Charles Régnier
Quick Facts
Biography
Karl Friedrich Anton Hermann 'Charles' Regnier (22 July 1914 – 13 September 2001) was a German actor, director, radio actor and translator. He appeared in more than 135 films between 1949 and 2000. In the 1950s and 1960s, he was one of the busiest German theatre and film actors.
Family life and upbringing
Born at Freiburg in 1914 (some sources inaccurately place Regnier's birth year as 1915), Regnier owed his name to his grandfather, a native Frenchman. Regnier was the first child of Anton Karl Regnier and Emile (Milly) Maria Friederike Harrer, born in Freiburg im Breisgau. His father was a general practitioner and Charles initially wanted to become a doctor.
Charles Regnier grew up in Strasbourg and Badenweiler where his maternal grandparents owned the Schloss Hausbaden hotel. After his father's suicide in 1924, his mother moved with her four sons first to Heidelberg, and then to Montreux on Lake Geneva. When his mother contracted tuberculosis in 1929, the family decided to move to the sanatorium at Davos. Here, Charles met a number of celebrities, including the writer Alfred Henschke alias Klabund, who awakened Regnier's interest in literature and the theatre. Together with his brothers, Charles produced Klabund's comedy XYZ: For three actors in three acts for a performance in Klabund's private living room. His first acting performance was starring as the Countess Y in this piece. "As an actor I never again had the opportunity to play a lady, but often showed how one plays a lady," Regnier wrote in his personal memoirs.
Career
Regnier's first engagement was in 1938 at the theatre at Greifswald. Here he met actress and singer Pamela Wedekind, a daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind. They married on 21 June 1941 in Berlin. In 1941, Regnier was invited by Otto Falckenberg to join the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele, where he remained until 1958. From 1946, Regnier worked as a drama teacher at the newly founded Otto-Falckenberg-Schule.
From 1961 to 1962 he was an ensemble member of the Wiener Burgtheater. Regnier preferred not to make a distinction between high art performances and entertainment, saying, "The public should find my work effective, entertaining, in short: agreeable."
Regnier lived in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. He died on 13 September 2001 after suffering a stroke in Bad Wiessee. He was buried in the Badenweiler-Lipburg cemetery, close to his childhood home.[3]
His literary estate can be found in the archives of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.[4]
Partial filmography
- Das Geheimnis der roten Katze (1949)
- The Last Illusion (1949) as Bertram
- Royal Children (1950)
- Captive Soul (1952)
- The Sergeant's Daughter (1952)
- Street Serenade (1953)
- The Chaplain of San Lorenzo (1953)
- Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben (1954)
- Captain Wronski (1954)
- A Life for Do (1954)
- Clivia (1954)
- Canaris (1954)
- Hello, My Name is Cox (1955)
- The Ambassador's Wife (1955)
- Oasis (1955)
- Magic Fire (1955) as Giacomo Meyerbeer
- San Salvatore (1956) as Professor Dr. Monthé
- Beichtgeheimnis (1956) as Stadtrat Praun
- My Husband's Getting Married Today (1956) as Niki Springer
- Kitty und die große Welt (1956) as Monsieur Jeannot
- The Story of Anastasia (1956)
- A Heart Returns Home (1956)
- Queen Louise (1957) as Talleyrand
- Beneath the Palms on the Blue Sea (1957) as Cesare, the Contessa's butler
- Banktresor 713 (1957) as Hartmann
- El Hakim (1957) as Dr. Kolali
- Der Page vom Palast-Hotel (1958)
- A Time to Love and a Time to Die (1958) as Joseph
- Grabenplatz 17 (1958) as Polizeichemiker Dr. Wagenknecht
- Taiga (1958) as Becker
- Sag ja, Mutti (1958) as Roberts
- Solange das Herz schlägt (1958) as Mr. Kenneweg, the chemist teacher
- The Journey (1959) as Capt. Ornikidze
- Court Martial (1959) as Schorn, Vorsitzender des Kriegsgerichtes
- The Rest Is Silence (1959) as Kriminalrat Fortner
- Die schöne Lügnerin (1959) as Fürst Metternich
- Mistress of the World (1960) as Norvald
- Der Herr mit der schwarzen Melone (1960) as Herr von Seelisberg
- Le bal des espions (1960) as Ernst Schenker
- The Secret Ways (1961) as The Count
- Affäre Nina B. (1961) as Schwerdtfeger
- The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi (1961) as Sir Thomas Jones - Justizminister
- Bankraub in der Rue Latour (1961) as Camarro
- Ich kann nicht länger schweigen (1962) as Dr. Kampmann
- Wenn beide schuldig werden (1962) as Reeder
- The Counterfeit Traitor (1962) as Wilhelm Kortner
- Chikita (1962) as Dr. Hauenstein
- Adorable Julia (1962) as Lord Charles Tamerly
- Lulu (1962) as Jack the Ripper
- Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1962) as Mortimer
- Freud: The Secret Passion (1962) (uncredited)
- Der Fluch der gelben Schlange (1963) as Major Spedwell
- Liebe will gelernt sein (1963) as Kramer
- Miracle of the White Stallions (1963) as Gen. Stryker
- The Black Abbot (1963) as Detective Puddler
- Moral 63 (1963) as Dr. Alois Kämpfer, Zeitungsverleger
- Banana Peel (1963) as Le vrai Bontemps
- Les Tontons flingueurs (1963) as Tomate
- Das große Liebesspiel (1963) as Regisseur
- An Alibi for Death (1963) as Dr. Hartleben
- Der Unsichtbare (1963) as Charley Nelson
- Der Prozeß Carl von O. (1964, TV film) as Jägers und von Ossietzkys Verteidiger
- Verdammt zur Sünde (1964)
- Angélique, Marquise des Anges (1964) as Conan Becher
- DM-Killer (1965) as Ronald Bruck
- Merveilleuse Angélique (1965) as Conan Becker
- Shots in Threequarter Time (1965) as Henry
- Corrida pour un espion (1965) as Simon Walter
- Pleins feux sur Stanislas (1965) as L'homme au chat (uncredited)
- A Study in Terror (1965) as Joseph Beck
- El marqués (1965) as Doctor
- The Strangler of the Tower (1966) as Mr. Cliften
- The Doctor Speaks Out (1966) as Professor
- To Skin a Spy (1966) as Erfuhrt
- Once a Greek (1966) as Petit-Paysan
- Run Like a Thief (1967) as Piet de Jonge
- Die Ente klingelt um ½ 8 (1968) as Professor Sauermann
- Die Konferenz der Tiere (1969) as The General (voice)
- Slap in the Face (1970) as Finanzminister
- Unter den Dächern von St. Pauli (1970) as Nachtclub-Besitzer
- The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of (1972) as Prof. Vladimir Monerow
- Steppenwolf (1974) as Loering
- The Serpent's Egg (1977) as Doctor
- Fabian (1980) as Erfinder
- Shalom Pharao (1982) as Pharao (voice)
- Der Schnüffler (1983) as Mr. X
- The Roaring Fifties (1983) as Igor
- A Man Like Eva (1984) as Yvonne
- Rosa Luxemburg (1986) as Jean Jaures
- The Passenger – Welcome to Germany (1988) as Silbermann
- Cascadeur (1998) as Professor Waldheim
- No Place to Go (2000) as Hanna's Father