Charles Régnier

Karl Friedrich Anton Hermann 'Charles' Regnier[1] (22 July 1914 – 13 September 2001) was a German actor, director and translator. He appeared in more than 135 films between 1949 and 2000. In the 1950s and the 1960s, he was one of the busiest German theatre and film actors.

Charles Régnier
Born
Charles Friedrich Antonio Régnier

(1914-07-22)22 July 1914
Freiburg, Germany
Died13 September 2001(2001-09-13) (aged 87)
Bad Wiessee, Germany
Occupation
Years active1949–2000
Spouse(s)Pamela Wedekind (1941–1986)
Sonja Ziemann (1989–2001)

Family life and upbringing

Born at Freiburg in 1914,[lower-alpha 1] Regnier owed his name to his grandfather, a native Frenchman. Regnier was the first child of Anton Karl Regnier and Emile (Milly) Maria Friederike Harrer, born in Freiburg im Breisgau.[1] His father was a general practitioner and Charles initially wanted to become a doctor.

Charles Regnier grew up in Strasbourg and Badenweiler where his maternal grandparents owned the Schloss Hausbaden hotel. After his father's suicide in 1924, his mother first moved with her four sons to Heidelberg, and then to Montreux on Lake Geneva. When his mother contracted tuberculosis in 1929, the family decided to move to the sanatorium at Davos. Here, Charles met a number of celebrities, including the writer Klabund, who awakened Regnier's interest in literature and the theatre. Together with his brothers, Charles produced Klabund's comedy XYZ: For three actors in three acts[2] for a performance in Klabund's private living room. His first acting performance was starring as the Countess Y in this piece. "As an actor I never again had the opportunity to play a lady, but often showed how one plays a lady," Regnier wrote in his personal memoirs.

Career

Regnier's first engagement was in 1938 at the theatre at Greifswald, where he met actress and singer Pamela Wedekind, a daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind. They married on 21 June 1941 in Berlin.[1] In 1941, Regnier was invited by Otto Falckenberg to join the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele, where he remained until 1958. From 1946, Regnier worked as a drama teacher at the newly founded Otto-Falckenberg-Schule.

From 1961 to 1962, he was an ensemble member of the Wiener Burgtheater. Regnier preferred not to make a distinction between high art performances and entertainment, saying, "The public should find my work effective, entertaining, in short: agreeable."[3]

Regnier lived in Germany, Italy and Switzerland. He died on 13 September 2001 after suffering a stroke in Bad Wiessee. He was buried in the Badenweiler-Lipburg cemetery, close to his childhood home.[3]

His literary estate can be found in the archives of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.

Selected filmography

Further reading
  • Thomas Blubacher: Charles Regnier, in: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theaterlexikon der Schweiz. Vol. 3, Chronos, Zürich (2005) ISBN 3-0340-0715-9, P. 1469.
  • Bernard Gasser/BE: Regnier, Charles. In Historischen Lexikon der Schweiz
  • Jörg Hahn: Regnier, Charles. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie (NDB). Vol. 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin (2003) ISBN 3-428-11202-4, P. 274.
  • Anatol Regnier: Du auf deinem höchsten Dach. Tilly Wedekind und ihre Töchter. Eine Familienbiografie. Knaus, München (2003) ISBN 3-8135-0223-6; also in audio-book format on 3 CDs, ISBN 3-89830-668-2.

Notes
  1. Some sources inaccurately place Regnier's birth year as 1915.

References
  1. "Wedekind aus Horst Kreis Neustadt am Rübenberge in Niedersachsen". In: Niedersächsisches Geschlechterbuch. (Genealogical studies). Limburg an der Lahn: Verlag C. A. Starke Volume 187 (1982), pp. 481-634, here p. 532
  2. Klabund: 1928: X Y Z. Spiel zu Dreien in drei Aufzügen. With a foreword by Otto Stoessl. Reclam, Leipzig.
  3. Münchner Merkur, 15/16 September 2001
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