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IMDbPro

Walter Slezak(1902-1983)

  • Actor
  • Writer
  • Soundtrack
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Walter Slezak in Michael (1924)
When farmer Evan's mare has a fine son, he promises the black stallion to his son Joe. The youngster enjoy growing up as playmates. Alas, once the good squire is buried, his mean heir, who abuses animals, turns the screws on till pa Evans is forced to leave and abandon even Black Beauty. He soon loses everything in a cards game, so the stallion ends up in the Hackenschmidt circus. Joe is desperate to get him back.
Play trailer2:39
Black Beauty (1971)
12 Videos
99+ Photos
Tall, portly Viennese character actor Walter Slezak simultaneously pursued two different careers after his arrival in America in 1930: one, as a star of musical comedy on the stage, and another, as a portrayer of villains, impish rogues or pompous buffoons on screen.

Walter was born in May 1902 in Vienna, Austria, to a musical family, the son of Elisabeth (Wertheim) and famous opera star Leo Slezak. He had Czech, Austrian, and Jewish ancestry. Walter studied medicine but quickly lost interest. For a while, he held a position working in a bank. At the age of twenty, he was spotted in a beer garden by the Hungarian actor/director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and persuaded to appear in his motion picture Sodom and Gomorrah (1922). Subsequently, the then rather lean Walter Slezak was signed by Ufa and became a matinee idol in German films of the 1920's. Always somewhat too fond of the culinary arts, Slezak over the years put on so much weight that, by the end of the decade, he was no longer considered bankable as a romantic star and became relegated to playing character roles instead.

In 1930, Slezak emigrated to the United States and instantly hit it off with public and critics alike in his Broadway debut with the musical comedy 'Meet My Sister' (1930-31). Though publicly modest about his vocal abilities, Slezak gained further plaudits for his role in the Oscar Hammerstein II production, 'Music in the Air' (1932-33), scored by Jerome Kern. By the 1950s, Slezak had become an established name on Broadway, star of shows like 'My 3 Angels' (1953-54), written by Sam and Bella Spewack and directed by José Ferrer; the hit comedy 'The Gazebo' (1958-59), in which he starred as Elliott Nash, opposite Jayne Meadows (filmed afterwards at MGM, with Glenn Ford and Debbie Reynolds in the lead roles); and his greatest success, as the likeable curmudgeon Panisse in the musical production of Marcel Pagnol's 'Fanny', directed by Joshua Logan. For this role, he won the 1955 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical. 'Fanny' chalked up an impressive run of 888 performances between 1954 and 1956. In 1959, Slezak fulfilled his dream of emulating his father by singing the part of Zsupan in 'The Gypsy Baron' at the Metropolitan Opera.

In motion pictures, Walter Slezak's career took quite a different path. He started in films in 1942, and just two years later, walked away with most of the acting honours for Alfred Hitchcock's claustrophobic thriller Lifeboat (1944). In it, he gave a compelling performance as the callous, methodical Nazi captain, who gradually assumes command of the vessel containing the survivors of the passenger ship torpedoed and sunk by his U-boat. Film critic Bosley Crowther, who had already been impressed with Slezak's previous performance as a Nazi agent in Once Upon a Honeymoon (1942), commented "Nor is he an altogether repulsive or invidious type. As Walter Slezak plays him, he is tricky and sometimes brutal, yes, but he is practical, ingenious and basically courageous in his lonely resolve. Some of his careful deceptions would be regarded as smart and heroic if they came from an American in the same spot" (New York Times, Jan.13 1944). The perceived incongruity of the enemy being portrayed with any sympathy whatever, resulted in criticism from other quarters for both the film and its director.

After 'Lifeboat', the ebullient Slezak appeared in a variety of lavish and colourful costume spectaculars: as a flamboyant pirate in the Bob Hope comedy The Princess and the Pirate (1944); as the reprehensible governor Don Alvarado, wooing Maureen O'Hara in the swashbuckler The Spanish Main (1945); and as yet another Spaniard, the boorish Don Pedro Vargas, having similar designs on Judy Garland in the MGM musical The Pirate (1948). He was also memorably evil as Sinbad's treacherous barber Melik in Sinbad, the Sailor (1947), the corrupt gumshoe Arnett in Robert Wise's gangster melodrama Born to Kill (1947), and as the scheming medicine-show man in The Inspector General (1949), starring Danny Kaye. (1949). He was again integral to the plot of Come September (1961), as enterprising major domo to Rock Hudson who secretly runs his employer's luxury villa as a hotel for eleven months of the year. Bosley Crowther described his comic performance as 'perfect'. Slezak further parodied his bad guy image in 'The Clock King' on TV's Batman (1966), then mellowed into the part of sagacious book dealer Strossel in The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962) and the amiable Squire Trelawney in the 1972 version of 'Treasure Island'.

