Pero Alexander

German actor Pero Alexander (1921-2011) played in a dozen Heimat films and other light entertainment pictures of the 1950s. Since the early 1960s he hardly appeared in any more films.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. T 616. Photo: Berolina / Constantin / Wesel. Still from Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne/If the Father and the Son (Hans Quest, 1955).

Tawdry White Slavery Melodrama

Pero Alexander was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1921. His birth name was Hans Eduard Pfingstler and he was the son of a government councillor. After his war service, he returned to his home town of Stuttgart where he received acting lessons from Rudolf Fernau. In 1947 Pfingstler was engaged by the Stuttgart Theater der Jugend under his real name, after which he moved to venues in Munich (Lustspielhaus, Schaubude, Atelier-Theater) until 1950.

In 1951 Pfingstler was brought to the film industry and first appeared under the stage name Peter Alexander. He made his film debut in Straße zur Heimat/The Way Homewards (Romano Mengon, 1952) starring Angelika Hauff. Soon followed supporting roles in more Heimat films like Wetterleuchten am Dachstein/Storm Clouds Over Dachstein (Anton Kutter, 1953) with Marianne Koch, and Einmal kehr' ich wieder/Once I'll Return (Géza von Bolváry, 1953) with Paul Dahlke.

His first leading part as Pero Alexander was in the drama Maria Johanna (1953), which was directed by Swedish film star Signe Hasso and her former husband Harry Hasso.

Alexander had a small role in the white slavery melodrama Mannequins für Rio/They Were So Young (Kurt Neumann, 1954), a German-American co-production starring Johanna Matz, Scott Brady and Raymond Burr. Hal Erickson wrote at AllMovie: "Filmed on location in Rio De Janeiro, They Were So Young is a tawdry 'white slavery' melodrama, elevated by a first-rate cast and excellent production values."

Other films were the musical comedy Sonne über der Adria/Sun Over The Adria (Karl Georg Külb, 1954) and the Heinz Rühmann comedy Wenn der Vater mit dem Sohne/Like Father Like Son (Hans Quest, 1955).


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden. Photo: Hansa / Allianz-Film / Betzler. Still from Einmahl kehr' ich wieder/Once I'll Return (1953).


German postcard by Ufa/Film-Foto, no. FK 1727. Photo: Wesel / Berolina / Constantin Film.

Fathers

In the second half of the 1950s, Pero Alexander played more supporting parts, such as in Mädchen ohne Grenzen/A Girl Without Boundaries (Géza von Radványi, 1955), starring Sonja Ziemann and Ivan Desny, Das Schloß in Tirol/Castle in Tyrol (Géza von Radványi, 1957) starring Karlheinz Böhm and Erika Remberg, and Vater, Mutter und neun Kinder/Father, Mother and Nine Children (Erich Engels, 1958).

He played a romantic lead opposite Heidi Brühl in Vater, unser bestes Stück/Father, Our Best Piece (Günther Lüders, 1957) and then played in the crime dramas Das Nachtlokal zum Silbermond/5 Sinners (Wolfgang Gluck, 1959) and Orientalische Nächte/Nights in the Orient (Heinz Paul, 1960), both starring Marina Petrova.

Hal Erickson writes at AllMovie about Das Nachtlokal zum Silbermond/5 Sinners: "Dark, moody and pessimistic, 5 Sinners, has the flavour, if not the substance of the classic film noir, but perhaps because of its tawdry ambience, the film was frequently shown in grindhouses specializing in 'nudies.'"

In the early 1960s, he played his last film roles in Hohe Tannen/High Pines (August Rieger, 1960), the crime film Treibjagd auf ein Leben/Hunt For A Life (Ralph Lothar, 1961), and Das Mädchen auf der Titelseite/The Girl on the Front Page (Fritz Bornemann, 1961).

During the 1960s he incidentally appeared on TV, such as in the Austrian crime series Spiel um Schmuck/Gambling for Jewellery (1966), directed by and starring Curd Jürgens. Pero Alexander spent the last years of his life in Munich, where he died in 2011 in his 90th year.


German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden. Photo: Hansa / Allianz-Film / Betzler. Still from Einmahl kehr' ich wieder/Once I'll Return (Géza von Bolváry, 1953).


Austrian postcard by HDH Verlag, Wien (Vienna) (licence holder for Ufa, Berlin). Photo: Bavaria-Film / Hansa-Film / Günter Matern.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Filmportal and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 12 April 2023.