Occupation Actor Name Wilhelm Brincken Ex-spouse Alice L. Roedel | Years active 1914–1944 Role Character actor | |
Born May 27, 1881 ( 1881-05-27 ) Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Other names William Vaughn, William Vaughan, William von Brinken Died January 18, 1946, Los Angeles, California, United States Children Carl von Brincken, Philip Morgan Roedel Movies Queen Kelly, Thank You - Mr Moto, A Yank in Libya, Crimson Romance, Miss V from Moscow Similar People Erich von Stroheim, Gloria Swanson, Lew Landers, Norman Foster, William Dieterle | ||
Wilhelm von Brincken, also known as Wilhelm L. von Brincken, William Vaughn, William von Brinken and William Vaughan, was a German spy during World War I, who would go on to become an American character actor of the silent and sound film eras.
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Early life
Von Brincken was born in Flensburg, Schleswig-Holstein on May 27, 1881. He was a reservist in the German Army, and he came to the United States as a military attache to their embassy in Washington D.C., sometime around 1910. Once here he met his first wife, Alice L Roedel; they married and would have two children: Carl von Brincken (1911–1911) and Philip Morgan Roedel (1913–1985). Carl would die several hours after his birth. He made his debut acting in American films in The Redemption of David Corson (1914).
Espionage activity
In 1915, he was transferred to the west coast, and assigned to the consulate in San Francisco. While working at the San Francisco consulate, he was arrested at the beginning of World War I on espionage charges, due to his alleged involvement in a bomb-plot with his co-conspirators, C.C. Crowley, who worked at the German Consulate and an agent of a German shipping line, Robert Capelle. In February 1916, he was indicted, along with dozens of others, including the German Consul General and his vice-Consul, Franz Bopp and Baron E.H. von Schack, respectively. He would be convicted, and sentenced to prison, spending his time in Alcatraz Prison.
Film career
After his release from prison in 1920, von Brincken would become an American citizen in 1921. A fellow German ex-patriot, Erich Von Stroheim, included him in a group of former German military men who he invited to Hollywood to work on films. Due to his military background, he would be called upon as military expert as a technical advisor on films, including the Academy Award winning All Quiet on the Western Front (1930).
Von Brincken returned to acting in Von Stroheim's 1928 film, Queen Kelly, starring Gloria Swanson. Over the course of his career, he would appear under several different variants of his name, such as von Brinken, as well as going under Anglicized versions of his name, such as William Vaughn and Vaughan, when it was politically correct to do so. In 1929 and 1930 he had small roles in several films before receiving featured roles such as in the Eddie Foy and Irene Dunne film, Leathernecking, and playing the German ace, Baron von Richtofen in Howard Hughes' 1930 classic, Hells Angels. Most of the rest of the 1930s would see him appear in numerous films, in both minor and featured roles.
With the outbreak of hostilities in Europe in 1939, von Brincken was often cast in the role of a Nazi, such as in 1939's Confessions of a Nazi Spy;, the Fay Wray film Navy Secrets (1939); and 1941's So Ends Our Night, which stars Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, Frances Dee, and Glenn Ford. Not only did he appear in dramas and suspense films, but he would also do comedies such as The Ritz Brothers' 1939 film, Pack Up Your Troubles, and Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers.
Filmography
(Per AFI database)
Personal life
Von Brincken remarried, to socialite Milo Abercrombie. In January 1946, while in New York City, von Brincken would suffer a ruptured artery. He was rushed to St. Vincent's Hospital, where he died on January 18, 1946. He would be buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.