In his private life, Walter Slezak was known as an experienced pilot, a connoisseur of art, lover of chess and good books. His long career as one of the outstanding character players of his time ended with his retirement in 1980. Despondent over a series of debilitating medical problems, Slezak took his own life in April 1983.
BornMay 3, 1902
DiedApril 21, 1983(80)
BornMay 3, 1902
DiedApril 21, 1983(80)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank

Photos114

Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, and Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Lester Allen, Gladys Cooper, Walter Slezak, and George Zucco in The Pirate (1948)
Gene Kelly and Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Gene Kelly and Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Gene Kelly and Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)
Lester Allen, Gladys Cooper, and Walter Slezak in The Pirate (1948)

Known for

Lifeboat (1944)
Lifeboat
7.6
  • Willi
  • 1944
Micheline Cheirel, Dick Powell, Walter Slezak, and Nina Vale in Cornered (1945)
Cornered
6.6
  • Melchior Incza
  • 1945
Danny Kaye in The Inspector General (1949)
The Inspector General
6.7
  • Yakov
  • 1949
Walter Slezak, Lawrence Tierney, and Claire Trevor in Born to Kill (1947)
Born to Kill
7.2
  • Arnett
  • 1947

Credits

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IMDbPro

Actor

  • Fred Grandy, Bernie Kopell, Ted Lange, Gavin MacLeod, and Lauren Tewes in The Love Boat (1977)
    The Love Boat
    • Marcel Locksmith
    • TV Series
    • 1980
  • The Mysterious House of Dr. C.
    • Dr. Coppelius
    • 1979
  • Victor Buono in Assignment: Vienna (1972)
    Assignment: Vienna
    • TV Series
    • 1973
  • Treasure Island (1972)
    Treasure Island
    • Squire Trelawney
    • 1972
  • Black Beauty (1971)
    Black Beauty
    • Hackenschmidt
    • 1971
  • The Juggler of Notre Dame (1970)
    The Juggler of Notre Dame
    • The Innkeeper
    • 1970
  • A Hundred-Odd Years from Now
    • Short
    • 1968
  • Jennifer Edwards in Heidi (1968)
    Heidi
    • Father Richter
    • TV Movie
    • 1968
  • Kristen Alderson, Kassie Wesley DePaiva, Erika Slezak, Trevor St. John, and John-Paul Lavoisier in One Life to Live (1968)
    One Life to Live
    • Laszlo Braedeker (1976)
    • TV Series
    • 1968
  • The Legend of Robin Hood (1968)
    The Legend of Robin Hood
    • Friar Tuck
    • TV Series
    • 1968
  • Bill Cosby and Robert Culp in I Spy (1965)
    I Spy
    • Dennis
    • TV Series
    • 1967
  • Stephen Boyd, Yvette Mimieux, and Giovanna Ralli in The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967)
    The Caper of the Golden Bulls
    • Antonio Gonzalez
    • 1967
  • Walter Slezak in Dr. Coppelius (1966)
    Dr. Coppelius
    • Dr. Coppelius
    • 1966
  • Batman (1966)
    Batman
    • The Clock King
    • TV Series
    • 1966
  • Der Kongreß amüsiert sich (1966)
    Der Kongreß amüsiert sich
    • Wax museum guide
    • 1966

Writer

  • Mein lieber Schwan
    • Writer
    • TV Series
    • 1966

Soundtrack

  • Susan Hampshire and Cliff Richard in Swingers' Paradise (1964)
    Swingers' Paradise
    • performer: "Youth and Experience"
    • 1964
  • The Big Record (1957)
    The Big Record
    • performer: "To My Wife", "Friendship" (uncredited), "Home for the Holidays" (uncredited)
    • TV Series
    • 1957
  • Lifeboat (1944)
    Lifeboat
    • performer: "Du, Du, Liegst Mir im Herzen", "Heidenroslein, Op.3, No.3, D 257" (1815), "Treue Liebe" (uncredited)
    • 1944

Videos12

Official Trailer
Trailer 1:28
Official Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 1:55
Trailer
Trailer
Trailer 0:53
Trailer
DVD Trailer
Trailer 3:00
DVD Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:39
Official Trailer
Official Trailer
Trailer 2:09
Official Trailer
The Pirate
Trailer 2:25
The Pirate
Michael
Trailer 1:49
Michael
Pioneers of Queer Cinema
Trailer 1:19
Pioneers of Queer Cinema
The Yellow Cab Man
Trailer 1:38
The Yellow Cab Man
Bedtime for Bonzo
Trailer 0:55
Bedtime for Bonzo
Carl Th. Dreyer's MICHAEL (Masters of Cinema) New & Exclusive Trailer
Trailer 1:49
Carl Th. Dreyer's MICHAEL (Masters of Cinema) New & Exclusive Trailer

Personal details

Edit
  • Height
    • 6′ (1.83 m)
  • Born
    • May 3, 1902
    • Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
  • Died
    • April 21, 1983
    • Flower Hill, New York, USA(suicide)
  • Spouse
    • Johanna Van RijnOctober 10, 1943 - April 21, 1983 (his death, 3 children)
  • Children
      Erika Slezak
  • Parents
      Leo Slezak
  • Relatives
      Margarete Slezak(Sibling)
  • Other works
    Stage: Appeared in "Meet My Sister" on Broadway. Musical comedy.
  • Publicity listings
    • 1 Print Biography
    • 5 Articles

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    Although thin and healthy when he began his film career in the 1920s, by the 1930s he had gained much weight. He committed suicide by shooting himself in the backyard of his home in Flower Hill, NY, apparently in despair over several illnesses he was dealing with by then.

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