Paul Wegener

Actor, director, writer and producer
December 11, 1874 - September 13, 1948
Born in Arnoldsdorf, Germany

See Internet Movie Database Filmography

A Few of the Remarkable Performances of Paul Wegener

• Starring as "Balduin," a starving student who loses his reflection to the Devil, who uses it to commit crimes the student is blamed for, in the archetypal horror film Der Student von Prag (1913; English title: The Student of Prague, aka A Bargain with Satan). Directed by Hanns Heinz Ewers and Stellan Rye. Script by Ewers, inspired by the story "William Wilson" by Edgar Allan Poe and a poem by Alfred de Mussett. With John Gottowt (the diabolical Scapinelli), Grete Berger, Lyda Salmonova, Lothar Körner, Fritz Weidemann and Alexander Moissi.
  
  
• Starring as "The Golem" in Der Golem (1915; English title: The Golem, aka The Monster of Fate), co-written, co-produced and co-directed by Wegener with Henrik Galeen. The classic tale of a clay giant brought to life by a 16th Century Rabbi to save his people from persecution; in this film it is rediscovered and reanimated in the 20th Century with disastrous consequences. With Rudolf Blümner, Robert A. Dietrich, Carl Ebert, Henrik Galeen, Lyda Salmonova and Jakob Tiedtke.
  
  
• Starring in a dual role as "The Yogi" and "The Inventor," in Der Yoghi (1916; English title: The Yogi). The film, co-directed by Wegener with Rochus Gliese, is about an Indian mystic uses his power of invisibility to scare a young inventor. With Lyda Salmonova and Hedwig Gutzeit.
  
  
• Starring as "Ruebezahl" in Ruebezahls Hochzeit (1916; English title: Ruebezahl's Wedding). The film, co-written and co-directed by Wegener with Rochus Gliese, is about a monstrous Wild Man of folklore who threatens a village with destruction until he is pacified by the love of an understanding woman. Starring Lyda Salmonova, with Arthur Ehrens, Rochus Gliese, Hedwig Gutzeit, Georg Jacoby, Emilie Kurz, Marianne Niemeyer and Ernst Waldow.
  
  
• Directing and acting (presumably as the Piper) in The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1917; The Rat-Catcher of Hamelin would be closer to the original German title). The famous fable of a mysterious musician who bargains with a village to pipe away a plague of rats, but returns to take away all the children when cheated of his pay. With Lyda Salmonova, Wilhelm Diegelmann, Jakob Tiedtke, Frida Richard and Hans Stürm.
  
  
• Animating "The Golem" again, but this time in a sex comedy (!), Der Golem und die Tänzerin (1917; English title: The Golem and the Dancing Girl). The second of the three Golem films made by Paul Wegener, written by him and co-directed by him and Rochus Gliese, is about himself, Paul Wegener the actor, learning that an attractive young taxi dancer is so infatuated with his famous screen character that she has a life-size Golem statue in her apartment! He arranges to replace the statue with himself in costume, but she's tipped off to the deception by the hotel pageboy, and that's the end of the romance. With Lyda Salmonova, Wilhelm Diegelmann, Fritz Feld (the pageboy), Rochus Gliese, Emilie Kurz, Erich Schönfelder and Friedrich Veilchenfeld.
  
  
• Starring as "Thomas Bezug" in the horror film Nachtgestalten (1920; English title: Figures of the Night), directed by Richard Oswald, based on the story "Eleagable Kuperus" by Karl Hans Strobl. With Reinhold Schünzel , Erna Morena, Erik Charell (as a gorilla), Conrad Veidt (Clown), Anita Berber, Paul Bildt, Theodor Loos and Willi Allen.
  
  
• Reanimating "The Golem" for the third and definitive time in Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920); English version: The Golem: How He Came Into the World (1921). Co-directed by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, and scripted by Wegener and Henrik Galeen, based on Gustav Meyrink's novel. Starring Paul Wegener as the Golem, Albert Steinrück as Rabbi Loew, Lyda Salmonova as the Rabbi's Daughter Miriam, and Ernst Deutsch as the Rabbi's assistant Famulus. With Hans Stürm, Max Kronert, Otto Gebühr, Dore Paetzold, Lothar Müthel, Greta Schröder, Loni Nest (the Little Girl who stops the Golem), Carl Ebert and Fritz Feld (Jester). Cinematography by Karl Freund. Art direction by Hans Poelzig and Kurt Richter; Edgar G. Ulmer was an uncredited set designer.
  
