Harry Meyen (born Harald Haubenstock; 31 August 1924 – 15 April 1979) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films and television productions between 1948 and 1975. In the 1960s he also worked as a theatre director in West Germany.

Personal life

Meyen was born in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, the son of a Jewish merchant who was deported to a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

during the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

regime. The 18-year-old Meyen himself was incarcerated as a ''

Mischling (; " mix-ling"; plural: ) was a pejorative legal term used in Nazi Germany to denote persons of mixed "Aryan" and non-Aryan, such as Jewish, ancestry as codified in the Nuremberg racial laws of 1935. In German, the word has the general denota ...

'' and survived the

Neuengamme concentration camp Neuengamme was a network of Nazi concentration camps in Northern Germany that consisted of the main camp, Neuengamme, and more than 85 satellite camps. Established in 1938 near the village of Neuengamme in the Bergedorf district of Hamburg, th ...

. After the war, he began his career with Willy Maertens at the Hamburg Thalia Theater. From 1952 he performed at the

Theater Aachen Theater Aachen is a theatre in Aachen, Germany. It is the principal venue in that city for operas, musical theatre and plays. It is the home of the Aachen Symphony Orchestra. The original project was by Johann Peter Cremer, later altered by Ka ...

and from 1955 moved to

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. Also starring in films directed by

Helmut Käutner Helmut Käutner (25 March 1908 – 20 April 1980) was a German film director active mainly in the 1940s and 1950s. He entered the film industry at the end of the Weimar Republic and released his first films as a director in Nazi Germany. Käu ...

Falk Harnack Falk Harnack (2 March 1913 – 3 September 1991) was a German director and screenwriter. During Germany's Nazi era, he was also active with the German Resistance and toward the end of World War II, the partisans in Greece. Harnack was from a fam ...

and Wolfgang Staudte, he played the role of a young ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' officer in the 1955 movie ''

Des Teufels General ''The Devil's General'' (german: Des Teufels General) is a 1955 black and white West German film based on the play of the same title by Carl Zuckmayer. The film features Curd Jürgens as General Harras, Marianne Koch, Viktor de Kowa, Karl John ...

'' side by side with

Curd Jürgens Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens (13 December 191518 June 1982) was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens. He was well known for playing Ernst Udet in '' Des Teufels Gene ...

. He also worked as a dubbing actor giving his voice to Dirk Bogarde,

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He rose to prominence with an Academy Award nomination for the Best Supporting Actor for ''The Story of G.I. Joe'' (1945), followed by his starring in ...

Michel Piccoli Jacques Daniel Michel Piccoli (27 December 1925 – 12 May 2020) was a French actor, producer and film director with a career spanning 70 years. He was lauded as one of the greatest French character actors of his generation who played a wide vari ...

Peter Sellers Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...

, and

Jean-Louis Trintignant Jean-Louis Xavier Trintignant (; 11 December 1930 – 17 June 2022) was a French actor. He made his theatrical debut in 1951, and went on to be regarded as one of the best French dramatic actors of the post-war era. He starred in many classic fi ...

. From 1953 to 1966 he was married to actress Anneliese Römer. In July 1966 he married

Romy Schneider Romy Schneider (; born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach; 23 September 1938 – 29 May 1982) was a German-French actress. She began her career in the German genre in the early 1950s when she was 15. From 1955 to 1957, she played the central chara ...

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat (; oc, Sant Joan de Cap Ferrat; Italian: ''San Giovanni Capo Ferrato'') is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2017, it had a population of 1,57 ...

. Their son David Christopher was born 3 December 1966; the family lived in Berlin and later in Hamburg. Meyen dealt with the production of theatre plays and operas, however with moderate success. The couple finally divorced in 1975, and Schneider took their son with her to France. Meyen was a depressive, his condition caused by the torture he had received from the Nazis for being half-Jewish. In 1979, Meyen hanged himself at home in Hamburg. He is buried in the

Ohlsdorf Cemetery Ohlsdorf Cemetery (german: Ohlsdorfer Friedhof or (former) ) in the Ohlsdorf quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany, is the biggest rural cemetery in the world and the fourth-largest cemetery in the world. Most of the people buried at the cemete ...

