Helmut Dantine

Helmut Dantine merupakan aktor Austria-Amerika yang sering memerankan Nazi dalam film thriller tahun 1940-an. Penampilannya yang paling terkenal mungkin adalah pilot Jerman di Mrs. Miniver, dan pengungsi yang putus asa di Casablanca, yang mencoba berjudi untuk mendapatkan uang visa perjalanan untuk dirinya dan istrinya. Ketika karir aktingnya memudar, dia beralih ke produksi. Dantine mendaftar di Universitas California, Los Angeles. Kerabatnya mengira dia akan terjun ke dunia bisnis, namun dia menjadi tertarik pada teater. Dia memulai karir aktingnya di AS di Pasadena Playhouse, sambil menjalankan dua pompa bensin untuk membayar pengeluarannya. Dantine ditemukan oleh pencari bakat dari Warner Bros, yang mengontraknya. Dantine memiliki bagian yang tidak dikreditkan Skuadron Internasional dan Menjadi atau Tidak Menjadi, sebelum peran pertamanya yang dikreditkan di MGM Nyonya Miniver, berperan sebagai pilot Jerman yang jatuh yang ditangkap oleh karakter utama (diperankan oleh Greer Garson). Itu sukses besar, dan Dantine menerima banyak perhatian positif dari perannya di film tersebut. Pada bulan Agustus 1942, Warners mengontraknya untuk kontrak akting baru. Studio tersebut membuatnya sibuk dengan peran dalam film Perang Dunia II, The Pied Piper, Desperate Journey melawan Errol Flynn, dan The Navy Comes Through. Dia memiliki peran simpatik di Casablanca, sebagai seorang pengungsi muda yang mencoba dan gagal mendapatkan uang melalui perjudian. Warner mulai memberi Dantine peran yang lebih besar dalam film "A" mereka, Watch on the Rhine, Edge of Darkness, berperan sebagai perwira Nazi, sekali lagi melawan Errol Flynn, dan Mission to Moscow, berperan sebagai orang Rusia yang simpatik. Ketampanan Dantine menyebabkan dia menerima banyak surat penggemar dan, menurut salah satu profil, "studio mulai menyadari bahwa mereka memiliki sesuatu yang lain selain Hollywood Hitlerite di tangannya". Warners mengumumkan bahwa mereka telah membeli Night Action karya Norman Krasna sebagai kendaraan untuk Dantine, namun film tersebut tampaknya belum dibuat. Sebaliknya, dia memiliki peran besar sebagai penjahat di Northern Pursuit (1943), ketika seorang Nazi melarikan diri di Kanada utara melawan Errol Flynn lagi. Warner Bros. kemudian memberinya peran simpatik dalam Passage to Marseille, dan dia adalah salah satu dari beberapa bintang di Hollywood Canteen. Pada tahun 1944, peserta pameran yang memilih "Stars of Tomorrow", memilih Dantine di nomor 10. Warners memberinya petunjuk simpatik di Hotel Berlin, sebagai pemimpin gerakan bawah tanah Jerman. Dia sekali lagi menjadi seorang Nazi yang melarikan diri di Escape in the Desert, sebuah remake dari The Petrified Forest. Peran terakhirnya untuk Warners adalah di film noir, Shadow of a Woman. Dia kemudian meninggalkan studio. Ketika karier aktingnya menurun, ia menjadi wakil presiden perusahaan maestro Hollywood Joseph Schenck, Schenck Enterprises, pada tahun 1959; Schenck adalah paman istrinya. Dia kemudian bekerja sebagai produser dengan Robert L. Lippert Productions dan kemudian sebagai presiden Hand Enterprises Inc. Di antara penampilan layar Dantine selanjutnya, ada tiga film di mana ia menjadi produser eksekutif: Bawakan Aku Kepala Alfredo Garcia dan The Killer Elite, keduanya disutradarai oleh Sam Peckinpah, dan The Wilby Conspiracy. Dia juga ada di The Fifth Musketeer dan Tarzan the Apeman. Pada tanggal 2 Mei 1982, Helmut Dantine meninggal di Beverly Hills karena serangan jantung pada usia 63 tahun. Menurut salah satu obituari, "Dia mengkhususkan diri dalam penggambaran Nazi, terkadang sebagai SS sadis yang tampan namun dingin melawan pahlawan Sekutu, terkadang sebagai tentara Jerman yang simpatik yang dipaksa, bertentangan dengan penilaiannya yang lebih baik, untuk berperang".

Helmut Dantine was an Austrian-American actor who often played Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. His best-known performances are perhaps the German pilot in Mrs. Miniver, and the desperate refugee in Casablanca, who tries gambling to obtain travel visa money for himself and his wife. As his acting career waned, he turned to producing. Dantine enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. His relatives thought he would go into business, but he became interested in theater. He began his U.S. acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse, while running two gas stations in order to pay his expenses. Dantine was spotted by a talent scout from Warner Bros, who signed him to a contract. Dantine had uncredited parts in International Squadron and To Be or Not to Be, before his first credited role in MGM's Mrs. Miniver, playing a downed German pilot captured by the title character (played by Greer Garson). It was a huge hit, and Dantine received much positive attention from being in the film. In August 1942, Warners signed him to a new acting contract. The studio kept him busy with roles in the World War II films, The Pied Piper, Desperate Journey fighting Errol Flynn, and The Navy Comes Through. He had a sympathetic role in Casablanca, as a young refugee trying and failing to earn money via gambling. Warners begin to give Dantine more sizeable roles in their "A" films, Watch on the Rhine, Edge of Darkness, playing a Nazi officer, again fighting Errol Flynn, and Mission to Moscow, playing a sympathetic Russian. Dantine's good looks caused him to receive a lot of fan mail and, in the words of one profile, "the studio began to realize it had something else besides a Hollywood Hitlerite on its hands". Warners announced they had bought Night Action by Norman Krasna as a vehicle for Dantine, but the film appears not to have been made. Instead, he had a large role playing the villain in Northern Pursuit (1943), as a Nazi running loose in northern Canada fighting Errol Flynn again. Warner Bros. later cast him in a sympathetic role in Passage to Marseille, and he was one of several stars in Hollywood Canteen. In 1944, exhibitors voting for "Stars of Tomorrow", picked Dantine at number 10. Warners gave him a sympathetic lead in Hotel Berlin, as the leader of the German underground. He was once again a Nazi on-the-run in Escape in the Desert, a remake of The Petrified Forest. His last role for Warners was in the film noir, Shadow of a Woman. He then left the studio. As his acting career wound down, he became a vice-president of Hollywood mogul Joseph Schenck's company, Schenck Enterprises, in 1959; Schenck was his wife's uncle. He later went to work as producer with Robert L. Lippert Productions and then as president of Hand Enterprises Inc. Among Dantine's later screen appearances, there were three films for which he was the executive producer: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and The Killer Elite, both directed by Sam Peckinpah, and The Wilby Conspiracy. He was also in The Fifth Musketeer and Tarzan the Apeman. On 2 May 1982, Helmut Dantine died in Beverly Hills from a heart attack at age 63. According to one obituary, "He specialized in portrayals of Nazis, sometimes as the handsome but icy SS sadist battling Allied heroes, sometimes as a sympathetic German soldier forced, against his better judgment, to fight".