Adolf Wohlbrock

 
This dark, debonair, dashing and extremely distinguished Austrian actor was christened Adolf Wohlbrück in Vienna, the scion of a family of circus clowns. He broke away easily from generations of tradition as the circus life had no appeal whatsoever to Walbrook.

He made his film debut in 1915 in Marionetten (1915). He made another film in 1925, but his real film career came with the beginning of sound.

His screen persona, like his English, was always perfectly poised and controlled (a consequence perhaps of the constant strain he felt hiding his homosexuality), with only a hint at the great sublimated energy that he seemed to hold taut just below his skin.

He retired from films at the end of the 1950s, and in later years returned to the European stage and included television roles to his resume.