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Otto Eduard Hasse | |
|---|---|
 O. E. Hasse asMephistopheles | |
| Born | (1903-07-11)11 July 1903 |
| Died | 12 September 1978(1978-09-12) (aged 75) |
| Other names | O. E. Hasse |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1931–1977 |
Otto Eduard Hasse (11 July 1903 – 12 September 1978) was a German film actor and director.
Hasse was born to Wilhelm Gustav Eduard Hasse, ablacksmith, and Valeria Hasse in the village ofObersitzko,Province of Posen,German Empire and gained his first stage experiences in high school atKolmar, together with his classmate Berta Drews. Hasse began to study law at theUniversity of Berlin but abandoned this study after three semesters and changed over toMax Reinhardt's acting school at theDeutsches Theater in Berlin, to receive an actor's education.[1]
He first appeared at theatres inThale,Breslau, and from 1930 till 1939 at theKammerspiele inMunich, where he also worked as a stage director for the first time. In spring 1939, Hasse was sentenced to two months in prison in Munich for homosexuality in accordance withSection 175 of the German Criminal Code, which was considered a relatively lenient sentence at the time. His integrity, his confession and his artistic achievements were seen as mitigating factors.In 1939, he moved to theGerman Theatre inPrague and shortened his name toO.E. instead ofOtto Eduard.
In 1944, he was conscripted to theLuftwaffe and slightly wounded. After World War II Hasse became a famous German film actor, also internationally appearing in theAlfred Hitchcock filmI Confess (1953) withMontgomery Clift andAnne Baxter, and starring withClark Gable andLana Turner inBetrayed (1954).[2]
In 1959, he was a member of the jury at the9th Berlin International Film Festival.[3]
Hasse was the German dubbing voice ofCharles Laughton,Humphrey Bogart,Spencer Tracy andClark Gable. Hasse died in West Berlin and is buried at theWaldfriedhof Dahlem.[4]
Hasse was gay.[5][6][7] His life partner for 30 years was entrepreneur Max Wiener, who worked as a manager at the Swiss media corporationRingier and was an early gay rights andAIDS advocate.[8]
Since 1981, theAcademy of Arts, Berlin, has awarded an O.E. Hasse Prize to benefit young actors.[9]
