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Helmut Dantine‌

Gender

Male

Birthday

calendar1918-10-07

Popularity

star1.7

Helmut Dantine

Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]

Helmut Dantine

Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]

Gender

Male

Birthday

calendar1918-10-07

Popularity

star1.7

Biography

Helmut Dantine was an Austrian-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 travel visa money for himself and his wife. As his acting career waned, he turned to producing. Dantine enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. His relatives thought he would go into business, but he became interested in theater. He began his U.S. acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse, while running two gas stations in order to pay his expenses. Dantine was spotted by a talent scout from Warner Bros, who signed him to a contract. Dantine had uncredited parts in International Squadron and To Be or Not to Be, before his first credited role in MGM's Mrs. Miniver, playing a downed German pilot captured by the title character (played by Greer Garson). It was a huge hit, and Dantine received much positive attention from being in the film. In August 1942, Warners signed him to a new acting contract. The studio kept him busy with roles in the World War II films, The Pied Piper, Desperate Journey fighting Errol Flynn, and The Navy Comes Through. He had a sympathetic role in Casablanca, as a young refugee trying and failing to earn money via gambling. Warners begin to give Dantine more sizeable roles in their "A" films, Watch on the Rhine, Edge of Darkness, playing a Nazi officer, again fighting Errol Flynn, and Mission to Moscow, playing a sympathetic Russian. Dantine's good looks caused him to receive a lot of fan mail and, in the words of one profile, "the studio began to realize 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 not to have been made. Instead, he had a large role playing the villain in Northern Pursuit (1943), as a Nazi running loose in northern Canada fighting Errol Flynn again. Warner Bros. later cast him in a sympathetic role in Passage to Marseille, and he was one of several stars in Hollywood Canteen. In 1944, exhibitors voting for "Stars of Tomorrow", picked Dantine at number 10. Warners gave him a sympathetic lead in Hotel Berlin, as the leader of the German underground. He was once again a Nazi on-the-run in Escape in the Desert, a remake of The Petrified Forest. His last role for Warners was in the film noir, Shadow of a Woman. He then left the studio. 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 later screen appearances, there were three films for which he was the executive producer: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and The Killer Elite, both directed by Sam Peckinpah, and The Wilby Conspiracy. He was also in The Fifth Musketeer and Tarzan the Apeman. On 2 May 1982, Helmut Dantine died in Beverly Hills from a heart attack at age 63. 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".

Movie Credits

Casablanca

Casablanca‌
star8.2
calendar 1943

Mrs. Miniver

Mrs. Miniver‌
star7.0
calendar 1942

To Be or Not to Be

To Be or Not to Be‌
star7.8
calendar 1942

Operation Crossbow

Operation Crossbow‌
star6.7
calendar 1965

The Story of Mankind

The Story of Mankind‌
star4.5
calendar 1957

Whispering City

Whispering City‌
star4.8
calendar 1947

Shadow of a Woman

Shadow of a Woman‌
star4.2
calendar 1946

Hollywood Canteen

Hollywood Canteen‌
star7.3
calendar 1944

Call Me Madam

Call Me Madam‌
star6.3
calendar 1953

Passage to Marseille

Passage to Marseille‌
star6.6
calendar 1944

Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness‌
star6.1
calendar 1943

Northern Pursuit

Northern Pursuit‌
star5.9
calendar 1943

Stranger from Venus

Stranger from Venus‌
star5.0
calendar 1954

Escape in the Desert

Escape in the Desert‌
star0.0
calendar 1945

Hotel Berlin

Hotel Berlin‌
star6.1
calendar 1945

The File on Devlin

The File on Devlin‌
star0.0
calendar 1969

Fraulein

Fraulein‌
star7.0
calendar 1958

Watch on the Rhine

Watch on the Rhine‌
star6.8
calendar 1943

The Killer Elite

The Killer Elite‌
star5.8
calendar 1975

The Pied Piper

The Pied Piper‌
star6.8
calendar 1942

Tempest

Tempest‌
star6.2
calendar 1958

Escape

Escape‌
star7.4
calendar 1940

War and Peace

War and Peace‌
star6.6
calendar 1956

Guerrilla Girl

Guerrilla Girl‌
star0.0
calendar 1953

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia‌
star7.0
calendar 1974

Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great‌
star5.9
calendar 1956

The Wilby Conspiracy

The Wilby Conspiracy‌
star6.5
calendar 1975

The Fifth Musketeer

The Fifth Musketeer‌
star5.1
calendar 1979

Hell on Devil's Island

Hell on Devil's Island‌
star6.0
calendar 1957

Mission to Moscow

Mission to Moscow‌
star5.2
calendar 1943

Kean: Genius or Scoundrel

Kean: Genius or Scoundrel‌
star6.8
calendar 1957

Tv Credits

Studio One

Studio One‌
star4.4
calendar 1948

Night Gallery

Night Gallery‌
star7.8
calendar 1970

General Electric Theater

General Electric Theater‌
star5.5
calendar 1953

Hallmark Hall of Fame

Hallmark Hall of Fame‌
star8.8
calendar 1951

Run for Your Life

Run for Your Life‌
star7.2
calendar 1965

The Rogues

The Rogues‌
star7.5
calendar 1964

The Millionaire

The Millionaire‌
star5.0
calendar 1955

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars‌
star6.5
calendar 1951

The Thin Man

The Thin Man‌
star7.6
calendar 1957

Climax!

Climax!‌
star2.7
calendar 1954

Sugarfoot

Sugarfoot‌
star4.2
calendar 1957

Suspense

Suspense‌
star4.2
calendar 1949

Lights Out

Lights Out‌
star5.3
calendar 1949

Studio 57

Studio 57‌
star0.0
calendar 1954

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars‌
star6.5
calendar 1951