News
All significant Anton News and additions to the site will go here, most recent entry first. RSS feed here.
24.12.08 Merry Christmas - and Dangerous Moonlight is on UK tv!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone - and I hope this isn't too later for someone to see that Dangerous Moonlight, starring AW, is on Tuesday 30 December, 10:20am on BBC2!
25.11.08: Anton birthday news!
A belated happy birthday to Anton - he was born on November 19 1896 so would have been 104. And with that, I would like to thank Dagmar again for an incredible haul of Anton-related documentation that will take me some time to go through! It really is the most wonderful collection of primary source material. So far I have only had time to translate a bit, but have already found out some very interesting facts, including that Anton's accent wasn't Austrian, it was a high-German non-accented voice that sounds like the equivalent of English received pronunciation. Despite being born in Vienna he spent most of his early life in Berlin, and considered that his home town. There's lots more - thankfully I've got another German lesson today to help me along!
07.10.08: Anton research blog
Just started a AW blog at www.walbrook.tumblr.com that features some more tangential (ie boring) thoughts about researching AW. It's more of a personal notebook than anything else.
26.09.08: Photos and other snippets
Over two years have gone past and inexplicably I've become avid about researching Anton again. I've bought various books, am learning German - rather slowly - and am attempting to find about AW from various sources. I have been receiving some incredible, invaluable information and help from Germany (Vielen Dank again Dagmar!) Additionally I have:
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Found that AW was at one point seemingly engaged to an actress called Maude Courtney! This is from The British Journal of Nursing in November 1938 (bad grammar preserved):
... "In this connection we congratulate the mother of Miss Maude Courtney, the charming cabaret actress, who on learning of her engagement to Mr. Anton Walbrook, the fine Viennese actor who plays Prince Consort in the film “60 Glorious Years,” in pointing out to her daughter that by marrying an alien she would be automatically forced to surrender her British passport and thus lose her nationality.
“In the present state of European turmoil,” this patriotic mother is reported by the Evening Standard to have remarked: “I dare not think of my daughter becoming married to a subject of Herr Hitler.”
So I'm gradually putting some more detail into his life story, and am going to see just how much it is possible to learn. If you can help, please email chris@antonwalbrook.co.uk
A Blue Plaque For Anton, at 69 Frognal
One way of giving tribute to famous people in the UK is the blue plaque.
The blue plaque scheme is run by English Heritage - view the English Heritage Blue plaque site here. A previous attempt to get a B.P. at his London address (69 Frognal, Hampstead) was brought to my attention by Robert W - and a huge thank you to Robert for this.
Sadly, this request was turned down in 1999 and no repeat application can be heard by the panel until February 2009. I requested the application form from English Heritage! If you think this is a good idea, please email me any suggestions for reasons why Anton should be commemorated in this way.