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Helmut Dantine

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Full Name
  
Helmut Guttman

Role
  
Actor

Occupation
  
Actor

Children
  
Dana Wrightsman Dantine

Years active
  
1940–1979

Name
  
Helmut Dantine


Helmut Dantine 111173861jpgv8CE3629EC7A84B0

Born
  
7 October 1918 (
1918-10-07
)
Vienna, Austria-Hungary

Died
  
May 2, 1982, Beverly Hills, California, United States

Spouse
  
Niki Dantine (m. 1958–1982), Charlene Wrightsman (m. 1947–1950)

Movies
  
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo G, War and Peace, Passage to Marseille, Northern Pursuit, Mrs Miniver

Similar People
  
Nancy Coleman, Philip Dorn, Michael Curtiz, George Tobias, Nicholas Schenck

HELMUT DANTINE TRIBUTE


Casablanca - Bulgarian Couple


Helmut Dantine (7 October 1918 – 2 May 1982) was an Austrian-born American actor who often played Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. His best-known performances are perhaps the German pilot in Mrs. Miniver and the desperate refugee in Casablanca who tries gambling to obtain visa money for himself and his wife. As his acting career waned, he turned to producing.

Contents

Helmut Dantine Helmut Dantine Casablanca Mrs Miniver Autographed

According to one obituary, "He specialized in portrayals of Nazis, sometimes as the handsome but icy SS sadist battling Allied heroes, sometimes as a sympathetic German soldier forced, against his better judgment, to fight."

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Early life

Helmut Dantine Helmut DantineAnnex

Dantine's father, Alfred Guttman, was the head of the Austrian railway system in Vienna. As a young man, Dantine became involved in an anti-Nazi movement in Vienna. In 1938, when he was 19 years old, the Nazis took over Austria during the Anschluss. Dantine was rounded up with hundreds of other enemies of the Third Reich and imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp outside Vienna.

Helmut Dantine GOLDEN AGE AUTOGRAPHS Helmut Dantine

Three months later, using their influence, his parents obtained his release and immediately sent him to California to live with a friend. His father later died in Austria; however, his mother, Ditha Guttman, was safely brought from Austria to California in 1960, with the help of her son. Ditha lived in California until her death in 1983.

Film career

Dantine enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. His relatives thought he would go into business but he became interested in theatre. He began his U.S. acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse, running two gas stations to play the bills. Dantine was spotted by a talent scout from Warner Bros who signed him to a contract.

Warner Bros

Dantine had uncredited parts in International Squadron (1942) and To Be or Not to Be (1942), before his first credited role in MGM's Mrs. Miniver (1942), playing a downed German pilot captured by the title character (played by Greer Garson). This film was a huge hit and Dantine received much positive attention.

In August 1942 Warners signed him to a new contract. The studio kept him busy in war films: The Pied Piper (1942); Desperate Journey (1942), fighting Errol Flynn; and The Navy Comes Through (1942).

He had a sympathetic role in Casablanca (1942), as the young refugee trying to earn money for a visa via gambling who is helped by Humphrey Bogart. Warners begin to give Dantine more sizeable roles in "A" films: Edge of Darkness (1943), playing a Nazi officer, again fighting Errol Flynn; Mission to Moscow (1943), as a Russian, a sympathetic role; Watch on the Rhine (1943).

Dantine's good looks caused him to receive a lot of fan mail and, in the words of one profile, "the studio began to realise it had something else besides a Hollywood Hitlerite on its hands." Warners announced they had bought Night Action by Norman Krasna as a vehicle for Dantine but the film appears to have not been made. Instead he went back to villainy in Northern Pursuit (1943), as a Nazi running loose in northern Canada fighting Errol Flynn - but it was a very large role.

Warners did cast him in a sympathetic role, as a convict in Passage to Marseille (1944), and he was one of several stars in Hollywood Canteen (1944). In 1944, exhibitors voting for "Stars of Tomorrow" picked Dantine at number ten.

Warners gave him a sympathetic lead in Hotel Berlin (1945) as the leader of the German underground. He was a Nazi on the run again in Escape in the Desert (1945), a remake of The Petrified Forest. His last film for Warners was in a film noir, Shadow of a Woman (1946). Then he left the studio.

Freelancer

He was in the lead for a film noir Whispering City (1947) for Eagle Lion.

In 1947, he co-starred with Tallulah Bankhead in the Broadway play The Eagle Has Two Heads, replacing Marlon Brando. According to Jean Cocteau, Bankhead made alterations to the play, and the production was a flop, lasting only 29 performances.