. His son David Meyen died in an accident two years later.

Selected filmography

* '' Nora's Ark'' (1948) - Peter Stoll * ' (1951) - Roger * '' The Sergeant's Daughter'' (1952) - Leutnant Robert Kroldt * ''

Alraune ''Alraune'' (German for ) is a novel by German novelist Hanns Heinz Ewers published in 1911. It is also the name of the female lead character. The book originally featured illustrations by Ilna Ewers-Wunderwald. Legend The basis of the story o ...

'' (1952) - Count Geroldingen * '' We're Dancing on the Rainbow'' (1952) - Grigory * '' Beloved Life'' (1953) - Jürgen von Bolin * '' Regina Amstetten'' (1954) - Jürgen von Bredow * '' The Faithful Hussar'' (1954) - Fred Wacker * '' The Telephone Operator'' (1954) - Curt Cramer * ''

'' (1955) - Leutnant Hartmann * ''

Miracle Mile Miracle Mile may refer to: Places in the United States * Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California, a district of Los Angeles * Miracle Mile (Coral Gables), a shopping area in Coral Gables, Florida * Miracle Mile (Manhasset), New York, a premium sh ...

'' (1956) - Philip Ardent * ''Meine 16 Söhne'' (1956) * '' Night of Decision'' (1956) * ' (1957) - Hubert Rombach, Kunsthändler * '' Scandal in Bad Ischl'' (1957) - Dr. Balsam, Assistenzarzt * '' Escape from Sahara'' (1958) - Jean de Maire * ' (1958) * '' Iron Gustav'' (1958) - Assessor * '' Freddy, the Guitar and the Sea'' (1959) - Lothar Brückner * '' Old Heidelberg'' (1959) - Graf Detlev v. Asterberg * '' The High Life'' (1960) - Heinrich * '' Sweetheart of the Gods'' (1960) - Volker Hellberg * '' Storm in a Water Glass'' (1960) - George * '' A Woman for Life'' (1960) - Leutnant Karl Degenhardt * ''Lebensborn'' (1961) - Hauptsturmführer Dr. Hagen * ''Mörderspiel'' (1961) - Klaus Troger * '' Doctor Sibelius'' (1962) - Dr. Möllendorf * ''

Redhead Red hair (also known as orange hair and ginger hair) is a hair color found in one to two percent of the human population, appearing with greater frequency (two to six percent) among people of Northern or Northwestern European ancestry and ...

'' (1962) - Herbert Lucas * ''

Enough Rope ''Enough Rope with Andrew Denton'' (often shortened to ''Enough Rope'') is a television interview show originally broadcast on ABC1 in Australia. The title of the show came from the phrase " give someone enough rope and they'll hang themselves ...

'' (1963) - Tony * '' The Curse of the Hidden Vault'' (1964) - Inspector Angel * '' Is Paris Burning?'' (1966) - Lieutenant von Arnim * '' Triple Cross'' (1966) - Lieutenant Keller * ' (directed by Harry Meyen, 1970, TV film) - Sam Kinsale * ''

Derrick A derrick is a lifting device composed at minimum of one guyed mast, as in a gin pole, which may be articulated over a load by adjusting its guys. Most derricks have at least two components, either a guyed mast or self-supporting tower, and ...

: Kamillas junger Freund'' (1975, TV) - Dr. Hauffe * ''

: Mord im TEE 91'' (1977, TV) - Harris

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Meyen, Harry 1924 births 1979 suicides German male film actors German people of Jewish descent Suicides by hanging in Germany Male actors from Hamburg 20th-century German male actors Neuengamme concentration camp survivors Burials at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery German torture victims