German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5817/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Walter Firner, Berlin.
Dutch postcard, no. 663. Photo: Ufa. Werner Krauss and Rudolf Forster in Yorck (Gustav Ucicky, 1931).
German collector card by Hänson. Photo: National / Ross Verlag. Rudolf Forster in Die Dreigroschenoper/The Threepenny Opera (G.W. Pabst, 1932).
Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6565. Photo: Matador-Film / Mondial-Film. Rudolf Forster in Der träumende Mund/Melo/Dreaming Lips (Paul Czinner, 1932).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7833/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Rudolf Forster in Morgenrot/Dawn (Gustav Ucicky, 1933).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9043/1, 1935-1936. Photo: N.D.L.S. / A.B.C. Film. Rudolf Forster in Hohe Schule/The Secret of Cavelli (Erich Engel, 1934).
Homesick after three years in the U.S.
Rudolf Heribert Anton Forster was born in Gröbming, Austria-Hungary, in 1884. Forster studied acting at the Vienna Conservatory. He was the son of tax official Dr Anton Forster and his wife Josefine, née Bartscht. Rudolf trained as an actor at the Vienna Conservatory after attending a village school and grammar school.
In 1903, he made his stage debut in Graz. From 1903 to 1904 he played at the travelling theatre Vereinigte Theater Graz and then at theatres in Linz, Berlin and Ohligs. From 1907 to 1909 he worked at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna, from 1909 to 1910 at the Berlin Theatre, then again in Vienna, including at the Volksbühne from 1913 to 1915. He fought in the First World War from 1915 to 1918. From 1920 to 1932, he was a member of the Berlin State Theatre under the artistic director Leopold Jessner.
From 1919, Forster appeared in the cinema, initially in heroic or elegant romantic roles in silent films. Forster was often assigned by director Friedrich Zelnik, who knew how to integrate the tall and slim shape of the actor into his films such as Die Marionetten der Fürstin/Marionettes of the Princess (Friedrich Zelnik, 1924). He played the ambitious Junker Detlev in one of Ufa's biggest projects, the Theodor Storm adaptation Zur Chronik von Grieshuus/Chronicles of the Gray House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925).
He also starred opposite Werner Krauss and Jenny Jugo as the quirky poet Scarron in the comedy Die Hose/The Trousers (Hans Behrendt, 1927), the film version of Carl Sternheim's play. He also was the leader of a right-wing extremist secret society in Richard Oswald's thriller Feme/Assassination (1927). Forster's first sound film was Georg Wilhelm Pabst's film Die 3 Groschen-Oper/The Threepenny Opera (G.W. Pabst, 1931) in which he starred as Mackie Messer, the king of the thieves and an irresistible pimp. In the Prussian film Yorck (Gustav Ucicky, 1931), he was King Friedrich Wilhelm III and in the war drama Morgenrot/Dawn (Gustav Ucicky, 1933), he starred as a submarine commander.
After 1933, Forster worked increasingly in Austria again. His film appearances during the turmoil of Nazi Germany were rare. In Hohe Schule/The Secret of Cavelli (Erich Engel, 1934), he played a count and trick rider, and in ... nur ein Komödiant/Only a Comedian (Erich Engel, 1935) an actor who ‘doubles’ a duke. In 1937, he fled the Nazis and emigrated to the U.S. He performed on Broadway and lived with his wife, actress Eleonora von Mendelssohn in Manhattan for a time. In Hollywood, he played in the film Island of Lost Men (Kurt Neumann, 1939) starring Anna May Wong. After three years in the U.S., he became homesick. The couple divorced and Forster returned to Germany in 1940 to resume his career there. Von Mendelsohn remained in Manhattan until she died in 1951.
German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, no. 176, Group 43. Photo: Ossi Oswalda-Film. Caption: Ossi Oswalda as chauffeur and Rudolf Forster in Amor am Steuer (Victor Janson, 1921).
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3358/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Mahrenholz, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6608/2, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Rudolf Forster in Yorck (Gustav Ucicky, 1931).
