Anton Walbrook was:

• Born in Vienna, Austria.

• One in a long line of Walbrook actors (ten generations, in fact).

• The son of a clown (who broke with tradition, obviously).

• Jewish.

• Gay.

• Smart enough to head to Hollywood in the 1930s.

• Smart enough to change his name from Adolf to Anton when Things Began to Turn.

• Smart enough to avoid returning to Austria.

•Not smart enough to realize that England was within striking distance of Germany and its pesky luftwaffe.

• Prone to Jean Cocteau-esque hairdos in his later years, which is not surprising.

• Handsome, and occasionally, devastatingly so:

• The star of a 1940 British version of Gaslight, which is generally unknown because the producers of the 1944 Charles Boyer version that most people have seen bought the rights to Walbrook’s film and canned it. The magnificent Stephen Fry explains:

[much, much more at AntonWalbrook.co.uk]