  
• Starring as "Sebaldus,der Stadtmusikant" in Der Verlorene Schatten (1920; English title: The Lost Shadow). A fantasy similar to The Student of Prague but with a happy ending, directed by Rochus Gliese, and written by Paul Wegener. Sebaldus trades his shadow to a diabolical stranger for an enchanted violin, but is able to use the instrument to win the woman he loves, who is willing to be his shadow. Featuring Lyda Salmonova, Hans Stürm (Dappertuto, the Shadowcatcher), Werner Schott, Greta Schröder and Wilhelm Bendow. Cinematography by Karl Freund.
  
  
• Playing "Micheletto" in a film about the Italian Renaissance "Black Widow," Lucrezia Borgia (1922), directed by Richard Oswald. With Liane Haid (Lucrezia Borgia), Conrad Veidt (Cesare Borgia), Albert Bassermann, Heinrich George, Adolf E. Licho, (future Hollywood director) William Dieterle, Lothar Müthel, Alfons Fryland, Kathe Oswald, Alexander Granach, Anita Berber and Lyda Salmonova.
  
  
• Starring as "Oliver Haddo," in The Magician (1926), directed by Rex Ingram, a film about an alchemist seeking the blood of a virgin to pursue his experiments in creating life. Written by director Ingram, based on a novel by Somerset Maugham, itself loosely based on the life of the notorious satanist Aleister Crowley, whom Maugham knew socially.
  
  
• Starring as "Svengali," an evil mesmerist who hypnotizes a young girl to turn her into a famous singer, in Svengali (1927), based on George Du Maurier's novel "Trilby" and directed by Gennaro Righelli. With Alexander Granach and Hertha von Walther. Remade in America a few years later as a sound film starring John Barrymore.
  
  
• As "Kapitän Ramper" in Ramper, der Tiermensch (1927), directed by Max Reichman. Literal English translation: Ramper, the Beastman; US release title: The Strange Case of Captain Ramper). The fantastic story of an aviator who spends 15 years alone in the Arctic after a plane crash. During his years of isolation in the Arctic, he loses the power of speech and develops a thick growth of fur as his clothes wear out. Ramper is eventually captured by the crew of a whaler, who mistake him for a Yeti-like creature and bring him to Europe to be exhibited in a zoo. Eventually regaining his human identity, Ramper chooses to return to the Arctic after arranging a marriage between two people who have befriended him. Featuring Carl Balhaus, Kurt Gerron, Georg Guertler, Mary Johnson, Emilie Kurz, Dillo Lombardi, Raimondo Van Riel and Max Schreck as a visionary personification of Ramper's suffering.
  
  
• Co-starring as "Professor Jakob ten Brinken" in Alraune (1928; English titles: A Daughter of Destiny, Mandrake, Unholy Love). Written and directed by Henrik Galleen, based on the novel by Hans Heinz Ewers about a soulless woman and her devastating affect on men. Starring Brigitte Helm (as Alraune ten Brinken), Iván Petrovich, Wolfgang Zilzer, Louis Ralph, Hans Trautner, John Loder, Mia Pankau, Valeska Gert, Georg John, Alexander Sascha and Heinrich Schroth.
  
  
• As "Mörder," a mad scientist who kills his wife and is locked up in an asylum, which he takes over and turns into a suicide club, in Unheimliche Geschichten (1932). English titles: Asylum of Horror, Five Sinister Stories, Ghastly Tales, The Living Dead, Tales of the Uncanny, Unholy Tales). Directed by Richard Oswald; written by Richard Oswald, Heinz Goldberg, and Eugen Szatmari, based on stories by Edgar Allen Poe ("The Black Cat " and "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether") and Robert Louis Stevenson ("The Suicide Club"). With Harald Paulsen, Roma Bohn, Mary Parker, Gerhard Bienert, Paul Henckels, John Gottowt, Eugen Klöpfer, Maria Koppenhöfer, Erwin Kalser, Franz Stein, Gretl Bernd, Carl Heinz Charrell, Ilse Fürstenberg, Fred Goebel, Natascha Silvia, Karl Meinhardt, Michael von Newlinsky, Hans Behal, Blandine Ebinger, Viktor de Kowa, Ferdinand Hart, Heinrich Heilinger, Roma Bahm, Bert Reisfeld and Roger Wisten.

Last revised May 9 2021 by George "E-gor" Chastain.

Maintained by George "E-gor" Chastain (e-mail: egorschamber@gmail.com)