For nearly four decades, jovial, pleasantly plump Hans Albers was one of Germany's favorite movie stars. Starting out in films in 1911, Albers interrupted his career to serve in WWI, where he was seriously wounded. After a lengthy recovery, he resumed his film work and also appeared on-stage to great acclaim with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater. His movie roles ranged from Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1924) to the title characters in Rasputin (1928) and Peer Gynt (1931). In the 1930s, he starred in a number of rugged adventure films and Westerns (!), and also did an amusing turn as a Sherlock Holmes wannabe in the musical farce The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1938). His vehicles during the Hitler regime remained more or less apolitical, though there was a bit of soft-pedalled propaganda in his 1943 hit Munchausen. After the war, Albers continued to thrive in character roles right up to his death in 1960. In 1989, Hans Albers was the subject of a biographical docudrama, In Meinem Hertzen Schatz.
by Hal Erickson
biography
