Paul Hörbiger: Movies & Box Office

Paul Hörbiger (29 April 1894 – 5 March 1981) was one of the most recognizable Austrian stage and screen personalities of the 20th century. Born in Budapest, then part of Austria‑Hungary, he was the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger and brother of actor Attila Hörbiger. After the family moved to Vienna in 1902, he completed his schooling at St. Paul’s Abbey in Carinthia and served as an Oberleutnant in a mountain artillery regiment during World War I. Discharged in 1918 he turned to the theatre, receiving drama lessons and debuting in 1919 at the city theatre of Reichenberg, followed by performances at the New German Theatre in Prague and, from 1926, at Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches Theater in Berlin, eventually joining the prestigious Burgtheater in Vienna in 1940.

From 1928 onward Hörbiger appeared in more than 250 films, becoming a star of the “Wiener Film” genre and later of Heimatfilm productions. He co‑founded the film company Algefa in 1936 and, despite a brief public endorsement of the 1938 Anschluss, he was later arrested by the Nazis for alleged treason. After the war he returned to international fame as the talkative porter in The Third Man (1949), memorising his English lines phonetically. He also chaired First Vienna FC (1947‑1949) and continued a prolific film career through the 1950s and 1960s, often sharing the screen with Hans Moser and director Franz Antel. His later years were devoted to the Burgtheater, with his final stage appearance in 1979. Over his lifetime he received numerous honors, including the title Staatsschauspieler (1942), the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art (1974) and the Nestroy Ring (1980). He married actress Josefa Gettke in 1921, fathered four children, and is buried in an Ehrengrab at Vienna’s Zentralfriedhof.