Emanuel Reicher (18 June 1849 – 15 May 1924) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

actor. He was father to actors

Ernst Reicher Ernst Reicher (19 September 1885 – 1 May 1936) was a German-Jewish actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director of the silent era. Biography His father was the actor Emanuel Reicher, born in Galicia, then part of the Kingdom o ...

and

Frank Reicher Frank Reicher (born Franz Reichert; December 2, 1875 – January 19, 1965) was a German-born American actor, director and producer. He is best known for playing Captain Englehorn in the 1933 film ''King Kong''. Early life Reicher was born in M ...

and actress

Hedwiga Reicher Hedwiga Reicher (Born Hedwig Reicher; 12 June 1884 – 2 September 1971) was a German actress. Her performances on Broadway were credited with the original spelling of her first name. Reicher was named Hedwig, but she altered the spelling after ...

. After his successful acting debut in Munich in 1873 he obtained a contract with the Residenz Theater in Berlin, where he became known as one of the best German Shakespearean actors. He then took over management of the Theatre school. He played Alfred Allmers in the first performance of Henrik Ibsen's ''

Little Eyolf ''Little Eyolf'' (''Lille Eyolf'' in the original Norwegian title) is an 1894 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play was first performed in Norwegian on December 3, 1894, at a 9 a.m. matinee performance in the Haymarket Theatre in Lo ...

'' at the Deutsches Theatre, Berlin, on January 12, 1895. In 1889 he was one of the founders of the theatre society "Free Stage" (Freie Bühne). In 1907 the actor

Curt Goetz Curt Goetz (; 17 November 1888 – 12 September 1960), born Kurt Walter Götz, was a Swiss German writer, actor and film director. He was regarded as one of the most brilliant German comedy writers of his time. With his wife Valerie von Martens, ...

studied under him. Reicher was an

Esperantist An Esperantist () is a person who speaks, reads or writes Esperanto. According to the Declaration of Boulogne, a document agreed upon at the first World Esperanto Congress in 1905, an Esperantist is someone who speaks Esperanto and uses it for ...

, and in 1908 he appeared, along with his daughter Hedwig, in ''

Iphigenie auf Tauris ''Iphigenia in Tauris'' () is a reworking by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe of the ancient Greek tragedy Ἰφιγένεια ἐν Ταύροις ('' Iphigeneia en Taurois'') by Euripides. Euripides' title means "Iphigenia among the Taurians", wherea ...

'' by

Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

, at the Esperanto World Congress in Dresden. Later he went to the US, where he was when World War I broke out. He became Director of the New York Theatre Guild, where he promoted the new style of the German theatre. He returned to Germany in 1923.

Family life

Emmanuel Reicher married firstly the opera singer Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann (15 July 1853 – 2 June 1883): their son was the actor

. After Hedwig's death he married Lina Harf: their children were

and Elly (b. Berlin 1893), who all worked as actors.

Selected filmography

* '' I.N.R.I.'' (1923)

References

1849 births 1924 deaths Burials at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery German Esperantists German male stage actors 19th-century German male actors 20th-century German male actors {{Esperanto-stub