Gustav Diessl

Gustav Diessl (30 December 1899 – 20 March 1948) was an Austrian artist, and film and stage actor.
Biography
Diessl was born Gustav Karl Balthasar Diessl in Vienna. In 1916, he was an extra on different stages in Vienna but was soon recruited into the army for World War I. During his military service, he was held prisoner for a year.
After the war, Diessl started training as a stage designer but left to pursue a professional career in acting. Meanwhile, he played for a touring company and in 1921 had his first fixed engagement at the Neue Wiener Bühne. That same year he made his film debut, appearing in Im Banne der Kralle, which was produced in Austria and directed by Carl Froelich (G. W. Pabst, who would later direct Diessl in Vastfronten 1918, made his only appearance as a screen actor in this film). Over the years, Diessl compiled an extensive filmography, including many romantic comedies, several of which were filmed in war-time Italy. One of his more notable roles is in the German 1945 propaganda epic Kolberg, which Nazi officials designed to bolster the peoples' morale at a time when a German victory in World War II seemed increasingly hopeless.
After his first marriage ended, Diessl lived with actress Camilla Horn for several years. After this, he married a second time in 1938 to soprano Maria Cebotari. Diessl died in 1948 following two strokes.
Selected filmography
In Thrall to the Claw (1921) - Ingenieur
Vineta, the Sunken City (1923)
Ssanin (1924)
The Revenge of the Pharaohs (1925) - Hussein - Kemal
Sensations-Prozess (1928) - Dr. Spindler
Abgründe (1928) - Thomas Beck, Lawyer
The Devious Path (1928)
Pandora's Box (1929) - Jack the Ripper
The Living Corpse (1929) - Viktor Mikhajlovich Karenin
That Murder in Berlin (1929)
Marriage (1929)
The Man Without Love (1929) - Mérone - ein Schauspieler
A Mother's Love (1929) - Hans Immermann
The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) - Dr. Johannes Krafft
Women on the Edge (1929) - Robert Stevens
Three Around Edith (1929) - Roger Brown
Westfront 1918 (1930) - Karl
Morals at Midnight (1930) - Brat, ein Gefangener
Lieutenant, Were You Once a Hussar? (1930) - Fedor Karew
Hans in Every Street (1930) - Soranzo
The Great Longing (1930) - Himself
The Yellow House of Rio (1931) - King-Fu / Scalpa
Men Behind Bars (1931) - Morris
Nights in Port Said (1932) - Seaman Hans
Die Herrin von Atlantis (1932) - Morhange
Teilnehmer antwortet nicht (1932) - Konrad Quandt
(1932) - Martin
Die Herrgottsgrenadiere (1932) - Faletti
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) - Thomas Kent
Roman einer Nacht (1933) - Der Fremde
S.O.S. Eisberg (1933) - Professor Dr. Karl Lorenz
Weiße Majestät (1934) - Jakob Burghardt, Bergführer
Un de la montagne (1934) - Jacques Burgard
Everything for a Woman (1935) - Frederic Keyne, Flugzeuginsustrieller
Demon of the Himalayas (1935) - Dr. Norman - Ethnologe
The Love of the Maharaja (1936) - Maharadscha
A Woman Between Two Worlds (1936) - Dr. Hellwig
Moscow-Shanghai (1936) - Serge Smrirnow
Shadows of the Past (1936)
Starke Herzen (1937) - Rittmeister Alexander von Harbin
The Tiger of Eschnapur (1938) - Sascha Demidoff, Abenteurer
The Indian Tomb (1938) - Sascha Demidoff, Ingenieur
Fortsetzung folgt (1938) - Fred, sein Freund
Kautschuk (1938) - Don Alonzo de Ribeira
The Green Emperor (1939) - Henry Miller / Hendrik Mylius
Ich verweigere die Aussage (1939) - Robert Lenart
I Am Sebastian Ott (1939) - Strobl
The Star of Rio (1940) - Don Felipe Escobar
Herz ohne Heimat (1940) - Alexander Diersberg, sein Stiefbruder
Senza cielo (1940) - Dr. Martin
The Comedians (1941) - Ernst Biron, Count of Kurland
Clarissa (1941) - Bankdirektor Feerenbach
The Hero of Venice (1941) - Marco Fuser
Menschen im Sturm (1941) - Alexander Oswatic
The Woman of Sin (1942)
Maria Malibran (1943)
Calafuria (1943) - Tommaso Bardelli
La danza del fuoco (1943) - Giulio Boldrini
Nora (1944) - Dr. Rank
Mist on the Sea (1944) - Pietro Rosati
Ein Blick zurück (1944) - Erwin Corbach
Kolberg (1944) - Lt. Schill
The Trial (1948) - Prosecutor Both
The Appeal to Conscience (1949) - Dr. Gregor Karpinski (final film role)
External links
Short Illustrated Biography
Gustav Diessl's Biography(in German)
Photographs and literature
1899 births
1948 deaths
Male actors from Vienna
Austrian male film actors
Austrian male silent film actors
20th-century Austrian male actors
Burials at Döbling Cemetery