Helmut Dantine
Born
October 7, 1918
Died
May 2, 1982 (63 years old)
Known For
Acting
Place of Birth
Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
Helmut Dantine was an Austrian-American actor who often played Nazis in thriller films of the 1940s. His best-known performances are perhaps the German pilot in Mrs. Miniver, and the desperate refugee in Casablanca, who tries gambling to obtain travel visa money for himself and his wife. As his acting career waned, he turned to producing.
Dantine enrolled at the University of California, Los Angeles. His relatives thought he would go into business, but he became interested in theater. He began his U.S. acting career at the Pasadena Playhouse, while running two gas stations in order to pay his expenses. Dantine was spotted by a talent scout from Warner Bros, who signed him to a contract.
Dantine had uncredited parts in International Squadron and To Be or Not to Be, before his first credited role in MGM's Mrs. Miniver, playing a downed German pilot captured by the title character (played by Greer Garson). It was a huge hit, and Dantine received much positive attention from being in the film. In August 1942, Warners signed him to a new acting contract. The studio kept him busy with roles in the World War II films, The Pied Piper, Desperate Journey fighting Errol Flynn, and The Navy Comes Through. He had a sympathetic role in Casablanca, as a young refugee trying and failing to earn money via gambling. Warners begin to give Dantine more sizeable roles in their "A" films, Watch on the Rhine, Edge of Darkness, playing a Nazi officer, again fighting Errol Flynn, and Mission to Moscow, playing a sympathetic Russian.
Dantine's good looks caused him to receive a lot of fan mail and, in the words of one profile, "the studio began to realize it had something else besides a Hollywood Hitlerite on its hands". Warners announced they had bought Night Action by Norman Krasna as a vehicle for Dantine, but the film appears not to have been made. Instead, he had a large role playing the villain in Northern Pursuit (1943), as a Nazi running loose in northern Canada fighting Errol Flynn again.
Warner Bros. later cast him in a sympathetic role in Passage to Marseille, and he was one of several stars in Hollywood Canteen. In 1944, exhibitors voting for "Stars of Tomorrow", picked Dantine at number 10. Warners gave him a sympathetic lead in Hotel Berlin, as the leader of the German underground. He was once again a Nazi on-the-run in Escape in the Desert, a remake of The Petrified Forest. His last role for Warners was in the film noir, Shadow of a Woman. He then left the studio.
As his acting career wound down, he became a vice-president of Hollywood mogul Joseph Schenck's company, Schenck Enterprises, in 1959; Schenck was his wife's uncle. He later went to work as producer with Robert L. Lippert Productions and then as president of Hand Enterprises Inc.
Among Dantine's later screen appearances, there were three films for which he was the executive producer: Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and The Killer Elite, both directed by Sam Peckinpah, and The Wilby Conspiracy. He was also in The Fifth Musketeer and Tarzan the Apeman.
On 2 May 1982, Helmut Dantine died in Beverly Hills from a heart attack at age 63. According to one obituary, "He specialized in portrayals of Nazis, sometimes as the handsome but icy SS sadist battling Allied heroes, sometimes as a sympathetic German soldier forced, against his better judgment, to fight".
Known For

The Fifth Musketeer
Spanish Ambassador
1979

The Killer Elite
Vorodny
1975

The Wilby Conspiracy
Prosecuting Counsel
1975

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
Max
1974

Night Gallery
(1 episode)
1970

The File on Devlin
Hans Raedler
1969

Run for Your Life
Erich Krieger · (1 episode)
1965

Operation Crossbow
General Linz
1965

The Rogues
Colonel von Reichert · (1 episode)
1964

Tempest
Shvabrin
1958

Fraulein
Lt. Hugo von Metzler
1958

The Story of Mankind
Marc Antony
1957

The Thin Man
(1 episode)
1957

Sugarfoot
Maj. Horst von Hoffstadt · (1 episode)
1957

Hell on Devil's Island
Paul Rigaud
1957

Kean: Genius or Scoundrel
Lord Mewl
1957

War and Peace
Dolokhov
1956

Alexander the Great
Nectenabus
1956

The Millionaire
Prof. Josef Marton · (1 episode)
1955

Climax!
Daniel · (1 episode)
1954

Studio 57
(1 episode)
1954

Stranger from Venus
The Stranger
1954

Call Me Madam
Prince Hugo
1953

General Electric Theater
Manson · (1 episode)
1953
Guerrilla Girl
Demetri Alexander
1953

Hallmark Hall of Fame
Hans Raedler · (1 episode)
1951

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
Peter · (1 episode)
1951

Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
(1 episode)
1951

Lights Out
(1 episode)
1949

Suspense
(1 episode)
1949

Studio One
Dr. Roland Maradick · (1 episode)
1948

Whispering City
Michel Lacoste
1947

Shadow of a Woman
Dr. Eric Ryder
1946

Escape in the Desert
Capt. Becker
1945

Hotel Berlin
Martin Richter
1945

Hollywood Canteen
Self
1944

Passage to Marseille
Garou
1944

Northern Pursuit
Colonel Hugo von Keller
1943

Watch on the Rhine
Young Man
1943

Mission to Moscow
Maj. Kamenev
1943

Edge of Darkness
Captain Koenig
1943

Casablanca
Jan Brandel (uncredited)
1943

The Pied Piper
Aide
1942

Mrs. Miniver
German Flyer
1942

To Be or Not to Be
Co-Pilot (uncredited)
1942

Escape
Porter (uncredited)
1940