Curt Bois

Curt Bois, born Kurt Boas on April 5, 1901 in Berlin, was a remarkable German actor whose career spanned more than eight decades, making him one of the longest‑serving performers in cinema history. He began his film work as a child in 1907, appearing in the short Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß, and quickly became one of the first child actors in the German film industry, later starring as the titular detective in the 1909 short Der kleine Detektiv. Bois honed his craft on stage under the legendary Max Reinhardt and achieved early success in a 1928 Viennese production of Charley's Aunt at the Josefstadt Theater, where studios even tried to fashion him as a German counterpart to Harold Lloyd. The rise of institutionalized anti‑Semitism forced the Jewish‑born actor to flee Nazi Germany in 1934, and after a brief stint on Broadway he arrived in Hollywood by 1937, where he built a reputation as a versatile character comic. His most iconic American role was the sly pickpocket in Casablanca (1942), delivering the memorable warning “vultures everywhere,” and he later appeared in films such as Caught (1949) as the conflicted fixer Franzi Kartos. After World War II Bois returned to a divided Germany in 1950, performing for many years at the Schiller Theater and the Theater des Westens. In the twilight of his career he delivered a poignant performance as the aging poet Homer in Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire (1987), earning the European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor. Bois’ final screen appearance came in the 1989 short Das letzte Band, concluding a remarkable 82‑year film career before his death in Berlin on December 25, 1991 at the age of 90.