Carl Esmond

Carl Esmond was born on Jun 14, 1902 in Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. Carl Esmond's big-screen debut came with Kaiserwalzer directed by Frederic Zelnik in 1933, strarring Viktor Eggersdorf (as Willy Eichberger). Carl Esmond is known for The Adventures of McGraw directed by John Peyser, Frank Lovejoy stars as McGraw and Jean Willes as Loretta Travers. The upcoming new movie Carl Esmond plays is My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn which will be released on Jan 21, 1985.

Born Willy Eichberger in Vienna, Austria, he changed his name to the ethnically nondescript Carl Esmond and went on to become a well-regarded actor both here and in Europe, a career that sustained itself for nearly 50 years. He initially studied drama in Vienna at the State Academy of Dramatic Arts and started things off with the German film Kaiserwalzer (1933) [The Emperor's Waltz]. He had developed into a matinée idol in both Germany and Austria with such films as Die Liebe siegt (1934) [Love Conquers] by the time he moved to London. He started treading the marquee boards there in such plays as "Victoria Regina" with a repertoire that would include everything from Shakespeare to Shaw.In the late 1930s Esmond made a strategic career move to the United States, where he briefly changed his name yet again to Charles Esmond before reverting back to Carl. He eventually became an American citizen. Over the years, the slick, mustachioed, well-groomed actor poured on the charm in a number of popular war-era films as both cultivated romancers and urbane villains, in addition to the nefarious Teutonic officers he customarily played. Making his debut with the classic Le prisonnier de Zenda (1937), Esmond went on to appear opposite Errol Flynn in La patrouille de l'aube (1938), Gary Cooper in both Sergent York (1941) and L'Odyssée du docteur Wassell (1944), Ray Milland in Espions sur la Tamise (1944), Susan Hayward in Une vie perdue (1947) and Gregory Peck in Le monde lui appartient (1952).By the 1950s Carl was a steady fixture on television drama and portrayed Victor Lazlo in a 1955 presentation of "Casablanca." A guest star of such series as "77 Sunset Strip," "Maverick," "the Big Valley" and "McMillan and Wife," his last film was the very forgettable Le mur des espions (1966). Sporadically seen after that, he retired following his appearance in the TV mini-movie Mes 400 coups: la légende d'Errol Flynn (1985), a biopic of his 30s co-star Errol Flynn. Long wed to literary agent Ruth Taub, who predeceased him, he died of natural causes at 102 years.