Hasse, O. E.

(Otto Eduard)

(1903-1978)

   Actor. Hasse arrived in Berlin to study law, but after three semesters enrolled instead in Max Reinhardt's acting school at the Deutsches Theater. Upon graduation Hasse landed parts in numerous touring troupes and tiny provincial theaters. By the early 1930s, however, he was working regularly in Breslau and Munich. The Tri-Ergon sound technology for film enabled Hasse to capitalize on his extraordinary vocal gifts and facilitate his "discovery" as a movie actor; he worked consistently in films throughout the Third Reich. After World War II Hasse reestablished his career by playing the title role in Heinz Hilpert's German premiere production of Carl Zuckmayer's Des Teufels General (The Devil's General). In the 1950s he was a member of Boleslaw Barlog's company in Berlin at the Schiller Theater, appearing in several notable productions, among them Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot. Alongside Montgomery Clift, he played Otto Keller in Hitchcock's I Confess in 1953, and in 1956 he played the title role in the film for which he is best remembered, Canaris. For that performance, Hasse won the Best Actor Award at the San Sebastian Film Festival. In 1961 he played the title role in a film version of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi (The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi), and in 1962 he played Dr. Schön in Rolf Thiele's film Lulu, based on the Frank Wedekind plays. His remarkable voice enabled him to work extensively in the dubbing market, speaking the translated lines of Humphrey Bogart, Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, and others in dozens of American films banned in the 1930s and 1940s, which Germans began to see only in the 1950s.