Curt Bois

Biography

Curt Bois was born April 5, 1901, in Berlin and already at the age of seven played the character of Heinerle in Leo Fall's operetta "Der fidele Bauer". Bois then appeared in numerous children's parts on stage. But he was also seen on the screen: Together with his sister Ilse, Bois starred in the comedy series "Max und Moritz von heutzutage".

From 1914 to 1920, Bois toured Germany, Austria, Hungary, and Switzerland as a "salon comedian" and worked for several Berlin revues and cabarets from the beginning of the 1920s on. In his popular songs, Bois dissolved the often nonsensical texts to the point of scat singing. Later, he was seen in comedy characters in Berlin. From 1926 on, Bois then also appeared in film comedies such as "Der Jüngling aus der Konfektion". He successfully managed the change to sound film as he celebrated a surprise success with "Der Schlemihl" in 1931 and sang and danced with Dolly Haas in the grotesque musical comedy "Ein steinreicher Mann" ("A Tremendously Rich Man"). Bois at that time mainly played spry and fidgety employees whose hyperactivity causes a lot of confusion. But he also took "little and least" parts to make a living.

In 1933, Bois and his wife Hedi Ury went into exile and finally reached New York in 1934. After working on Broadway, Bois moved on to Hollywood. His contacts to several already established emigrants allowed him easy access to the film business. Bois starred in Anatole Litvak's "Tovarich" and played a dextrous pickpocket in the emigrant melodram "Casablanca" by Michael Curtiz.

In 1950, Bois returned to Germany. He moved to East Berlin and mainly performed on stage. In 1955, Bois made his own production of the farce "Ein Polterabend" into a movie. This was his only film as a director after the war. For the lack of interesting role offers, Bois then moved to West Berlin where he was initially boycotted. But from 1957 on, Bois starred in several Fritz Kortner productions. After numerous theatre productions Bois retreated from the stage in 1978.

Screen-wise, Bois had limited himself to TV productions during the mid-1960s and starred in the leading role as Simon Norton in Peter Zadek's "Der Pott" (1971). But Bois also knew how to strike viewers in minor roles, for instance as gravedigger Bühler in Alexander von Eschwege's "Flächenbrand". Wim Wenders put Bois in his Berlin hommage "Der Himmel über Berlin" alongside Bruno Ganz and Otto Sander. This role won Bois the European film prize.

Curt Bois died on December 25, 1991, in Berlin.