Helmut Dantine

Helmut Dantine Headshot

Actor

Birth Date: October 7, 1918

Death Date: May 2, 1982

Birth Place: Vienna, Austria

Despite being forced to flee his native Austria after the Anschluss, Helmut Dantine forged a Hollywood career playing Germans during World War II. Released from the Rosserlaende concentration camp with the connivance of a sympathetic physician, 19 year-old Helmut Guttman -- as he was initially called -- lodged with a friend in Los Angeles and began acting at the Pasadena Playhouse.

He was signed soon after by Warner Bros. and took uncredited parts in classics like "To Be or Not to Be" and "Casablanca" before cameoing as the wounded Luftwaffe pilot in the British home front drama "Mrs Miniver." He proved more sadistic as the commandant executing villagers aiding the Norwegian resistance in "Edge of Darkness," but he also played a Maquis patriot escaping from Devil's Island with Humphrey Bogart in "Passage to Marseille" and an anti-Nazi underground leader evading the Gestapo in "Hotel Berlin."

His career stuttered after the war and between prestige supporting roles like Prince Hugo in the Ethel Merman musical "Call Me Madam" and the caddish Dolokhov in King Vidor's adaptation of "War and Peace," he settled for TV slots and B leads like the Greek partisan defending Athens from the Axis in "Guerilla Girl" and the alien warning Patricia Neal of dire portents in "Stranger From Venus." Married to the daughter of former MGM boss Nicholas Schenck, Dantine tried his hand at directing with "Thundering Jets" and later executive produced "Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia" and "The Killer Elite" for Sam Peckinpah.

Credits

The Fifth Musketeer

Actor
Spanish Ambassador
Movie
1979

Urota Wilby

Executive Producer
Movie
1975

The Killer EliteStream

Actor
Vorodny
Movie
1975
60%

The Wilby ConspiracyStream

Actor
Prosecuting Counsel
Movie
1975

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Actor
Max
Movie
1974

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia

Executive Producer
Movie
1974

Night GalleryStream

Actor
Series
1970

Night GalleryStream

Guest Star
Series
1970

The File on Devlin

Actor
Hans Raedler
Movie
1969

Operation Crossbow

Actor
Gen. Linz
Movie
1965

Tempest

Actor
Svabrin
Movie
1958

Thundering Jets

Director
Movie
1958

Fraulein

Actor
Lt. Hugo Von Metzler
Movie
1958

The Thin Man

Guest Star
Baron Orlonski
Show
1957

Sugarfoot

Guest Star
Series
1957

Kean: Genio e sregolatezza

Actor
Lord Mewille
Movie
1957

The Story of Mankind

Actor
Marc Antony
Movie
1957

Clipper Ship

Actor
Luis Obregon
Movie
1957

Hell on Devil's Island

Actor
Paul Rigaud
Movie
1957

War and PeaceStream

Actor
Dolokhov
Movie
1956
50%

The Stranger From Venus

Actor
The Stranger
Movie
1954

Guerrilla Girl

Actor
Demetri Alexander
Movie
1953

Call Me Madam

Actor
Prince Hugo
Movie
1953

SuspenseStream

Actor
Series
1949

Studio One

Actor
Series
1948

Whispering City

Actor
Michel Lacoste
Movie
1947

Lights Out

Actor
Show
1946

Shadow of a Woman

Actor
Dr. Eric Ryder
Movie
1946

Escape in the Desert

Actor
Capt. Becker
Movie
1945

Hotel Berlin

Actor
Dr. Martin Richter
Movie
1945

Passage to Marseille

Actor
Garou
Movie
1944

Edge of DarknessStream

Actor
Captain Koenig
Movie
1943

Northern PursuitStream

Actor
Hugo von Keller
Movie
1943

Watch on the RhineStream

Actor
Young Man
Movie
1943
80%

Mission to Moscow

Actor
Maj. Kamenev
Movie
1943

To Be or Not to BeStream

Actor
Co-pilot
Movie
1942
96%