He was in No Time for Comedy on stage in Washington and also performed in the 1950 Broadway play Parisienne and was in Arms and the Man at Cambridge Summer Playhouse.

Dantine starred in the short-lived live television series Shadow of the Cloak during the 1951–52 season. He had the lead in a B, Guerrilla Girl (1953), then did a small role in a musical, Call Me Madam (1953), and supported Patricia Neal in Stranger from Venus (1953).

Dantine acted in the 1956 film production of Tolstoy's War and Peace as Dolokhov, a Cossack officer assigned to harrying the retreat of the French Napoleonic army from Moscow. He also had a small role in Alexander the Great (1956), Kean: Genius or Scoundrel (1957) and The Story of Mankind (1957) and played the lead in Hell on Devil's Island (1957).

Dantine directed the 1958 military aviation film Thundering Jets, starring Rex Reason. He continued to act: Fräulein (1958) and Tempest (1958).

Producing

As his acting career wound down, he became a vice-president of Hollywood mogul Joseph Schenck's company, Schenck Enterprises, in 1959; Schenck was his wife's uncle.

He later went to work as producer with Robert L. Lippert Productions and then as president of Hand Enterprises Inc.

Among Dantine's screen appearances were in three films for which he was the executive producer: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974), and The Killer Elite (1975), both directed by Sam Peckinpah, and The Wilby Conspiracy (1975). He was in The Fifth Musketeer (1979) and Tarzan the Apeman (1981).

Personal life

Before graduating from UCLA, he married fellow theater student Gwen Anderson; they divorced in 1943.

He was in a car accident in 1943. In January 1945 he was arrested for biting Ida Lupino's assistant on the arm during a New Years' Eve party, but was released after apologising.

He became an American citizen in April 1944.

In 1947, he married Charlene Stafford Wrightsman (1927–1963), the younger daughter of Charles B. Wrightsman, an oil millionaire whose collection of French furniture and decorative arts fills several galleries at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The couple had a son, Dana Wrightsman Dantine, before divorcing in 1950. His ex-wife claimed Dantine was after her father's money.

In 1958, Dantine married Nicola Schenck, daughter of Nicholas Schenck, one of the founders of Loews. His wife acted under the name Niki Dantine; the couple had three children: Dita, Nicola and Shelley. In 1971, Helmut and Niki Dantine were divorced.

Death

On 2 May 1982, Helmut Dantine died in Beverly Hills from a heart attack at the age of 63.

