Martin Kosleck

Martin Kosleck (born Nicolaie Yoshkin; March 24, 1904 – January 15, 1994) was a German film actor. Like many other German actors, he fled when the Nazis came to power. Inspired by his deep hatred of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, Kosleck made a career in Hollywood playing villainous Nazis in films.

While in the United States, he appeared in more than 80 films and television shows in a 46-year span. His icy demeanor and piercing stare on screen made him a popular choice to play Nazi villains. He portrayed Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister, five times, and also appeared as an SS trooper and a concentration camp officer.

Early life Kosleck was born in Barkotzen in Pomerania, Germany, the son of a forester. His family was "German-Russian". He became interested in acting at an early age. He spent six years in the Max Reinhardt Dramatic School, particularly excelling in Shakespearian roles, and working in revues and musicals in Berlin.

At the age of 23, he appeared in his first film, a silent movie directed by Johannes Brandt called Der Fahnenträger von Sedan. Two years later, he appeared in Lupu Pick's Napoleon at Saint Helena. Kosleck appeared in two more films in Germany in 1930, the science-fiction thriller Alraune (his first sound film) and The Singing City.

Hollywood In the early 1930s, Hitler and the Nazi Party were growing in power. Kosleck spoke out against both, earning his a place on the Gestapo list of "undesirables". He decided to leave Germany in 1931 for Britain. The following year, he arrived in New York City and then traveled west to Hollywood.

He appeared in his first American film Fashions of 1934 starring Bette Davis. However, he found little work in Hollywood, so he returned to New York and the stage. While Kosleck was acting in The Merchant of Venice on Broadway, Anatole Litvak invited him to Hollywood for a role in a Warner Bros. film. The 1939 Confessions of a Nazi Spy, starring Edward G. Robinson, Francis Lederer, Paul Lukas, and George Sanders, was based on The Nazi Spy Conspiracy in America, a book by Leon Turron, an FBI agent who had uncovered the network of Nazi organizations throughout the United States. Kosleck, in a small role playing Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, revealed a sinister streak of evil that was sought after in wartime movies to come.

Many other German actors at the time resented being typecast as Nazis; Kosleck, though, reveled in it as a way to get back at the Nazis. He appeared in numerous anti-Nazi films of the early 1940s: Nurse Edith Cavell, Espionage Agent, Underground, Berlin Correspondent, Bomber's Moon, and Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas. However, it was his impression of Goebbels that will remain in the memories of moviegoers, especially in Paramount's 1944 pseudo-documentary The Hitler Gang.

With the end of the Second World War, roles as Nazis declined. Kosleck then moved into horror B movies, such as The Frozen Ghost and The Mummy's Curse (both starring Lon Chaney Jr., whom Kosleck disliked intensely), House of Horrors, and She-Wolf of London, starring June Lockhart. The House of Horrors gave him his best-remembered role beyond Goebbels, as an insane sculptor, Marcel De Lange, who saves a monster from drowning and gets revenge by having the monster kill his critics.

Television

With fewer film opportunities presenting themselves, Kosleck returned to New York City with his wife, the German-born actress Eleonore von Mendelssohn, a great x3 grand daughter of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.

Kosleck died at age 89, following abdominal surgery, in a Santa Monica convalescent home.

Filmography

The Standard-Bearer of Sedan (1927) Napoleon at Saint Helena (1929) Alraune (1929) - Wolfgang Petersen The Singing City (1930) - Bobby Bertling - Claires Verehrer Fashions of 1934 (1934) - Dance Director (uncredited) Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939) - Joseph Goebbels (uncredited) Nurse Edith Cavell (1939) - Pierre Espionage Agent (1939) - Karl Mullen Nick Carter, Master Detective (1939) - Otto King Calling Philo Vance (1940) - Gamble Foreign Correspondent (1940) - Tramp The Mad Doctor (1941) - Maurice Gretz Underground (1941) - Heller International Lady (1941) - Bruner The Devil Pays Off (1941) - Grebb, Henchman All Through the Night (1942) - Steindorff Fly-by-Night (1942) - George Taylor Nazi Agent (1942) - Kurt Richten Berlin Correspondent (1942) - Captain von Rau Divide and Conquer (1942) - German Officer (uncredited) Manila Calling (1942) - Heller Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas (1943) - Col. Wilhelm Brockner Bomber's Moon (1943) - Luftwaffe Maj. von Streicher The North Star (1943) - Dr. Richter The Great Alaskan Mystery (1944, Serial) - Dr. Hauss The Hitler Gang (1944) - Joseph Goebbels Secrets of Scotland Yard (1944) - Josef The Mummy's Curse (1944) - Ragheb Strange Holiday (1945) - Examiner The Frozen Ghost (1945) - Rudi Poldan Gangs of the Waterfront (1945) - Anjo Ferreati Pursuit to Algiers (1945) - Mirko The Spider (1945) - Mihail Barak Crime of the Century (1946) - Paul Just Before Dawn (1946) - Karl Ganss House of Horrors (1946) - Marcel De Lange The Wife of Monte Cristo (1946) - Edmund Dantes, Count of Monte Cristo She-Wolf of London (1946) - Dwight Severn The Beginning or the End (1947) - Dr. O.E. Frisch (uncredited) Half Past Midnight (1948) - Cortez Assigned to Danger (1948) - Louie Volkes Smugglers' Cove (1948) - Count Boris Petrov Spion für Deutschland (1956) - Griffins Something Wild (1961) - Landlord Hitler (1962) - Joseph Goebbels The Flesh Eaters (1964) - Prof. Peter Bartell 36 Hours (1965) - Kraatz Morituri (1965) - Wilke Agent for H.A.R.M. (1966) - Basil Malko Wake Me When the War Is Over (1969, TV Movie) - Butler Which Way to the Front? (1970) - Captain Schmidt (uncredited) Longstreet (1971, TV Movie) - Von Marks The Man with Bogart's Face (1980) - Horst Borsht (final film role)