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 6508, distributed in the Netherlands by Jacon Stuvé's echte Nougat. Photo: Mondial Film / Matador Film. Rudolf Forster and Elisabeth Bergner in Der träumende Mund/Dreaming Lips (Paul Czinner, 1932).
Dutch postcard by Fim Film, no. 454. Elisabeth Bergner and Rudolph Forster in Der träumende Mund/Dreaming Lips (Paul Czinner, 1932).
Grand seigneur character roles
Back in Austria, Rudolf Forster starred in the anti-Semitic film Wien 1910/Vienna 1910 (E. W. Emo, 1943) as the anti-Semitic Viennese mayor Karl Lueger. On stage, he played at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and Vienna. In 1944, Forster was on the list of those pardoned by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda.
After the war, he initially devoted himself to the theatre in Vienna and in both German states. In 1948-1949, he toured Switzerland and in 1963, he appeared at the Salzburg Festival in Faust II. In post-war German films, he specialised in gentlemanly or aristocratic character roles. He could be seen opposite Käthe Dorsch and Hildegard Knef in Erich Engel’s romantic comedy Fahrt ins Glück/Journey Into Happiness which was filmed in 1944 but not released until 1948.
In the historical spy drama Spionage/Espionage (Franz Antel, 1955), he played a field marshal and chief of staff of the Austro-Hungarian army alongside Ewald Balser as Colonel Redl. It was based on the real story of Alfred Redl, an officer serving with Austrian Military Intelligence who was also secretly spying for the hostile Russian Empire before the First World War.
Forster appeared opposite Gustav Gründgens and Liselotte Pulver in the historical comedy Das Glas Wasser/A Glass of Water (Helmut Käutner, 1960). In the crime comedy Er kanns nicht lassen/He Can't Stop Doing It (Axel von Ambesser, 1962), he played the superior bishop of Father Brown (Heinz Rühmann). It was loosely based on the Father Brown stories by G. K. Chesterton. The film follows in the post-war tradition of German Krimi films, similar to the series of Edgar Wallace adaptations popular at the time.
Forster also appeared in Krimis such as Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse/The Return of Doctor Mabuse (Harald Reinl, 1961) starring Gert Fröbe, Der Henker von London/The Executioner of London based on Bryan Edgar Wallace and another Edgar Wallace adaptation, Die Gruft mit dem Rätselschloß/The Curse of the Hidden Vault (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1964) starring Harald Leipnitz. In his later films, Forster mostly embodied the typical grand seigneur. His autobiography ‘Das Spiel, mein Leben’ was published by Propyläen Verlag in 1967. Rudolf Forster was married twice. In 1938, he married the actress Eleonora von Mendelssohn in California. They divorced in 1940. From 1944, his second marriage was to Wilhelmine Karoline Klara Schachschneider, who also administered his estate. Rudolf Forster died in Bad Aussee, Austria, five days before his 84th birthday in 1968. His grave is in the Bad Aussee cemetery.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7570/1, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Rudolf Forster in Morgenrot/Dawn (Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky, 1933). Released three days after Adolf Hitler became Chancellor, Morgenrot was the first film to have its screening in Nazi Germany. It became a symbol of the new times touted by the Nazi regime.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 7570/2, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Rudolf Forster in Morgenrot/Dawn (Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky, 1933).
German collectors card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, image no. 123. Photo: Ufa / Ross Verlag. Rudolf Forster in Morgenrot/Dawn (Vernon Sewell, Gustav Ucicky, 1933).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9044/1, 1935-1936. Photo: A.B.C.-Film / Neue Deutsch Lichtspiel-Syndikat Verleih (N.D.L.S.). Rudolf Forster and Angela Salloker in Hohe Schule/The Secret of Cavelli (Erich Engel, 1934).
German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3135/1, 1941-1944.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3203/1, 1941-1942.
East German postcard by VEB Progress Filmvertrieb Starfoto, no. 34/280. Photo: DEFA / Kilian. Rudolf Forster in the Swedish-German feature Spielbank-Affäre/Casino Affair (Arthur Pohl, 1957).
Sources: Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.
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