17 Facts About Anton Walbrook

Anton Walbrook was the son of Gisela Rosa and Adolf Ferdinand Bernhard Hermann Wohlbruck.

Anton Walbrook was descended from ten generations of actors, though his father broke with tradition and was a circus clown.

Anton Walbrook attended a monastery school and considered becoming a monk, but eventually decided to become an actor.

Anton Walbrook's career was temporarily interrupted by the First World War, during which he was captured in France and spent time in a POW camp.

Anton Walbrook moved to London in 1937, settling down in an area with many German-speaking emigres.

In Britain, Anton Walbrook continued working as an actor, specialising in playing continental Europeans.

In 1941 Anton Walbrook began collaborating with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, for which he is best remembered.

Anton Walbrook portrayed the tyrannical ballet impresario Lermontov in The Red Shoes.

Anton Walbrook's Red Shoes co-star Moira Shearer recalled Walbrook was a loner on set, often wearing dark glasses, as in his character costume in the film, and eating alone.

Anton Walbrook retired from feature films in 1958 and moved to Germany, where he worked as a stage and television actor during the 1960s.

Anton Walbrook was for a short time in a relationship with the painter and graphic artist Ferdinand Finne, whom he had met in 1938 on a train ride in France.

The relationship ended in 1946 after Anton Walbrook began an affair with the Englishman Eugene Edwards.

Nevertheless, Anton Walbrook set up a flower shop for the man, who was a good thirty years his junior, and continued to remain in contact with him, right up until his death.

In 1967, Anton Walbrook suffered a heart attack on stage while acting in a theatrical production.

Anton Walbrook survived but later died at the home of actress Hansi Burg in the Garatshausen district of Feldafing, Bavaria, Germany.

Anton Walbrook's ashes were interred in the churchyard of St John's Church, Hampstead, London, as he had wished in his will.

Anton Walbrook is buried with his partner Eugene Edwards, a London florist, although Edwards' name is not on the tombstone.