Egon Brecher
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Egon Brecher (18 February 1880 – 12 August 1946) was an Austria-Hungary-born actor and director, who also served as the chief director of Vienna's Stadts Theatre, before entering the motion picture industry.
The son of a professor, Brecher began studying philosophy in 1900 at the University of Heidelberg in Germany. He did not finish his studies, deciding to become an actor. He appeared on several provincial stages in Germany and Austria until 1910, and then played in Vienna on various occasions, directed by Josef Jarno until 1921.
In 1907, he founded an initiative (which lasted for something like one or two years) to play modern Yiddish theatre in German language with Siegfried Schmitz and members of the student club ‘Theodor Herzl’ like Hugo Zuckermann and Oskar Rosenfeld. In 1919 he was co-founder of the Freie Jüdische Volksbühne in Vienna, a Yiddish theatre, which existed for three years.
Then, in 1921, he moved to New York to act on Broadway. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s to appear in foreign-language versions of American films. In the mid-1930s he appeared in classic horror films The Black Cat, Werewolf of London, The Black Room, Mark of the Vampire and The Devil-Doll, and worked steadily in the espionage films of the 1930s/40s, his Slavic accent landing him roles both noble and villainous. One of his largest screen roles was in 1946's So Dark the Night. He died later in 1946, aged 66, of a heart attack in Los Angeles, California.
Known for
Rebecca
Hotel Desk Clerk (uncredited)
To the Last Man
Mark Hayden
Now and Forever
Doctor (uncredited)
Werewolf of London
Priest (uncredited)
You and Me
Mr. Levine
Mission to Moscow
Heinrich Sahm (uncredited)
Heidi
Inn Keeper
I Met Him in Paris
Emile - Upper Sled Run Tower Control
Manpower
Pop Duval
Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet
Martl
The Black Cat
The Majordomo
Man Hunt
Jeweler
So Dark the Night
Dr. Boncourt
Arsène Lupin Returns
Vasseur (uncredited)
Underground
Herr Director
Confessions of a Nazi Spy
Fritz Muller - German Agent (uncredited)
Mark of the Vampire
Coroner (uncredited)
The Devil-Doll
Detective (uncredited)
A Dispatch from Reuters
Von Konstat (uncredited)
Calling Philo Vance
Austrian Judge (uncredited)
Gateway
Rabbi
Suez
Doctor
Till We Meet Again
Schultz
Juarez
Baron von Magnus (uncredited)
The Three Musketeers
Landlord
All This, and Heaven Too
Doctor (uncredited)
Four Mothers
Music Foundation Director (uncredited)
The Women Men Marry
John (uncredited)
Nurse Edith Cavell
Dr. Gunther
The Diary of a Chambermaid
The Postman (Uncredited)
Espionage Agent
Larsch
Hotel Imperial
Pograncz (uncredited)
O.S.S.
Marcel Aubert
The Great O'Malley
Morris - the Pawnbroker (uncredited)
Sister Kenny
Frenchman (uncredited)
Racket Busters
Peters (uncredited)
Black Legion
Dombrowski
I Was an Adventuress
Jacques Dubois
We Are Not Alone
Mr. Adolf Schiller
Boulder Dam
Pa Vangarick
Air Hawks
Schulter's Henchman
Just Before Dawn
Dr. Evans (uncredited)
I'll Give a Million
Citizen
Stolen Holiday
Deputy Bergery
Voice of the Whistler
Dr. Rose (replaced by Frank Reicher) (uncredited)
Espionage
Chief of Police
Blondes at Work
J.Z. Beckman (uncredited)
Convention City
Zorb
Spring Madness
Soviet Travel Bureau Agent
The Man I Married
Czech
Charlie Chan's Secret
Ulrich
Kings Row
Dr. Candell
As the Earth Turns
Mr. Janowski
Many Happy Returns
Dr. Otto von Strudel
Above Suspicion
Gestapo Official (Uncredited)
Judge Hardy and Son
Anton Volduzzi
Here's to Romance
Descartes
A Royal Scandal
Wassilikow (uncredited)
Sins of Man
Doctor
Knute Rockne All American
Elder in Norway (uncredited)
Angels Wash Their Faces
Mr. Smith
Cocoanut Grove
Pawnbroker
No Greater Glory
Racz
Beg, Borrow or Steal
Antique Shop Proprietor (uncredited)
The White Angel
Pastor Fliedner
The Florentine Dagger
Karl
Invisible Enemy
Kirman
The Spy Ring
General A. R. Bowen
For the Common Defense!
Adolph (uncredited)
Devil's Island
Debriac
Paddy O'Day
Russian Musician
Alibi for Murder
Sir Conrad Stava
Know Your Money
Samuels the Druggist (uncredited)
Out of Darkness
Victor Jourdain (uncredited)
Isle of Missing Men
Richard Heller
White Pongo
Dr. Gerig
Die Königsloge
While America Sleeps
Klaus
Buyer Beware
Child's Father (uncredited)