Filmography

Actor
1979
The Fifth Musketeer as
Spanish Ambassador
1976
Medical Story (TV Series) as
Dr. Caradeaux
- The Quality of Mercy (1976) - Dr. Caradeaux
1975
The Killer Elite as
Vorodny
1975
The Wilby Conspiracy as
Prosecuting Counsel
1974
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia as
Max
1972
Call Holme (TV Movie) as
Friedrich Von Klug
1971
Night Gallery (TV Series) as
General von Grunn (segment "The Devil Is Not Mocked")
- A Question of Fear/The Devil Is Not Mocked (1971) - General von Grunn (segment "The Devil Is Not Mocked")
1969
The File on Devlin (TV Movie) as
Hans Raedler
1967
Run for Your Life (TV Series) as
Erich Krieger
- The Carpella Collection (1967) - Erich Krieger
1965
Operation Crossbow as
General Linz
1965
The Rogues (TV Series) as
Colonel von Reichert
- Run for the Money (1965) - Colonel von Reichert
1957
Playhouse 90 (TV Series) as
Colonel / Luis Obregon
- The Hiding Place (1960) - Colonel
- Clipper Ship (1957) - Luis Obregon
1959
Sugarfoot (TV Series) as
Maj. Horst von Hoffstadt
- The Royal Raiders (1959) - Maj. Horst von Hoffstadt
1958
The Thin Man (TV Series) as
Baron Orlonski
- Design for Murder (1958) - Baron Orlonski
1958
Tempest as
Svabrin
1958
Fräulein as
Lt. Hugo Von Metzler
1953
Schlitz Playhouse (TV Series) as
Peter
- I Shot a Prowler (1958)
- Happy Ending (1953) - Peter
1957
Studio 57 (TV Series) as
German Flyer / Charles Turnwell
- A Source of Irritation (1958) - German Flyer
- The Alibi (1957) - Charles Turnwell
1957
The Story of Mankind as
Marc Antony
1957
Hell on Devil's Island as
Paul Rigaud
1957
The Joseph Cotten Show: On Trial (TV Series) as
LaCosta
- The Gentle Voice of Murder (1957) - LaCosta
1957
The Millionaire (TV Series) as
Josef Marton
- The Josef Marton Story (1957) - Josef Marton
1957
Kean: Genius or Scoundrel as
Lord Mewill
1957
General Electric Theater (TV Series) as
Manson
- Flight from Tormendero (1957) - Manson
1957
Climax! (TV Series) as
Daniel
- The Long Count (1957) - Daniel
1957
Matinee Theatre (TV Series)
- The Thirteenth Crypt (1957)
1956
War and Peace as
Dolokhov
1956
Alexander the Great as
Nectenabus
1954
The Venusian as
The Stranger
1954
Suspense (TV Series)
- The Haunted (1954)
1953
The Ford Television Theatre (TV Series) as
Peter Mikhal
- The Bet (1953) - Peter Mikhal
1953
Call Me Madam as
Prince Hugo
1953
Guerrilla Girl as
Demetri Alexander
1951
Shadow of the Cloak (TV Series) as
Peter House
- The Talking Jewel (1952) - Peter House
- The Fall Guy (1952) - Peter House
- Assignment Cancelled (1952) - Peter House
- Gateway to Fear (1952) - Peter House
- Check List (1952) - Peter House
- The Last Performance (1952) - Peter House
- The Westfield Brain (1952) - Peter House
- The Swing of the Pendulum (1951) - Peter House
- Do Not Open Till Christmas (1951) - Peter House
- A Letter from China (1951) - Peter House
- Tyndall Masterpiece (1951) - Peter House
- How Death Came to Marushka (1951) - Peter House
- Plan for Plague (1951) - Peter House
- Carnival in Berlin (1951) - Peter House
- The Outsider (1951) - Peter House
- The Missing Years (1951) - Peter House
- The League of Fear (1951) - Peter House
- Without Arms (1951) - Peter House
- Cairo Incident (1951) - Peter House
- The Two-Faced Man (1951) - Peter House
- The Professor (1951) - Peter House
- Blueprint for Treason (1951) - Peter House
- The Magazine Peddler (1951) - Peter House
- Million Dollar Watch (1951) - Peter House
- The Search (1951) - Peter House
- Journey of No Return (1951) - Peter House
- Consignment to Oblivion (1951) - Peter House
- The Man with the Dark Glasses (1951) - Peter House
- The Silent One (1951) - Peter House
- The Light of the Lantern (1951) - Peter House
- The Blue Hill Menace (1951) - Peter House
- The Courier (1951) - Peter House
- The Tattoo (1951) - Peter House
- Mightier Than the Sword (1951) - Peter House
- Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief (1951) - Peter House
1950
The Clock (TV Series)
- Just a Minute (1950)
1949
Lights Out (TV Series)
- The Fall of the House of Usher (1949)
1949
Studio One (TV Series) as
Dr. Roland Maradick
- The Shadowy Third (1949) - Dr. Roland Maradick
1947
Whispering City as
Michel Lacoste
1946
Shadow of a Woman as
Dr. Eric Ryder
1945
Escape in the Desert as
Capt. Becker
1945
Hotel Berlin as
Martin Richter
1944
Hollywood Canteen as
Helmut Dantine
1944
Passage to Marseille as
Garou
1943
Northern Pursuit as
Col. Hugo von Keller
1943
Watch on the Rhine as
Young Man
1943
Mission to Moscow as
Maj. Kamenev
1943
Edge of Darkness as
Capt. Koenig
1942
Casablanca as
Jan Brandel (uncredited)
1942
The Navy Comes Through as
Frightened Young German Seaman (uncredited)
1942
Desperate Journey as
German Co-Pilot (uncredited)
1942
The Pied Piper as
Aide
1942
Mrs. Miniver as
German Flyer
1942
To Be or Not to Be as
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
1941
International Squadron as
German Pilot (uncredited)
1940
Escape as
Porter (uncredited)
Producer
1975
The Killer Elite (executive producer)
1975
The Wilby Conspiracy (executive producer)
1974
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (executive producer)
Director
1958
Thundering Jets
Thanks
1983
The Osterman Weekend (dedicatee)
Self
1950
20 Questions (TV Series) as
Self
- Helmut Dantine (1950) - Self
Archive Footage
1943
The First Motion Picture Unit (Documentary short) as
in 'Emergency Care of Air Casualties' (uncredited)

References

Helmut Dantine Wikipedia


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