Viktor de Kowa

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{{Infobox person

| name = Viktor de Kowa

| image = Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F034159-0008, Ausschnitt Viktor de Kowa.jpg

| caption = Viktor de Kowa in 1971

| birth_name = Victor Paul Karl Kowarzik

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|3|8|df=y}}

| birth_place = Hohkirch, Silesia, German Empire

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1973|4|8|1904|3|8|df=y}}

| death_place = West Berlin, West Germany

| resting_place = Waldfriedhof Heerstrasse, Berlin, Germany

| years_active = 1922–1973

| occupation = Film and theatre actor, singer, director, writer

| spouse = Ursula Grabley (1926–41)
Michiko Tanaka (1941–73; his death)

| children =

| relatives =

}}

Viktor de Kowa (also spelled Victor de Kowa, born Victor Paul Karl Kowalczyk; 8 March 1904 – 8 April 1973) was a German stage and film actor, chanson singer, director, narrator, and comic poet.

Life

He was born the son of a farmer and engineer in Hohkirch near Görlitz (present-day Przesieczany in Poland), from where his family moved to Seifersdorf near Dippoldiswalde in Saxony in 1908 and to Chemnitz in 1913. De Kowa joined a cadet corps before he began occupational training as a graphic designer. Having attended drama classes with Erich Ponto, he made his acting debut at the Staatstheater Dresden in 1922. After appearances in Lübeck, Frankfurt and Hamburg, de Kowa entered the stages of the Volksbühne and the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, as well as of the Prussian State Theatre under Gustaf Gründgens.

He had a first small film appearance in Nils Olaf Chrisander's The Heart Thief in 1927 and subsequently became one of the leading comic actors of the UFA film industry. During the Third Reich he joined the Nazi Party, directing the propaganda movie Kopf hoch, Johannes! in 1941. The film idealized the education of the German youth in National Political Institutes of Education, which earned de Kowa an entry on the Gottbegnadeten list to evade his Wehrmacht conscription, though Minister Goebbels was disillusioned with his directing.

Despite his involvement in Nazi cinema, de Kowa's film and theatre career quickly proceeded after the war. In 1945 he became director of the Berlin Tribüne theatre and an ensemble member of the Vienna Burgtheater from 1956 to 1962. As chairman of the Arts Union, he was also a board director of the Confederation of German Trade Unions (DGB).

In 1964 he starred in the TV series Slim Callaghan Intervenes as Peter Cheyney's private detective Slim Callaghan.

Personal life

First married to actress Ursula Grabley (1908–1977) in 1926, de Kowa was remarried in 1941 to Japanese singer and actress Michiko Tanaka (1909–1988). Both are buried in Friedhof Heerstraße, in an Ehrengrab donated by the City of Berlin.

File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-F034157-0022, Bonn, Bundeskanzler Brandt empfängt Schauspieler.jpg, Bonn, 1971]]

Selected filmography

Katharina Knie (1929) - Lorenz Knie
Pension Schöller (1930) - Bernhardy
1914 (1931) - Großfürst Michael
{{Interlanguage link multi|Die Faschingsfee (film)|de|3=Die Faschingsfee (1931)|lt=Die Faschingsfee}} (1931) - Victor Ronai
The True Jacob (1931) - James
The Other Side (1931) - Leutnant Hibbert
The Pride of Company Three (1932) - Leutnant Fritz Gernsbach
The Invisible Front (1932) - Junger Mann im Selbstmörderklub
Tannenberg (1932) - Rittmeister Fürst Wolgoff
''Der Diamant des Zaren (1932) - Direktor Roller
The Invisible Front (1933)
The Marathon Runner (1933) - Georg Cornelius
Typhoon (1933) - Charles Renard-Brinski
Es war einmal ein Musikus (1933) - Heinz
A Song Goes Round the World (1933) - Rigo
Tell Me Who You Are (1933) - Frank Hesse
Little Man, What Now? (1933) - Heilbutt
Zwei im Sonnenschein (1933) - Paul
The Castle in the South (1933) - Mirano
Girls of Today (1933) - Peter Udde
What Am I Without You (1934) - Heinrich Berger
The Grand Duke's Finances (1934) - Grossherzog
Pappi (1934) - Hans Werner
Da stimmt was nicht (1934) - Baron Albrecht von Weiningen
The Young Baron Neuhaus (1934) - Baron Neuhaus
Decoy (1934) - Schott junior
Ein Kind, ein Hund, ein Vagabund (1934) - Florian - ein Vagabund
My Life for Maria Isabella (1935) - Fähnrich Menis
Lärm um Weidemann (1935) - Dr. Hans Weidemann
Die große und die kleine Welt (1936) - Franz Schuster - Taxichauffeur
Scandal at the Fledermaus (1936) - Viktor Kendal
Game on Board (1936) - Viktor Müller
The Divine Jetta (1937) - Fritz Barsch
Don't Promise Me Anything (1937) - Maler Martin Pratt
Mit versiegelter Order (1938) - Willi Reinhardt
Kleiner Mann - ganz groß! (1938) - Peter Kolle
I Love You (1938) - Amerikaner Percy
Der Optimist (1938) - Gustl
Scheidungsreise (1938) - Dr. Delius
Wibbel the Tailor (1939, director)
The Thing About Styx (1942) - Rittmeister Styx
We Make Music (1942) - Paul Zimmermann
Altes Herz wird wieder jung (1943) - Neffe Dr. Paul Dehnhardt
Ein glücklicher Mensch (1943) - Philipp, sein Sohn
Das Leben geht weiter (1945) - Hauptmann Hoeßlin
Peter Voss, Thief of Millions (1946) - Peter Voss
Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1947) - Michael Rott
Intimitäten (1948) - Peter Korff
Anonyme Briefe (1949)
The Beautiful Galatea (1950) - Viktor Kolin
Melody of Fate (1950)
Scandal at the Embassy (1950) - Fred Corvin & Dr. Tamanyo
The Blue Star of the South (1951) - Ivo
The Prince of Pappenheim (1952) - Egon Fürst
A Love Story (1954) - Manfred v. Prittwitz, Major
Marriage Impostor (1954) - Professor Angelot
Des Teufels General (1955) - SS-Gruppenführer Schmidt-Lausitz
Heaven Is Never Booked Up (1955) - Professor Behrens
Before God and Man (1955) - Martin
Music in the Blood (1955) - Kurt Widmann
The Girl from Flanders (1956) - Monsieur le Curé Simon / Dr.Simon
{{ill|Nichts als Ärger mit der Liebe|de}} (1956)
Scampolo (1958) - Minister
{{Ill|Embezzled Heaven|de|3=Der veruntreute Himmel}} (1958) - Theo
Bombs on Monte Carlo (1960) - Minister
Final Accord (1960) - Alexander von Berkin
The Forger of London (1961) - Dr. Donald Wells
{{ill|It Can't Always Be Caviar|de|Es muß nicht immer Kaviar sein (Film)}} (1961) - Loos
Diesmal muss es Kaviar sein (1961) - Loos
The House in Montevideo (1963) - Anwalt
Encounter in Salzburg (1964) - Bernhard von Wangen
Winnetou and Old Firehand (1966) - Robert Ravenhurst