Norbert Schiller was born in 1899 in Vienna, Austria.

(photo – Judy Sutcliffe)

He was drafted into the First World War as a very young man, but his natural ability to entertain his fellow troops soon got him re-assigned to a Concert Party for the officers.

After the war, and with no formal training, he attended an open audition for young actors at The Vienna State Opera and was cast. He went on to join the Frankfurt Theater Ensemble and, whilst touring with them, met and fell in love with a very young Helene Mayer. She was at that time still in high school but was already a champion Fencer. She went on to become a Fencing World Champion and, controversially, the only Jewish athlete in the 1936 German Olympic Team.

Through touring the country, Norbert Schiller and his ‘matinee-idol’ looks very quickly achieved heartthrob status. He even played Romeo for an astounding fifty week run in Munich.

Throughout this time, and for the rest of his life, he wrote plays and poetry with much of his early material finding its way on to the Berlin cabaret stages.

When the Nazis took power he escaped Berlin, first to his mother’s home in Vienna and then, shortly after she died, to England and then Los Angeles.

He lived in Ojai, California, for some time and it was here at  the age of 45 he met and married his wife Mary. He kept working in film and television but never really learned English well enough to get parts beyond cameos and minor characters. Amongst many other roles, he played a recurring character in the 1960′s sitcom Hogans Heroes, the TV movie version of Dynasty, and the 1974 Mel Brooks’ film Young Frankenstein. He is listed at IMDB with 95 film and television credits from 1922 to 1979.

(photo – Judy Sutcliffe)

Norbert and Mary settled in Santa Barbara, where he died in 1988 aged 89.

(photo – Judy Sutcliffe)

Huge thanks to Judy Sutcliffe for her help with this post and for her fantastic photos. Her book A Collection Of Old Men is available from here www.sevengablespress.com