Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his films roles, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and Casablanca (1942). He also served as inspiration for the supervillain The Joker in the the Batman comics series, through his role as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1928).
He was born Hans Walter Conrad Weidt in a working-class district of Berlin, Germany. (Some biograph...
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Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor best remembered for his films roles, such as The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Thief of Bagdad (1940) and Casablanca (1942). He also served as inspiration for the supervillain The Joker in the the Batman comics series, through his role as Gwynplaine in The Man Who Laughs (1928).
He was born Hans Walter Conrad Weidt in a working-class district of Berlin, Germany. (Some biographies wrongly state that he was born in Potsdam, probably on the basis of an early claim on his part.) From 1916 until his death, he appeared in well over 100 movies. He appeared in two of the most well-known films of the silent era: as a murderous somnambulist in director Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920) with Werner Krauss and Lil Dagover and as a disfigured circus performer in The Man Who Laughs (1928). According to the Los Angeles Times, "Conrad Veidt starred in this semi-silent film based on Victor Hugo's novel in which the...
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