History Creator / ConradVeidt

* KubrickStare: Vigorously, and often. Immortalised in [[http://musidora-en-terrasse.tumblr.com/post/41115738614/conrad-veidt-par-edward-steichen-1929 this portrait]] from 1929.

* AntiVillain: Usually type I. [[Film/TheThiefOfBagdad Jaffar]] is a NobleDemon through and through, Karl von Marwitz and Captain Hardt are portrayed as heroic in British films despite both of them being German officers.

* CostumePorn: He appeared in some of the most lavishly costumed big-budget historical dramas of the time: ''Carlos and Elisabeth'', ''Lucrezia Borgia'', ''The Student of Prague'' and ''The Indian Tomb'' were huge spectacles of silent German cinema. When he moved to the UK, he starred in ''[[Film/JewSuss1934 Jew Süss]]'', which was one of the most expensively costumed movies ever made in Britain. In ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad'', his costumes are among the more historically accurate ones--he wears five layers of silks and velvets at one point and it took an hour for the costume department to pleat his turbans every morning.

* OminousWalk: Veidt personally believed a character's walk was a key to deciphering his nature. He was particularly famous for his incredibly slow, catlike movements, used to great (and usually terrifying) effect in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad'' and ''A Woman's Face''. (Incidentally, Creator/ChristopherLee says he based his {{Dracula}} glide on Veidt's way of moving.)

* HappilyMarried: With his third wife, Ilona Prager, who would be with him til his death in 1943. Veidt was ''not'' a Jew, but he deliberately listed his race on census cards [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming because he refused to renounce the woman he loved.]] In ''[[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Nazi Germany.]]''

* DidNotGetTheGirl: ''Especially'' when he was playing dashing heroes or otherwise honourable men. Usually this was done to prove how noble or how tragic his character was (''Carlos and Elisabeth'', ''TheSpyInBlack'', ''Der Mann der den Mord Beging''). He actually had more of a chance of at least bedding the ladies when he played villains or otherwise morally ambivalent characters (''A Woman's Face'', ''I Was a Spy''), even if they usually escaped his clutches by the end.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: One of the most shining examples of the trope. The man playing the swaggering Nazi officer in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' and ''Escape'' personally helped his Jewish wife and her relatives escape from the clutches of the Nazis in his car under the cover of night and participated in a fund helping many, many European artists escape from persecution. Oh, and there's a persistent rumor that he identified himself as Jewish on work questionnaires. In Nazi Germany. Let's just let that sink in for a bit.

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of ComicBook/TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first UsefulNotes/GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

* BadassGay: Veidt had passionate affairs with both men and women and was a regular visitor to Berlin's gay clubs, and if that alone in Nazi Germany wasn't enough to qualify him as badass, then using his wealth and privilege to help friends and enemies of the Nazi regime escape from Germany and deliberately listing his race (''[[RefugeInAudacity incorrectly]]'') as Jewish on the census forms certainly did.

* CostumePorn: He appeared in some of the most lavishly costumed big-budget historical dramas of the time: ''Carlos and Elisabeth'', ''Lucrezia Borgia'', ''The Student of Prague'' and ''The Indian Tomb'' were huge spectacles of silent German cinema. When he moved to the UK, he starred in ''Jew Süss'', which was one of the most expensively costumed movies ever made in Britain (and should not be confused with the Nazi propaganda film of the same name). In ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad'', his costumes are among the more historically accurate ones--he wears five layers of silks and velvets at one point and it took an hour for the costume department to pleat his turbans every morning.

* OfficerAndAGentleman: Several roles, most notably in ''The Spy in Black'', ''Dark Journey'', ''I Was a Spy'' and ''Der Mann Der Den Mord Beging''. Veidt often got cast as the type of character who [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy sacrifices love]] because of honour and/or the common good.

* HypnoticEyes: Several instances, most notably Jaffar and Erik the Great. Oh, and [[RasputinTheMadMonk Rasputin]].

* ThePornomancer: Karl von Marwitz has to beat the ladies off with a stick. Torsten Barring leaves a party with three women, two of whom have just been dancing sensuously with each other. And then there was that time he played [[RasputinTheMadMonk Russia's greatest love machine.]]

Hans Walter Conrad Veidt (22 January 1893 – 3 April 1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of Creator/TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first UsefulNotes/GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

* TheJoker: Gwynplaine in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''. However, Gwynplaine is a sympathetic, tragic character and doesn't really have much in common with the supervillain--it was only his appearance Bob Kane adapted for the Joker.

Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of Creator/TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first UsefulNotes/GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

At the age of 50, [[SuddenDownerEnding he died suddenly of a massive heart attack]] on a Los Angeles golf course. The tropes he manifested, however, will live on...

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Having often been cast as smouldering villains, Veidt received mountains of fanmail from female admirers.
* AmbiguousGender: During the silent era and the heyday of gender-bending Weimar cabaret culture, Veidt was famous for being somewhat sexually ambiguous and continued to have an androgynous aura to the end of his life. One 1920s director playfully complained he had a hard time finding leading ladies to act opposite someone as pretty as Veidt. As a consequence, a lot of Veidt's characters tend to inspire HoYay readings. Whether or not the Ho Yay was intentional is a different matter entirely, especially since the cad characters of yesteryear can [[ValuesDissonance come across as camp today]].

* ATasteOfTheLash: He wields some sort of whipping implement (or gets whipped) in at least a dozen movies. Whether or not this was intentional FetishFuel, some of his movies could get pretty kinky.

Also, he was a certifiable badass in real life and spent his entire adult life campaigning for various human rights causes. In 1919, he starred in ''Film/DifferentFromTheOthers'', the world's very first LGBT rights film. He had a high opinion of women and also starred in an early pro-choice film. In the Thirties, he made two films sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, which earned him personal hate mail from Hitler himself and sugary phone calls from Goebbels, who tried to persuade him into making propaganda films for the Nazis instead. In 1934, in order to stop him from making one of the films, the Nazis imprisoned him and tortured him with abuse and sleep deprivation, but he wouldn't budge. He escaped into England with his Jewish wife and continued to make films there. After war broke out, he donated his entire fortune to the Allied war effort and spent thousands of pounds helping out war children during the Blitz. In 1940, he left for Hollywood again and in a twist of irony, got repeatedly cast as Nazis. However, he accepted the parts exactly because he felt they were good propaganda against the Nazis, and sometimes donated his entire salary from the films to the British government. He personally helped several other European actors, including his ''{{Casablanca}}'' co-star Paul Henreid escape to the UK and the US by pulling strings and supporting them financially.

* SmokingIsGlamorous: Even in an era where EverybodySmokes was the norm, Veidt characters always seemed to smoke in an incredibly sensualist and debauched manner. To the point where some people still wonder if [[{{Casablanca}} Major Strasser]] was meant to be gay.

* ATasteOfTheLash: He wields some sort of whipping implement (or gets whipped) in at least a dozen movies. Whether or not this was intentional FetishFuel, some of his movies could get [[FreudWasRight pretty kinky]].

Also, he was a certifiable {{Badass}} in real life and spent his entire adult life campaigning for various human rights causes. In 1919, he starred in ''Film/DifferentFromTheOthers'', the world's very first LGBT rights film. He had a high opinion of women and also starred in an early pro-choice film. In the Thirties, he made two films sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, which earned him personal hate mail from Hitler himself and sugary phone calls from Goebbels, who tried to persuade him into making propaganda films for the Nazis instead. In 1934, in order to stop him from making one of the films, the Nazis imprisoned him and tortured him with abuse and sleep deprivation, but he wouldn't budge. He escaped into England with his Jewish wife and continued to make films there. After war broke out, he donated his entire fortune to the Allied war effort and spent thousands of pounds helping out war children during the Blitz. In 1940, he left for Hollywood again and in a twist of irony, got repeatedly cast as Nazis. However, he accepted the parts exactly because he felt they were good propaganda against the Nazis, and sometimes donated his entire salary from the films to the British government. He personally helped several other European actors, including his ''{{Casablanca}}'' co-star Paul Henreid escape to the UK and the US by pulling strings and supporting them financially.

* MeanCharacterNiceActor: One of the most shining examples of the trope. The man playing the swaggering Nazi officer in ''Film/{{Casablanca}}'' and ''Escape'' personally helped his Jewish wife and her relatives escape from the clutches of the Nazis in his car under the cover of night and participated in a fund helping many, many European artists escape from persecution. Oh, and there's a persistent rumor that he identified himself as Jewish on work questionnaires. [[{{Badass}} In Nazi Germany]]. Let's just let that sink in for a bit.

