Emil Jannings - ©Theda Bara

Quite unlike Charlie Spencer Chaplin, Emil Jannings, stage name of Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz, was not very popular among his film colleagues. Still, this Swiss actor was considered the biggest European star of his time, becoming one of the highest paid in Hollywood. Emil Janenz became so famous that he escaped being shot during World War II, 1939-1945, when he was recognized by Nazi allied soldiers, for having played General Sergius Alexander, in the film: “The Last Command”, 1928, which he made of Emil Jannings, the first to win the Oscar for Best Actor, in 1929. This award also went to another film: “The Way of All Flesh”, from 1927, when he played the accountant of a German bank, August Schiller. He also won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival.

The actor has a star on the Los Angeles Walk of Fame, at 1630 Vine Street, in the Cinema category.

Emil Jannings was born on July 23, 1884 in Rorschach, Switzerland and died on January 2, 1950 in Strobl, Austria, aged 65, after battling cancer for nearly a decade.

The actor was married three times. First with actress Hanna Ralph (1888-1978), from 1919 to 1921, whom he divorced; then he lived with the director and actress of the “School of Theater Staatliche Schauspielschule”, Helene Lucie von Holwede, known as: Lucie Höflich (1883-1956), for only six months, in 1921; and finally with the singer Auguste Marie Christine Holl, who performed on stage as: Gussy Holl (1888-1966), from 1923 to 1950, with whom he lived until the day of his death. The three women were Germans.