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Wolf Albach-Retty

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Wolf Albach-Retty
Albach-Retty c. 1935
Born
Wolfgang Helmuth Albert Albach

(1906-05-28)28 May 1906
Died21 February 1967(1967-02-21) (aged 60)
Vienna, Austria
Burial placeVienna Central Cemetery
NationalityAustrian
EducationUniversity of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
OccupationActor
Years active1926–1966
Spouses
(m. 1937; div. 1945)
(m. 1947)
ChildrenRomy Schneider
Parent(s)Karl Walter Albach
Rosa Albach-Retty

Wolf Albach-Retty (born Wolfgang Helmuth Albert Albach; 28 May 1906 – 21 February 1967) was an Austrian actor. He was the father of Romy Schneider with the German actress Magda Schneider.

Career

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Born as Wolfgang Helmuth Albert Albach in Vienna to actress Rosa Albach-Retty and K. u. K. officer Karl Albach, Albach-Retty trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and at the age of twenty played his first role at the Vienna Burgtheater.

He was a young man when he first appeared in a silent film role in 1927. In 1933 Albach-Retty became a patron member of the SS and in 1940 he joined the Nazi Party.[1][2]

During the Third Reich, he made romance films and musicals. In 1936 he married Magda Schneider and temporarily took up German citizenship. In 1944, he was added to head of Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels' Gottbegnadeten list of individuals that Goebbels considered crucial to Nazi culture. His addition to the list made him exempt from military service obligations.[3]

Grave of Albach-Retty at Vienna's Zentralfriedhof

After World War II, his acting career soured as his past successes were no longer remembered, and he was only able to find supporting acting roles in films. He returned to the Burgtheater and starred in, among other plays, Anatol by Arthur Schnitzler. By that time, he was into his second marriage to actress Trude Marlen. Together, they had a daughter, Sacha Darwin (born 1947). He died in Vienna on 21 February 1967 and is buried in Vienna's Zentralfriedhof.

Selected filmography

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References

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  1. ^ "Legenden. Diva mit Nazi-Trauma?" in: Der Spiegel, 15 September 2008
  2. ^ Oliver Rathkolb: Führertreu und gottbegnadet: Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich. Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Wien 1991, ISBN 3-215-07490-7, pp. 235/236
  3. ^ Klee, Ernst (2009). Das Kulturlexikon zum Dritten Reich: Wer war was vor und nach 1945 (in German). Frankfurt am Maine: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag. ISBN 978-3596171538.
  4. ^ Marina Pavido (December 1, 2020). "Wolf Albach-Retty – A Famous Father". Cinema Austriaco. Retrieved July 15, 2023.
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