The 1942 Warner Bros. movie, Casablanca, had one of the most international casts ever assembled. The movie has gone on to win all sorts of accolades, including the Academy of Motion Picture's Oscar for "Best Movie". Warner Brothers claimed that 34 nationalities participated in the making of Casablanca, many of who were themselves refugees from Europe. If you study the list, you don't quite come to 34, however many different nationalities were involved. Interestingly, some of the actors or the people behind the camera were from a particular country in 1942, that changed borders after the war, and would be from another country today. Many of the actors, who had small scenes, were uncredited in the movie. They came from such countries as Germany, Austria, Hungary, France, Russia, Italy, Turkey, Algiers, China, Spain, Denmark, England, Ireland and Scotland along with the United States. Here is some information about those uncredited actors and actresses that are featured in this timeless movie.

"Round up the usual suspects"

Marcel Dalio	Helmut Dantine	Wolfgang Zilzer	Hans Twardowski	Gregory Gaye
Ludwig Stössel	Ilka Grünig	Torben Meyer	Gerald Oliver Smith	Norma Varden
Lotte Palfi	Louis Mercier	George Dee	Charles La Torre	Dan Seymour

 

---

Wolfgang Zilzer as The Man with Expired Papers:   Born on January 20, 1901 in Cincinnati, Ohio to German parents who were visiting America. His mother died shortly after his birth. When he was four years old, he and his father returned to Germany. Two years later at age six, he made his stage debut and became a demanded child actor at German stages.
            As a young man, he appeared in movies in Germany. His first movie, when he was 14 years old, was a silent movie called Die Spinne in 1917. Six years later, he appeared in his second film, Das Alte Gesetz (The Ancient Law). His first starring role was in 1927 when he appeared in Mata Hari, die rote Tänzerin (Mata Hari, the Red Dancer) in 1927 .Zilzer appeared in nine more silent films through the 1920's. In 1930, he appeared in his first sound movie, Zapfenstreich am Rhein (Tattoo on the Rhine). Zilzer made six more movies in German before receiving an uncredited role in Ever in My Heart with Barbara Stanwyck in 1933. Later that year, he received another uncredited role in Little Women with Katherine Hepburn. He also appeared in a short German movie which he wrote called Eine wie du.
             When the Nazi's came to power in 1933, Zilzer went to Paris, but returned to Germany two years later. In 1937, he applied for a visa to come to America and found out that he didn't need one because he was already an American citizen (due to his birth in Cincinnati). Zilzer then set out for Hollywood.
             The following year, Zilzer received a bit role in Bluebeard's Eighth Wife with Gary Cooper. In 1939, he had a small uncredited role as a taxi driver in M-G-M's Oscar-nominated classic Ninotchka starring Greta Garbo, in the title roll, and Melvyn Douglas along with Casablanca bit actor Gregory Gaye (German banker). He is seen in a cab telling Garbo's character how to the get to the common man's restaurant. Next, Zilzer received his credited role as a German spy named Westphal, who has second thoughts about being a spy, in Warner Bros.'s Confessions of a Nazi Spy with Edward G. Robinson. However, the name he used was John Voight. When he took part in Anti-Nazi films in America, he acted under the pseudonym John Voight in order not to endanger the life of his father who still lived in Berlin. This film also had another future Casablanca actor Hans Twardowski (German officer with Yvonne) and Lotte Palfi (women selling diamonds).
             The following year he has a small non-speaking part as a refugee peasant in Four Sons starring Don Ameche with other future Casablanca actors, Palfi, Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag) and Torben Meyer (Dutch banker). Next he portrayed a blind patient inflicted with sypylis who is cured by 606 in the outstanding biographical Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet starring Robinson in the title role. Other Casablanca actors like Meyer and Louis V. Arco (conspirator) also appeared.
            In 1942, he appeared with Stössel again and two future Casablanca actresses Palfi and Ilka Grüning (Mrs. Leuchtag) in Underground starring Philip Dorn and Martin Kosleck (as the evil Nazi Colonel Heller). Zilzer plays a former member of the underground who has been captured by the Nazi's and is being tortured in a Concentration camp. To be released, he gives away other underground members. Later, he has a strong scene when he is confronted by underground leaders and realizes he must commit suicide. 
             Later in 1942, Zilzer received a small role in the anti-Nazi movie Berlin Correspondent with Dana Andrews. He has one scene as a patient in Nazi mental hospital who is being forced to sign a paper to receive an unnecessary brain operation with the ultimate goal to kill him. This is Warner Bros. message about the Nazi plan of Euthanasia (the killing off of mentally or physically disabled people or using the excuse to kill off undesirables). Future Casablanca actors like Meyer, Arco, William Edmunds (conspirator), Henry Rowland (German officer) and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz) also had small roles in the movie.
             Next, Zilzer received a small role in Casablanca playing a refugee/resistance member. In the movie, when he is asked for his papers by the French police during the "round up the usual suspect" scene, he says, "I don't think I have them on me." When told he would have to go with them he suddenly pats his pockets and says, "Wait, it's just possible that  I ...Yes, here they are." When told that his papers have expired, he makes a run for it, but is shot and falls below a large picture of Marshal Philippe Petain, the leader of Vichy France (considered a traitor by most of the French). The caption on the picture says (in French), "Je Tiens Mes Promesses Mem Celles Des Autres ("I Keep My Promises, Just as I Keep the Promises of Others"). Zilzer character dies clutching a resistance handbill bearing the Cross of Lorraine symbol - revealing his membership in the Free France Organization headed by Petain's arch rival, General Charles De Gaulle.
             In 1943, he appeared in The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler with other Casablanca actors Twardowski, Stössel, Ryen, Grünig, Arco and Trude Berliner (baccarat player). Later that year, Zilzer decided to adopt the stage name Paul Andor because his real name was too complicated for the Americans to pronounce.  He also married Casablanca actress Lotte Palfi (women selling her diamonds) that year. They had appeared in a number of movies together and had fallen in love during the filming of Casablanca.
            After the world war the demand for German actors became smaller and Zilzer and Palfi moved to New York and concentrated more on theater. Occasionally he appeared on stage in Germany but returned to Hollywood numerous times. Zilzer made 53 movies in the United States, but was uncredited in 29 of them.
            Zilzer's last movie, at the age of 80, was a small role in the Dudley Moore comedy Lovesick in 1981. It was also the last movie for his wife, Lotte Palfi.
            They divorced when Zilzer's Parkinson's disease grew worse. Zilzer wanted to die in Germany and Lotte refused ever to go there again. Zilzer died on June 26, 1991 in Berlin, Germany at the age of 90. Two weeks later, Lotte died in New York. Zilzer is buried in the fairly new Waldfriedhof (forest cemetery) in the Berlin-Zehlendorf district of Berlin, Germany. This is the same cemetery as famous German statesman Willie Brandt.

