Helmut Dantine

Personal Info

Known For

Acting

Known Credits

49

Gender

Male

Birthday

1918-10-07

Day of death

1982-05-02 (63 years old)

Place of Birth

Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]

Helmut Dantine

Biography

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".

Known For

  • Climax!

    Climax!

  • Studio One

    Studio One

  • Night Gallery

    Night Gallery

  • Run for Your Life

    Run for Your Life

  • Sugarfoot

    Sugarfoot

  • Suspense

    Suspense

  • The Millionaire

    The Millionaire

  • Lights Out

    Lights Out

  • Studio 57

    Studio 57

  • The Thin Man

    The Thin Man

  • The Rogues

    The Rogues

  • Casablanca

    Casablanca

  • War and Peace

    War and Peace

  • Operation Crossbow

    Operation Crossbow

  • Clipper Ship

    Clipper Ship

  • Kean: Genius or Scoundrel

    Kean: Genius or Scoundrel

  • Passage to Marseille

    Passage to Marseille

  • Mrs. Miniver

    Mrs. Miniver

  • The Wilby Conspiracy

    The Wilby Conspiracy

  • Mission to Moscow

    Mission to Moscow

  • Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

    Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

  • To Be or Not to Be

    To Be or Not to Be

  • Stranger from Venus

    Stranger from Venus

  • Hollywood Canteen

    Hollywood Canteen

  • The Pied Piper

    The Pied Piper

  • Northern Pursuit

    Northern Pursuit

  • Hallmark Hall of Fame

    Hallmark Hall of Fame

  • Desperate Journey

    Desperate Journey

  • The Killer Elite

    The Killer Elite

  • Escape in the Desert

    Escape in the Desert

  • Tempest

    Tempest

  • Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

    Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

  • Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

    Schlitz Playhouse of Stars

  • Watch on the Rhine

    Watch on the Rhine

  • Escape

    Escape

  • Alexander the Great

    Alexander the Great

  • The Fifth Musketeer

    The Fifth Musketeer

  • The Hiding Place

    The Hiding Place

  • General Electric Theater

    General Electric Theater

  • Call Me Madam

    Call Me Madam

  • Whispering City

    Whispering City

  • Fraulein

    Fraulein

  • Edge of Darkness

    Edge of Darkness

  • Hotel Berlin

    Hotel Berlin

  • The File on Devlin

    The File on Devlin

  • Hell on Devil's Island

    Hell on Devil's Island

  • The Story of Mankind

    The Story of Mankind

  • Shadow of a Woman

    Shadow of a Woman

  • Guerrilla Girl

    Guerrilla Girl