Also, he was a certifiable {{Badass}} in real life and spent his entire adult life campaigning for various human rights causes. In 1919, he starred in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_from_the_others Different From The Others]], the world's very first LGBT rights film. He had a high opinion of women and also starred in an early pro-choice film. In the Thirties, he made two films sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, which earned him personal hate mail from Hitler himself and sugary phone calls from Goebbels, who tried to persuade him into making propaganda films for the Nazis instead. In 1934, in order to stop him from making one of the films, the Nazis imprisoned him and tortured him with abuse and sleep deprivation, but he wouldn't budge. He escaped into England with his Jewish wife and continued to make films there. After war broke out, he donated his entire fortune to the Allied war effort and spent thousands of pounds helping out war children during the Blitz. In 1940, he left for Hollywood again and in a twist of irony, got repeatedly cast as Nazis. However, he accepted the parts exactly because he felt they were good propaganda against the Nazis, and sometimes donated his entire salary from the films to the British government. He personally helped several other European actors, including his ''{{Casablanca}}'' co-star Paul Henreid escape to the UK and the US by pulling strings and supporting them financially.

--> "''When Conrad Veidt takes a movie heroine in his arms, every woman in the audience knows that he is just as likely to choke her as kiss her. Yet there's probably not a woman in the audience who wouldn't gladly change places with the imperiled heroine.''"
-->--'''[[http://lantern.mediahist.org/catalog/hollywood31fawc_0336 Hollywood magazine, 1942]]'''

!Tropes

* UniversalHorror: Starred in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs'' and ''The Last Performance'', Universal's last silent horrors.

* HandsomeDevil: Torsten Barring, Karl von Marwitz.

Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of Creator//TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first UsefulNotes/GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first UsefulNotes/GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

Conrad Veidt (1893-1943) was a German actor and {{Trope Maker|s}} extraordinaire. You might not know his name, but it's very likely [[WeirdAlEffect you've met someone based on one of his characters]]. In 1919, he rose to fame playing Cesare--yes, [[LooksLikeCesare that Cesare]], the somnambulist in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari''. He followed this with a successful career playing tortured and demonic characters in the silents and later, with the advent of talkies, romantic heroes, sinister playboys and Nazi officers (despite being a staunch anti-Nazi in real life). In addition to the aforementioned Cesare, he inspired the appearance of SelfDemonstrating/TheJoker (based on his mutilated SlasherSmile in ''Film/TheManWhoLaughs''), the stereotypical NaziNobleman, and played the very first GrandVizierJafar on whom most subsequent evil Arabian Nights wizards were based.

* GrandVizierJafar: The original, in the 1940 version of ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad''.

* KubrickStare: Vigorously, and often. Immortalised in [[http://fantomas-en-cavale.tumblr.com/post/41115738614/conrad-veidt-par-edward-steichen-1929 this portrait]] from 1929.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Torsten in the attic in ''A Woman's Face'' is particularly chilling and memorable.

* OminousWalk: Veidt personally believed a character's walk was a key to deciphering his nature. He was particularly famous for his incredibly slow, catlike movements, used to great (and usually terrifying) effect in ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'', ''Film/TheThiefOfBagdad'' and ''A Woman's Face''. (Incidentally, ChristopherLee says he based his {{Dracula}} glide on Veidt's way of moving.)

Also, he was a certifiable {{Badass}} in real life and spent his entire adult life campaigning for various human rights causes. In 1919, he starred in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Different_from_the_others Different From The Others]], the world's very first LGBT rights film. He had a high opinion of women and also starred in an early pro-choice film. In the Thirties, he made two films sympathetic to the plight of the Jews, which earned him personal hate mail from Hitler himself and sugary phone calls from Goebbels, who tried to persuade him into making propaganda films for the Nazis instead. In 1934, in order to stop him from making one of the films, the Nazis imprisoned him and tortured him with abuse and sleep deprivation, but he wouldn't budge. He escaped into England with his Jewish wife and continued to make films there. After war broke out, he donated his entire fortune to the Allied war effort and spent thousands of pounds helping out war children during the Blitz. In 1940, he left for Hollywood again and in a twist of irony, got repeatedly cast as Nazis. However, he accepted the parts exactly because he felt they were good propaganda against the Nazis, and sometimes donated his entire salary from the films to the British government. He personally helped several other European actors, including his ''{{Casablanca}}'' co-star Paul Henreid escape to the UK and the US by pulling strings and supporting them financially. Ironically, his character in ''Casablanca'' is not only a Nazi, but a Nazi specifically determined to stopping Paul Henreid's character from escaping.