| 34th | Top former Christians |
| 39th | Top converts to Judaism |
| Conrad Veidt | |
|---|---|
 Veidt in The Spy in Black (1939). |
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| Born | Hans Walter Konrad Weidt 22 January 1893 Berlin, Germany |
| Died | 3 April 1943 (aged 50) Hollywood, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1917–1943 |
Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his roles in films such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and Casablanca (1942). After a successful career in German silent film, where he was one of the best paid stars of Ufa, he left Germany in 1933 with his new Jewish wife and settled in the United Kingdom, where he participated in a number of films before continuing to the U.S.A around 1941.
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He was born Hans Walter Conrad Weidt in a working-class district of Berlin, Germany. (Some biographies wrongly state that he was born in Potsdam, probably on the basis of an early claim on his part.) From 1916 until his death, he appeared in well over 100 movies. He appeared in two of the most well-known films of the silent era: as a murderous somnambulist in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover and as a disfigured circus performer in The Man Who Laughs (1928). According to the Los Angeles Times, "Conrad Veidt starred in this semi-silent film based on Victor Hugo's novel in which the son of a lord is punished for his father's disrespect to the king by having his face carved into a permanent grin."
Veidt also appeared in Magnus Hirschfeld's pioneering gay rights film Anders als die Andern (Different from the Others 1919), in which he played what is probably the first gay character written especially for the cinema, and in Das Land ohne Frauen (1929), Germany's first talking picture.
Veidt fervently opposed the Nazi regime, motivating him to emigrate from Germany in 1933 a week after marrying Illona Prager, a Jewish woman. He settled in the United Kingdom and became a British citizen in 1938.
He continued making films in Britain, notably three with director Michael Powell: The Spy in Black (1939), Contraband (1940) and The Thief of Bagdad (1940).
In the 1940s he moved to Hollywood, California, and starred in a few films, such as Nazi Agent (1942), in which he had a dual role as a Nazi and as the Nazi's twin brother, but his best remembered role was as Major Heinrich Strasser in Casablanca (1942).
He died suddenly of a heart attack in 1943 while playing golf in Los Angeles. In 1998, his ashes were interred at the Golders Green Crematorium in London.
It's been reported, though not verified, that Veidt identified himself as Jewish on Nazi questionnaires as an act of protest.[1] This may be the source of inaccurate claims that he either converted to Judaism or was Jewish by birth.[2] Conrad Veidt married three times, his first marriage to Augusta Holl, a famous cabaret entertainer known as "Gussy" took place on June 18 1918 and ended in divorce the following autumn. Gussy later married German actor Emil Jannings. Veidt married a woman from an aristocratic German family, Felictas Radke in 1923 and a daughter, Vera Viola Maria, called Viola was born August 10 1925. His last marriage came in 1933, to Ilona Prager, called Lily and lasted until his death.
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   | The Official Conrad Veidt Society website - The Conrad Veidt Society Official Home Page |
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