Percy Adlon
Paul Rudolf Parsifal "Percy" Adlon (; born 1 June 1935) is a German director, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his film "Bagdad Cafe". He is associated with the New German Cinema movement. Early life. Adlon was born in Munich, Germany. He grew up in Ammerland/Starnberger See. He studied art, theater history, and German literature at Munich's Ludwig-Maximilian University; took acting and singing classes; and was a member of the student theater group. Career. Percy's films are shown and compete regularly at international film festivals, such as the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin  International Film Festival, and others. He started his professional career as an actor, became interested in radio work, was a narrator and editor of literature series and a presenter and voice-over actor in television for 10 years. In 1970, he made his first short film for Bavarian television, followed by more than 150 documentary films about art and the human condition. His first one-hour portrait "Tomi Ungerer's Landleben" started a very successful co-operation with Benigna von Keyserlingk who became Adlon's television producer of documentaries and feature films. Their first feature film "Céleste", drew international attention  at Cannes in 1981. "Bagdad Cafe" (1987) started their co-operation with Dietrich v. Watzdorf (Bayerischer Rundfunk). The story of Jasmin Münchgstettner and the Café owner Brenda was an international hit. Marianne Sägebrecht whom Percy Adlon discovered in 1979 became a cult figure, and he developed songs with Tony, Oscar, and Grammy award nominated Bob Telson on such songs as "Calling You" a classic. Percy and Eleonore Adlon have won numerous awards, including top honors in Rio de Janeiro for "Bagdad Cafe", and in Montreal for "Salmonberries", two Césars, the Ernst-Lubitsch-Award, a Norwegian Amanda Award, the Swedish and  the Danish Academy awards, the Prix Humanum, Belgium, prizes in Venice, Chicago, Valladolid, Brussels, Tokyo as well as Bavarian and German Federal Film Awards, among others. Percy Adlon is the recipient of the Officer's Cross of the Federal Republic of Germany, and a voting member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Currently he is working on his new film, "Thank You, Thank You". This is the first time that Percy is directing a film he did not write himself. Personal life. Percy is the great-grandson of Lorenz Adlon, the founder of the Hotel Adlon. Percy  was the grandson of Louis Adlon, Sr., who had five children with his first wife Tilly. After almost 15 years of marriage, he met a hotel guest, the German-American Hedwig Leythen (1889–1967), called Hedda, at a New Year's Eve party in the Hotel Adlon, left his wife and children, and in 1922 he married her. It was one of the biggest scandals of Berlin in the 1920s. Tilly moved with her daughter Elisabeth, then two, to the south of Germany, while the other children Susanne Adlon-Meyerhöfer (mother of Percy), Lorenz, and twins Carl and Louis (junior) were  sent to boarding school and later all four emigrated to America. He grew up in the Bavarian countryside with his mother, Susanne Adlon-Meyerhöfer and attributes the strong, often unconventional, women's roles in his films to his being brought up in this manner. His son, Felix, an accomplished director in his own right, is the former husband of American actress Pamela Adlon and the father of her three daughters, including actresses Odessa and Gideon Adlon. Percy and Eleonore Adlon live in Pacific Palisades, California. Awards. Adolf Grimme Awards, Germany 1979 Amanda Awards, Norway 1989 Bavarian Film Awards 1988 Bavarian  TV Awards 1997 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film (BIFFF) 1994 Cannes Film Festival 1989 Chicago International Film Festival 1984 César Awards, France 1989 Ernst Lubitsch Award 1988 Film Independent Spirit Awards 1989 French Syndicate of Cinema Critics 1989 Guild of German Art House Cinemas 1989 German Film (Deutscher Film) for "Céleste" (1980). Manhattan Film Festival 2012 Medias Central European Film Festival 7+1 2011 Montréal World Film Festival 1991 Robert Festival 1989 Tokyo International Film Festival 1993 Valladolid International Film Festival 1985 Venice Film Festival 1982