Willy Fritsch

In Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, Lilian Harvey's duet with Willy Fritsch from the 1936 film "Glückskinder", Ich wollt' ich wär ein Huhn ("I wish I was a chicken") can be heard playing on a phonograph in the basement scene "La Louisiane" as well as in the extended scene "Lunch With Goebbels", as Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) happily sings a portion of the song after deciding to hold a private screening of the film. After the screening, cinema owner, Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent), under the alias "Emmanuelle Mimieux", comments on liking Lilian Harvey in the film - to which an irritated Goebbels angrily insists her name never be mentioned again in his presence.

He continued to appear on stage and in movies like Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht (When the White Lilacs Bloom Again) side by side with young Romy Schneider; his final film was 1964's I Learned It from Father (Das hab' ich von Papa gelernt) directed by Axel von Ambesser, in which he performed together with his son, actor Thomas Fritsch.

Though he had joined the NSDAP, Fritsch tried to avoid getting involved in Nazi propaganda (except for his appearance in the 1944 aviator movie Junge Adler which earned him an entry on Goebbels' Gottbegnadeten list) and managed to survive the Hitler era without any loss of prestige.

German matinée idol of the 1930's, a cheerful singing and dancing star of musical comedies and operettas. Fritsch was trained at the Max Reinhardt School in Berlin and acted on screen from the early 1920's. He successfully made the transition to sound and was then popularly paired with the actress and dancer Lillian Harvey in several films. After the war, he eased into character roles.

He was an actor, known for Woman in the Moon (1929), Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Melody of the Heart (1929). He was married to Dinah Grace.

Fritsch remained a popular juvenile figure in films and the theater, but his real success came after being paired with Lilian Harvey in 1928, when they appeared regularly together in UFA movies like Der Kongreß tanzt (Congress Dances) by Erik Charell, released every year thereafter until Harvey's emigration in 1939.

He appeared in movies like Die keusche Susanne" (1926) in which he played together with Lilian Harvey for the first time. They became the German couple of dream as such in the 30's .The two were also engaged privately.

Willy Fritsch returned to Hamburg after World War II where he -without a permanent abode- he found an accommodation by Martha Keippert which is documented with the indicated dedication by Willy Fritsch. Fritsch wrote: "Dear Mrs. Martha Keippert, I say thank you again for the nice accommodation by my return to Hamburg as a fugitive." (24.08.1945).

From 1919 he attended Max Reinhardt's drama school at the Deutsches Theater, where he debuted with small roles, and made his feature debut in films as a supporting player in 1921's Miß Venus.

Willy Fritsch was married with the actress Dinah Grace (1918-1963). After her death he retired from the film business.

After the bankruptcy of his father in 1912, the family moved to Berlin, where Fritsch sr. worked as an employee of the Siemens-Schuckert company. Young Willy originally planned an apprenticeship as a mechanic, but soon resorted to the occupation as an extra at the Großes Schauspielhaus theatre.

Willy Fritsch was born on January 27, 1901 in Kattowitz, Upper Silesia, Germany as Wilhelm Egon Fritz Fritsch.