Georg Alexander(1888-1945)

The prototype of the elegant, distinguished pleasure-seeker, very high in the approval of the German public of his time, Georg Alexander repeated this type of role over and over again until his untimely death at the age of 57. As comfortable in the tuxedo of the socialite as in the uniform of an army officer, he was seen in no fewer than 169 movies, very few of which are memorable though. Werner Louis Georg Lüdeckens, born in 1888, in Hanover, debuted on the boards in Halberstadt, before appearing in varied theaters of Hamburg and, from 1914, in Berlin. Shortly after, he heeded the call of cinema, playing his first role for the big screen in as early as 1915. He even turned into a director, writer and producer, founding his own production company with his first wife, Norwegian star Aud Egede Nissen. Among his most successful roles of this early stage of his film activities was that of Detective Bobby Dodd alongside Harry Liedtke in the silent serial Der Mann ohne Namen - 1. Der Millionendieb (1921). Sound did not hamper Georg Alexander's career, quite the contrary. He met with considerable commercial success but, when it comes to posterity, alas, most of the forgettable comedies he made are... forgotten! A few titles stand out though and are still pleasant to watch today. They include Herbert Selpin's An Ideal Spouse (1935) Hans Steinhoff' The Making of a King (1935), Carl Froelich's Magda (1938)and Josef von Báky's Der Kleinstadtpoet (1940). All this screen hyperactivity did not hinder Georg Alexander from going on performing in the theater. Nor from being an accomplished racing driver horseman. Georg Alexander who had re-married in 1928 with talent agent Ilse Brach' died in Berlin in October 1945.