Hans Moser (actor)

Hans Moser (6 August 1880 – 19 June 1964) was an Austrian actor who, during his long career, from the 1920s up to his death, mainly played in comedy films. He was particularly associated with the genre of the Wiener Film. Moser appeared in over 150 films.

Born Johann Julier in Vienna, Moser very often portrayed the man in the street, typically someone else's subordinate – servant, waiter, porter, shopkeeper, coachman, petty bureaucrat, etc. Also always he played honest, moral and well-intentioned people who, unable to keep cool and think clearly in crucial situations, get themselves and everyone around them into all kinds of trouble. As the father of a beautiful daughter – often widowed – he was the stubborn one who realizes only at the end of the movie, when all cases of mistaken identity have been cleared up and all secrets are revealed, that he has been terribly wrong all the time.

Moser was particularly known for mumbling indistinctly for comic effect rather than pronouncing words and sentences clearly, and also for failing to finish his sentences – which, combined with his moderate Viennese dialect, made it hard for non-native speakers of Austrian German to understand what he was saying.

In Moser's comedy films, Paul Hörbiger, Theo Lingen, Oskar Sima, and Annie Rosar were some of his congenial partners. However Moser was also a serious actor, especially on the stage and, towards the end of his life, on television. In many musical films, Moser can also be heard interpreting a Wienerlied, more likely than not at a Heuriger.

During the Nazi regime, Moser had severe problems because of his wife Blanca (or Bianca) Hirschler, who was Jewish, but he refused to divorce her. It was only because of his great popularity that the regime allowed him to continue to appear in films. His wife eventually fled to Hungary to avoid further trouble. After the war the couple reunited.

Hans Moser died in Vienna in 1964, aged 83. His continuing popularity is attested to by the fact that his style of speaking is still being parodied, often by very young entertainers.

A bust of Moser in Hans Moser Park in Hietzing

• Die Stadt ohne Juden (The City Without Jews) (1924, based on the novel by Hugo Bettauer)
• Red Heels (1925)
• Darling of the Gods (1930)
• Gold on the Street (1930)
• Marriage with Limited Liability (1931)
• No Money Needed (1932)
• Madame Wants No Children (1933)
• Gently My Songs Entreat (1933)
• The Young Baron Neuhaus (1934)
• Spring Parade (1934)
• Polish Blood (1934)
• The Secret of Cavelli (1934)
• Suburban Cabaret (1935)
• The World's in Love (1935)
• Heaven on Earth (1935)
• Circus Saran (1935)
• Last Stop (1935)
• A Hoax (1936)
• Hannerl and Her Lovers (1936)
• Ungeküsst soll man nicht schlafen gehn (1936, alongside Liane Haid)
• Fräulein Veronika (1936)
• The Scoundrel (1939)
• Anton the Last (1939)
• Opernball (1939)
• The Unfaithful Eckehart (1940)
• My Daughter Lives in Vienna (1940)
• Vienna Tales (1940)
• Rosen in Tirol (1940, alongside Johannes Heesters)
• Love is Duty Free (1941)
• Vienna Blood (1942)
• Abenteuer im Grandhotel (1943)
• Schrammeln (1944)
• Viennese Girls (1945, released 1949)
• Renee XIV (1946, uncompleted)
• Der Hofrat Geiger (1947)
• Jetzt schlägt's 13 (1950)
• Hallo Dienstmann (1952) (a typical Antel movie)
• Dutch Girl (1953)
• The Uncle from America (1953)
• The Three from the Filling Station (1955)
• The Congress Dances (1955)
• Opernball (1956)
• Emperor's Ball (1956)
• Hallo Taxi (1958)
• Die Fledermaus (1962, playing the non-singing role of Frosch, the drunken jailer)
• Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald (1961, based on the play Tales from the Vienna Woods by Ödön von Horvath)