• April 20, 1992
• Vol. 37
• No. 15

Here's Looking at You, Paul

For a World at War, Actor Henreid Represented Elegance and Solitary Strength

PAUL HENREID WILL BE REMEMBERED by movie fans for two distinct, lyrical moments. In an age when smoking bespoke sophistication, the suave continental of Now, Voyager (1942) placed two cigarettes in his mouth, lit both, then handed one to Bette Davis. That same war-torn year, in Casablanca's most stirring scene, Henreid marched to the bandstand in Rick's Café Americain while German officers were singing Wacht am Rhein and instructed the musicians to play La Marseillaise.

That patina of old-world gallantry wedded to passionate conviction characterized not only the actor's performances but Henreid himself, who died of pneumonia on March 29 at 84 in a Santa Monica, Calif., hospital. Born Paul George Julius Hernreid Ritter von Wasel Waldingau in Trieste (then part of Austria) in 1908, the son of a wealthy banker, Henreid established himself as a respected stage actor in Europe between World Wars. When a friend, a Jewish comedian, told Henreid he had been banned from performing by German authorities, Henreid became a fervent anti-Nazi and even helped his friend escape from Germany. Like Victor Laszlo, the iron-willed Resistance leader he played in Casablanca, Henreid was branded an official enemy of the Third Reich.

With his wife, Lisl, a former Viennese dressmaker, Henreid fled to the U.S. in 1940. His escape from oppression, though, was short-lived: During the postwar McCarthy frenzy, Henreid was blacklisted in Hollywood as a purported Communist sympathizer. Still, he managed to work, directing segments of TV's Alfred Hitchcock Presents and performing minor parts in such films as Never So Few (1959) and Operation Crossbow (1965). He kept working in the '70s, appearing in a cameo role in Exorcist II: The Heretic.

A popular figure in the film community, Henreid once offered this view of the perils and perquisites of his profession: "I hate to think of the day when nobody remembers me as an actor, and I can't get good tables in restaurants."

Truth is, Paul Henreid was always welcome wherever distinguished folk gathered to dine.