From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Fritz Kortner 12 May 1892 22 July 1970 was an Austrianborn stage and film actor and theatre director Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art After graduating he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916 Also in that year he made his first appearance in a silent film He became one of Germanys best known character actors His speciality was playing sinister and threatening roles though he also appeared in the title role of 1930s Dreyfus With the coming to power of the Nazis Kortner being Jewish chose to flee Germany in 1933 He emigrated to the United States where he found work as a character actor and theatre director for a time before returning to Germany in 1949 Upon his return he became noted for his innovative staging and direction particularly of classics such as his Richard III 1964 in which the king crawls over piles of corpses at the end Kortner died in Munich Description above from the Wikipedia article Fritz Kortner licensed under CCBYSAfull list of contributors on Wikipedia