AMBASSADOR HOTEL JOMTIEN

German postcard by WS-Druck, Wanne-Eickel, nr. F 44. Photo: Klaus Collignon.

Austrian actor O.W. Fischer (1915–2004) was one of one of the most popular and highest-paid actors in German-language film in the 1950’s. He played the lead in dozens of light romantic comedies and historical pieces. Unlike countrymen Curd Jurgens, Maria Schell and Romy Schneider, he never made it internationally.

Otto Wilhelm Fischer was born in 1915 in Klosterneuburg near Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). He was the son of a lawyer. After German and art studies at the University of Vienna he went to a drama school in 1936. He began his career later that year at Max Reinhardt's theatre company in Arthur Schnitzler’s Liebelei. He soon became a popular star in both German and Austrian playsand made the leap to German cinema. His first appearance in Burgtheater (1936, Willi Forst) led to 40 other films such as Anton, der Letzte/ Anthony the Last (1939, E.W. Emo), and Meine Tochter lebt in Wien/My Daughter Lives in Vienna (1940, E.W. Emo). In 1942 he married Czech actress Anna Usell, and the couple stayed together untill her death in 1985. From 1945 to 1952 he was an ensemble member at the famous Vienna Burgtheater.

Known as Europe's answer to Cary Grant, O.W. Fischer specialized in romantic roles starring alongside Maria Holst, Marte Harell, Liselotte Pulver, Winnie Markus, or Ruth Leuwerik. These films include Marchen vom Gluck/Kiss Me Casanova (1949, Arthur De Glahs), Erzherzog Johanns grosse Liebe/Archduke Johann's Great Love (1950, Hans Schott-Schobinger), Heidelberger Romanze/Heidelberg Romance (1951, Paul Verhoeven), Tausend rote Rosen bluh'n/Thousand Red Roses (1952, Alfred Braun), and Ein Herz spielt falsch (1953, Rudolf Jugert). ‘Das Traumpaar’(dream couple) O.W. Fischer and Maria Schell made seven films together, such as Bis wir uns wiedersehn/Till We meet Again (1952, Gustav Ucicky), Der Traumende Mund/Dreaming Lips (1953, Josef von Baky), Solange Du da bist/ As Long as You're Near Me (1953, Harald Braun), and Tagebuch einer Verliebten/The Diary of a Married Woman (1953, Josef von Baky). Most of those productions were financially successful and he became one of the two highest paid actors in Germany. (Curd Jurgens was the other one). He also starred in the title role in the classic German film, Ludwig II (1955, Helmut Kautner).

Fischer occasional assisted on directorial chores during the 1950’s. In 1955, he directed and starred in Hanussen (1955, O.W. Fischer, Georg Marischka), a film detailing the life of Erik Jan Hanussen, the Devil's Prophet, a well-known psychic who collaborated with the Nazis. While the film is considered highly romanticized, it assisted historians and biographers in uncovering previously unknown facts. In 1956 he directed and starred opposite Anouk Aimee in Ich suche Dich/I Am Looking For You (1956, O.W. Fischer), based on the play Jupiter Laughs, by A.J. Cronin. In 1956 Universal Studios signed Fischer to star with June Allyson in a remake of My Man Godfrey (1957, Henry Koster), but his Hollywood break ended before it began: When Fischer reportedly lost his memory during filming, he was replaced by David Niven. Other sources say that differences with director Henry Kosters and Universal Studios eventually cost him his contract.. So Fischer returned to Europe, where he acted in films like Peter Voss, der Millionendieb/Peter Voss, Thief of Millions (1958, Wolfgang Becker) and Menschen im Hotel/Grand Hotel (1959, Gottfried Reinhardt) with Michele Morgan. In the 1960’s O.W. Fischer and his wife Anna moved to Vernate, Switzerland. He kept appearing on tv and in the theatre. In the late 1970s, he retired from acting to concentrate on linguistics and philosophy, on which he lectured and published a number of books. He died in 2004 in Lugano, Switzerland of kidney failure. He was 88.

Sources: Sandra Brennan (All Movie Guide), Jade Walker (The Blog of Death), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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