Walter Slezak Overview:

Character actor, Walter Slezak, was born on May 3, 1902 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]. Slezak died at the age of 81 on Apr 21, 1983 in Flower Hill, NY .

MINI BIO:

Tubby, mustachioed Walter Slezak was an Austrian actor just as likely to play affable or menacing characters. A welcome part of any film, he was probably most memorable as the German on Hitchcock's Lifeboat. He had two bursts of intense film activity, in Germany from 1924 to 1928 and in Hollywood from 1942 to 1954, having been in America since the early 1930s. Otherwise he appeared mostly on stage. He was also a writer and humorist. He retired in 1972, but in 1983 committed suicide by shooting himself.

(Source: available at Amazon Quinlan's Illustrated Dictionary of Film Character Actors).

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Walter Slezak Quotes:

Emir: What a clothead! I doubt if he knows anything.
Melik: Sufficient my posturing peafowl, to addle your thick pate.
Emir: A maggot dreaming of power.
Melik: From a thousand tiny islands, all of a contour, can you select the exact isle? Where is it - East, West, North, South? As close as you think or as far as you suppose? No, you'll never find the isle of Dariabar without the benevolence of Prince Ahmed and myself.


Mike Clark: I want to marry your daughter.
Papa Vittorio Martelli: Sorry I haven't any left.


Yakov: You'll regret this, you fat-faced village idiot!
The Mayor: What! You... you... How dare you!
Yakov: Keep your dirty hands off me, you misbegotten peasants!
The Mayor: Tie him up!
Yakov: The Emperor will tear this stinking village down over your ears, you thieving lard-bucket! Heads will roll here like marbles - yours first, and then this flea-ridden sack of nothing you call the Inspector General!
Inspector General: Oh! Why, he's insane! Take him away! Take him away!
Yakov: This isn't the Inspector General! Don't make me laugh! The great Emperor wouldn't appoint a thing like this to a post of such importance! THIS is your Inspector General! Here! His carriage, his manner, his bearing. Gentlemen, take your choice.


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Walter Slezak Facts
Grandfather of actress Amanda Davies and actor Tobias Slezak.

He was the son of Leo Slezak, operatic tenor (Aug. 18, 1873 - June 1, 1946), later a comedian in Austrian films. Leo Slezak was a famous Lohengrin, and is credited with this story: during one production of the opera "Lohengrin," when the mechanical swan that was to carry the hero across the lake malfunctioned and "floated" off too soon, he was heard to say, "What time is the next swan?". This quote became the title of Walter Slezak's autobiography.

He was married to Johanna Van Ryn, with whom he had three children, including daughter Erika Slezak, actress, born August 5, 1946. Daughter Ingrid was the first, followed by Erika and then son Leo, named after his father.

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