Curt Bois

Curt Bois (born Kurt Boas; April 5, 1901 – December 25, 1991) was a German actor with a career spanning over 80 years. He is best remembered for his performances as the pickpocket in Casablanca (1942) and the poet Homer in Wings of Desire (1987).
Life and career
Bois was born to a German Jewish family in Berlin and began acting in 1907, becoming one of the film world's first child actors, with a role in the 1907 short film Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß. In 1909, he played the title role in Der Kleine Detektiv ('The Little Detective'). Bois performed in theatre, cabaret, musicals, silent films, and "talkies" over his long acting career. He performed under Max Reinhardt and found success in 1928 in a Viennese stage production of "Charley's Aunt" at the Josefstadt Theater. He was a successful character comic, and for a while film studios tried to make him into a "German Harold Lloyd".
In 1934, institutionalized Anti-Semitism forced the Jewish Bois to leave his home in Nazi Germany for the United States. There he found work on stage on Broadway. By 1937, he had made his way to Hollywood and began acting in films, the best-known being Casablanca (1942), in which he warns a befuddled English gentleman to be on guard against pickpockets ("vultures everywhere") while stealing the man's wallet. He had a notable supporting role in Caught (1949), starring Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes, and James Mason; Ryan played a megalomaniacal industrialist openly based on Howard Hughes and Bois was Ryan's conflicted fixer, Franzi Kartos. Most of his Hollywood roles were small, but nevertheless Bois was in demand. After World War II, Bois decided it was safe to return to Germany, which he did in 1950.
Bois finished his life and career in Germany, first in the East, and then in the West. He appeared at the Schiller Theater and the Theater des Westens for many years. One of his final performances was in Wim Wenders' Der Himmel über Berlin (Wings of Desire) in 1987, portraying the aged poet Homer "who endlessly wanders Berlin in the hope of properly capturing the city on paper". He won the European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for this role. He played his last role in the 1989 short film Das letzte Band, ending a film career of 82 years. Bois died in Berlin, the city of his birth, at the age of 90.
Complete filmography
Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß (1907 short)
Der fidele Bauer – 1. Terzett: Ein Infant'rist, ein Artill'rist (1908 short)
Der fidele Bauer – 2. Terzett: Bauernmarsch (1908 short)
Der fidele Bauer – 3. Duettino zwischen Liesl und Heinerle (1908 short)
Der kleine Detektiv (1909 short)
Mutterliebe (1909 short)
Klebolin klebt alles (1909 short)
Ein neuer Erwerbszweig (1912 short)
Des Pfarrers Töchterlein (The Minister's Daughter) (1913 short)
Das Geschenk des Inders (1914) as Child
Streichhölzer, kauft Streichhölzer! (1916)
BZ-Maxe & Co. (1916)
(1916)
Tante Röschen will heiraten (1916)
Die Spinne (1917)
Abenteuer im Warenhaus (1917 short)
(1917)
Das Unruhige Hotel (1917)
Der Dieb (1918) as Hellmuth
(1918)
Der Gast aus der vierten Dimension (1918)
So'n kleiner Schwerenöter (1918 short)
The Oyster Princess (1919) as Conductor
She and the Three (1922) as Der Hilfsregisseur
When She Starts, Look Out (1926) as Ali ben Mokka
Der goldene Schmetterling (The Golden Butterfly) (1926) as André Dubois, Ballettmeister
The Young Man from the Ragtrade (1926) as Moritz Spiegel
Countess Ironing-Maid (1926)
The Prince of Pappenheim (1927) as Egon Fürst
The Transformation of Dr. Bessel (1927) as Simche Regierer
Majestät schneidet Bubiköpfe (1928)
Anschluß um Mitternacht (Call at Midnight) (1929) as Emil
Der Schlemihl (1931) as Hartwig
Ein steinreicher Mann (A Tremendously Rich Man) (1932) as Curt
Hollywood Hotel (1937) as Dress Designer
Tovarich (1937) as Alfonso
Romance in the Dark (1938) as Von Hemisch
Gold Diggers in Paris (1938) as Padrinsky
The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse (1938) as Rabbit
