Austrian stage actor Carl Esmond was an established leading man in Berlin when, in 1933, he joined many of his fellow actors in fleeing the oncoming Hitler regime. Billed at this time as Carl von Esmond, the actor moved to England, where for several years he played continental charmers on both stage and screen. He came to Hollywood in 1938 to portray the downed German aviator in the Errol Flynn version of The Dawn Patrol. Usually cast as arrogant Nazis during the war years, Esmond was seen in a more sympathetic light as a dedicated, courageous Dutch physician in Cecil B. DeMille's The Story of Dr. Wassell (1944). Carl Esmond remained in films until the mid-1960s, occasionally returning to the world of "Heils" and brown shirts in such films as Hitler (1962), but also essaying such benign roles as Jules Verne in From the Earth to the Moon (1958).
by Hal Erickson
biography
