Hans Jaray

Biography

Hans Jaray was a writer, singer, film and stage actor. After finishing school, he went to the Academy for Music and Art, in Vienna. His stage debut was in 1923, in Wiener Volkstheater and from 1930 to 1938, he played at the Theater in der Josefstadt. The first play he wrote was "Boulevard-Komödien". His two first movies were The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927) (The Love of Jeanne Ney) and Schwiegersöhne (1926). In 1933, he played 'Franz Schubert' in Leise flehen meine Lieder (1933) ("Unfinished Symphony", aka "Lover Divine", "La Symphonie inachevée"). After that, he was not often in Germany because he went back to Austria in order to emigrate to the USA in 1938. There, he played in New York on Broadway. His two Hollywood films were Lydia (1941) and Carnegie Hall (1947). After WWII, he came back to Vienna and worked there on stage, cinema and as a Professor at the Reinhardt-Seminar. Some of his last films were Frühlingsstimmen (1952) and Fedora (1978) by 'Billy Wilder', with Hildegard Knef, Henry Fonda and Michael York. He also wrote many stage plays and books.