Frederic Zelnik
actor, director, producer
- Birth name:
- Friedrich Zelcnik
- Born:
- 1885-05-17, Czernowitz, Bukovina, Austria-Hungary [now Chernivtsi, Ukraine]
- Died:
- 1950-11-29, London, England, UK
- Professions:
- actor, director, producer
Biography
A charcoal-sketch of a man born under the twin-headed eagle of Austria-Hungary: 17 May 1885, Czernowitz, Bukovina—today Chernivtsi, Ukraine, but then a melting-pot where street signs sang in four tongues. Frederic Zelnik sprinted from that borderland to the flicker of Weimar screens, trading provincial quiet for the clamour of Ufa studios. Between clapperboards he conjured worlds: a theatre of mirrors in *The Gala Performance* (1932), the lilting smoke of the *Kaiserwalzer* (1933), and the caravan-fire glow of *The Gypsy Baron* (1927). Off-set he shared his life with Polish star Lya Mara, their marriage a private reel spliced between premieres. The final curtain fell in exile: 29 November 1950, London, where the Thames rolled on without him.
