Oskar Werner

Oskar Werner, born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer on 13 November 1922 in Vienna, Austria, emerged from a modest childhood under the care of his grandmother, whose stories about the Burgtheater ignited his lifelong devotion to the stage. At eighteen he was admitted to the prestigious Burgtheater by Lothar Müthel, becoming the youngest ever to receive the honor, and he debuted in October 1941 under the stage name Oskar Werner. His early career was interrupted when he was conscripted into the Deutsche Wehrmacht in December 1941, but his staunch pacifism and opposition to National Socialism led to menial duties and ultimately desertion in 1944, after secretly marrying actress Elisabeth Kallina and hiding with his wife and newborn daughter Eleanore in the Wienerwald until the war’s end. After the conflict he returned to the Burgtheater, performed at the Raimund Theater and the Theater in der Josefstadt, and made his film debut in Der Engel mit der Posaune (1948). A pivotal move to the United Kingdom in 1950 saw him reprise his role in the English version The Angel with the Trumpet, and shortly thereafter he entered Hollywood with Decision Before Dawn (1951). Despite a brief lull, his reputation blossomed with starring roles such as Mozart in Mozart (1955) and a memorable turn in Jules and Jim (1962). In 1965 Werner delivered two of his most acclaimed performances: as the idealistic Dr. Schumann in Ship of Fools, earning a New York Film Critics Circle Award, an Academy Award nomination, a Golden Globe and a BAFTA nod, and as the cunning Fiedler in The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, which secured him a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. He continued to captivate audiences in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) and Voyage of the Damned (1976), the latter bringing another Golden Globe nomination. Werner’s later years were marked by an itinerant stage career, a brief foray into television (Columbo), and personal struggles with alcoholism that curtailed his health. He died of a heart attack on 23 October 1984 in Marburg an der Lahn, Germany, and is buried in Triesen, Liechtenstein.