Trivia

Brother of musician / actor Fred Sym.

In 1925 he appeared for the first time in a movie and from now on he acted mainly parts of elegant gentlemen, dressed in tailcoat and uniform, or played aristocrats.

When the Deutsches Reich invaded Poland in 1939, Sym signed the "Reichliste" and took part as "Volksdeutscher" in re-structuring of the Polish theater life.

Before he devoted himself to the film business he served in the Austrian army during World War I.

Between 1918 and 1921 he was an infantry officer in the Polish army.

Till 1928 Sym shot exclusively for the "Sascha-Filmstudios", where he was elected for president in 1928.

From 1929 he concentrated his film works on Germany, where he was on camera with stars like Lilian Harvey.

His collaboration contrasts with the behavior of his younger brother Ernest, who during his official activities as a chemist, clandestinely manufactured explosives for the Polish Home Army.

In 1940 he tried to win Polish actors to play in the baiting propaganda doing movie "Heimkehr", directed by Gustav Ucicky.

After passing the actor examination in Poland he was engaged to Warsaw theaters where he mainly appeared on stage with his singing saw. From now on his cinematic appearances became rarer and Igo Sym concentrated almost exclusively on his stage career in Poland.

At those days (1940) the Polish were exposed long ago. At Mazowiecka street No. 10 lived hided several actors and actresses with their families on the forth floor. Among them was also the famous singer Hanka Ordonowna (1902-1950). When she arranged one day to meet Igo Sym at her old residence, she was arrested by foot by the waiting Gestapo. They put her in prison in Pawiak. A vetting by the Polish underground government supplied evidence that Sym was in contact with the Gestapo. Sentenced to death by a Warsaw underground law court Sym was executed in his apartment on 7th March 1941. The retaliatory measure of the German occupying forces which followed after that comprised a one-week closure of all Warsaw theaters and the arrest and deportation of Polish actors to Auschwitz.