Boy Meets Girl (1938) as Dance Director (uncredited)
Garden of the Moon (1938) as Maharajah of Sund
The Great Waltz (1938) as Kienzl
Hotel Imperial (1939) as Anton
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) as Student
The Lady in Question (1940) as Henri Lurette
Boom Town (1940) as Ferdie
He Stayed for Breakfast (1940) as Comrade Tronavich
Hullabaloo (1940) as Armand Francois
Bitter Sweet (1940) as Ernst
That Night in Rio (1941) as Salles
Hold Back the Dawn (1941) as Bonbois
Blue, White and Perfect (1942) as Friedrich Gerber, alias Nappy Dubois
The Tuttles of Tahiti (1942) as Jensen
My Gal Sal (1942) as De Rochemont
Pacific Rendezvous (1942) as Kestrin
Casablanca (1942) as Pickpocket
Destroyer (1943) as Yasha (uncredited)
Paris After Dark (1943) as Max (uncredited)
Princess O'Rourke (1943) as Count Peter de Candome
Swing Fever (1943) as Nick Sirocco
The Desert Song (1943) as François
Cover Girl (1944) as Chef at Danny McGuire's
Gypsy Wildcat (1944) as Valdi
Blonde Fever (1944) as Brillon
The Spanish Main (1945) as Paree
Saratoga Trunk (1945) as Augustin Haussy
Jungle Flight (1947) as Pepe
The Woman from Tangier (1948) as Parquit
Arch of Triumph (1948) as Tattooed Waiter
French Leave (1948) as Marcel
The Woman in White (1948) as Louis
Up in Central Park (1948) as Maitre d' (uncredited)
Let's Live a Little (1948) as Chemist (uncredited)
Caught (1949) as Franzi Kartos
Kiss in the Dark (1949) as Hugo Schloss
The Lovable Cheat (1949) as Count de la Brive
The Great Sinner (1949) as Jeweler / Money Lender
Oh, You Beautiful Doll (1949) as Zaltz (uncredited)
Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey (1950) as Pierre
Fortunes of Captain Blood (1950) as King Charles II
Androklus und der Löwe (Androcles and the Lion) (1958 TV film) as Androklus
Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti (1955–1960) as Johannes Puntila
The Haunted Castle (1960) as Hugo
Flüchtlingsgespräche (1964 TV film) as Ziffel
Der eingebildete Kranke (1964 TV film) as Argan
(A Scoundrel's Honor) (1966) as Emil
Die hundertste Nacht (1966 TV film) as Iwakichi
Bert Brecht vor dem McCarthy-Ausschuß (1966 TV film)
Der Zauberberg (1968 TV film) as Naphta
Amerika oder der Verschollene (1968 TV film) as Karl Roßmann's father
Der Pott (1971 TV film) as Simon Norton
Der trojanische Sessel (1971 TV film) as Franz Seider
Strychnin und saure Drops (1974 TV film)
Das Rentenspiel (1977 TV film) as Grandfather
Das Idol von Mordassow (1979 TV film)
Liebe, Tod und Heringshäppchen (1979 TV film) as Friedrich Schlick
Die Alten kommen (1980 TV film)
Wochenendgeschichten (1980 TV film)
Bühne frei für Kolowitz (1980 TV film) as Benjamin Weiß
Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe (1980 TV film)
Gesucht wird... Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren (1980 TV film)
Das Boot ist voll (1981) as Lazar Ostrowskij
Flächenbrand (1981 TV film) as Bühler
Der Schützling (1981 TV film) as Leiser
Die feine englische Art: Täglich eine gute Tat (1982 TV film) as Lord Emsworth
Die feine englische Art: Hundeglück (1982 TV film) as Lord Emsworth
Die feine englische Art: Die Lady frißt (1982 TV film) as Lord Emsworth
Die feine englische Art: Blut wird fließen (1982 TV film) as Lord Emsworth
The Roaring Fifties (1983) (uncredited)
Wings of Desire (1987) as Homer
References
Bibliography
John Holmstrom, The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995, Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, pp. 18–19.
External links
Curt Bois at the British Film Institute
Curt Bois biography from Thomas Staedeli's index of German film stars and filmmakers from 1903–1945
Photographs of Curt Bois
1901 births
1991 deaths
20th-century German male actors
Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
European Film Awards winners (people)
German expatriate male actors in the United States
German male film actors
German male silent film actors
Jewish German male actors
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Male actors from Berlin