He was a silent film star and a talkie legend:Willy Fritsch. Together with Lilian Harvey, he became the first dream couple in German film in the early 1930s in films such as "The Three from the Gas Station".
At first it didn't look as if Fritsch would pursue a career as an actor when he was young. After his father, a manufacturer from Katowice, went bankrupt, the young Fritsch came to Berlin with his parents in 1912. He begins an apprenticeship at Siemens to become an engineer, but abandons it. He is secretly drawn to the theater. Max Reinhardt uses the 18-year-old as an extra and later gives him small roles.
Willy Fritsch becomes a silent film star
However, it only really comes into its own in the silent film. Producer Erich Pommer immediately recognized the potential of the young mime and signed him for UFA. As a heartbreaker, he is unbeatable. In the heyday of UFA, there is no one who lets women melt away like that. Charming, dashing and with a radiant permanent smile, he becomes the superstar of the dream factory. Fritsch plays the leading actor in two films by star director Fritz Lang - "Spione" and "Frau im Mond".
Dream couple with Lilian Harvey in "The Three from the Gas Station"
In the 1930s they are the dream couple of German film:Lilian Harvey and Willy Fritsch, here on an autograph postcard from around 1930.When sound films were introduced in 1929, Fritsch was already a star. In times of economic crisis, the UFA wants to cash in on lively music films. Willy is just the right man for those little escapes from the gray everyday life. He even takes singing lessons.
The perfect partner is found in the petite, curly-blond Lilian Harvey. They stand together in front of the camera 14 times, including in box office hits like "The Three from the Gas Station", "A Blond Dream" or "The Congress Dances". And the end of the film is always already certain:the Germans' dream couple has to hug each other at the end.
Willy and Thomas Fritsch together in front of the camera
Father and son:Thomas shoots with Willy Fritsch - and learns a lot from him.Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey are also a couple in private, although he always denies it later. In 1937 Fritsch married the dancer Diana Grace. With her he has two sons:Michael and Thomas. In 1963, Willy Fritsch and his son Thomas, who was also an actor, were in front of the camera in "That's what I learned from Papa".
NS era:Fritsch adapts
Fritsch turns down all Hollywood offers out of convenience. He doesn't want to learn English. Fritsch was a follower during the Nazi era. Joins the NSDAP under pressure and conforms. So Fritsch continued to shoot unabated during the Nazi era. He wants to remain largely apolitical, but towards the end of the war he plays in the propaganda film "Junge Adler" (1944).
After the war he continued to work as a film and theater actor, even though his time of great success was over. In local films like "When the white lilac blooms again" (1953) you can see him together with the young Romy Schneider. Fritsch made almost 120 films during his career. In 1963 his wife Dina Grace died. The actor fell into deep depression and almost completely withdrew from public life. Ten years later, on July 13, 1973, Willy Fritsch died of a heart attack at the age of 72. His grave is in the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. His son Thomas also passed away on April 21, 2021.