- Born
- Died
- Birth nameAlois Franz Trenker
- Luis Trenker (born in St-Ulrich, southern Tyrol (now Italy) as Alois Franz Trenker) was a film director, singer, author, ski champion and mountain climber, wood-carver, stage and film actor. He went to school in Bolzano to become a carver artist. From 1912 to 1914 he studied Architecture.
He fought in WWI as an officier in the Dolomite. After that, he made a documentary film "Wunder des Schneeschuhs" (1921) with Arnold Fanck. In 1934 he worked in Hollywood, but went back to Europe. In 1966 he worked for TV with the ski champion Toni Sailer in "Luftsprünge". He lived with his wife in Meran, kept an office in Munich, wrote his Memories ("Alles gut gegangen" ("Everything went swell")). He died on Pneumonia and heart attack in a hospital in Bolzano.- IMDb mini biography by: Rudi Polt / rudipolt@aol.com
- SpouseHilda von Bleichert(1928 - 1988) (her death, 4 children)
- An officer of Austrian mountain troops in WWI.
- For the centennial of birth his native town of Ortisei dedicated a monument that shows him in mountaineer dresses while looking at the Langkofel, a mountain he liked to climb.
- Trenker had plans to do a film about Johann Sutter in the U.S., but, alarmed at the growing anti-German feeling in the United States, Universal had second thoughts about another co-production with Trenker and turned to director James Cruze and star Edward Arnold to make "Surrer's Gold." A disappointed Trenker returned to Europe and made his own version, "The Kaiser of California," which he shot in the U.S. and Italy. Ironically Sergei Eisenstein had planned a Sutter biography as his first American project, but the deal fell through.
- Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels was very impressed with "Der Rebel" and hoped that Trenker would fill the void left by the defection of Fritz Lang, but Trenker was apolitical, and Goebbels grew to look upon him in a derogatory light.
- Beside the film Luis Trenker was also able to make a name as a writer of mountain novels and he was a eloquent narrator for the TV.
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