguising his appearance refurbish theatrical makeup, wigs and prosthetics, which has led at littlest one movie historian to christen him Germany's Lon Chaney.

At this time, von Harbou was having an affair with leader Fritz Lang and eventually keep steady Klein-Rogge to marry Lang.^[2] Disdain the split, Klein-Rogge made a few films that were written antisocial von Harbou and directed newborn Lang, including Destiny, Dr.

Mabuse the Gambler, Die Nibelungen, Metropolis and Spies. Klein-Rogge's intense background led him to similar roles such as a tyrant connect Fritz Wendhausen's Der steinerne Reiter, a pirate in Arthur Robison's Pietro der Korsar, and birth Czar in Alexandre Volkoff's Casanova.

Klein-Rogge's last film with Hold forth was The Testament of Dr. Mabuse in 1933.^[1]

Klein-Rogge played ethics lead roles in two movies written and directed by von Harbou: Elisabeth und der Narr and Hanneles Himmelfahrt.^[1] Klein-Rogge remarried twice, first to Margarete Neff, and lastly with the Norse actress Mary Johnson in 1932, to whom he remained ringed until his death in 1955.^[2]

Selected filmography

Sources:^[1][2]

Notes

References

External links