---

Hans Twardowski as German Officer with Yvonne:  Born Hans Heinrich von Twardowski on May 5, 1898 in Stettin, Germany about 80 miles northeast of Berlin (today it is Szczecin, Poland).  Twardowski's first movie was a large role in the 1920 classic German silent horror movie Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.) which starred Conrad Veidt (Major Strasser). In the movie, Twardowski's character Alan is found murdered. 
            He would go on to appear in over 20 movies in Germany during the 1920's. In 1921, Twardowski portrayed Joshua Nesbitt, British hero Lord Horatio Nelson's stepson, in the silent film Lady Hamilton about the life of British legend Nelson, portrayed by Conrad Veidt, and his mistress Lady Hamilton. Casablanca actress Ilka Grüning (Mrs. Leuchtag) at a bit part as a landlady. Twardowski and Grüning both appeared in the silent films Der Falsche Dimitri and Es leuchtet meine Liebe the following year.
            In 1927, Twardowski appeared in the poor melodramatic silent film Die Weber (The Weaver) about man fighting against the machines. The following year, he appeared in the Fritz Lang spy thriller Spione (Spies). A year later, he portrayed Otto von Wittelsbach in the silent movie Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (Ludwig II, King of Bavaria). His first sound movie was Der König von Paris (The King of Paris) in 1930. His last movie in Germany was the 1931 Der Herzog von Reichstadt.
              With the growth of Nazi power in Germany in the early 1930's, Twardowski came to the United States. He became a refugee to escape the Nazi regime not because he was Jewish but because he was a homosexual. Shortly after, he appeared in the 1932 drama Scandal For Sale starring Pat O'Brien. In 1933; he played Von Bergen in the war drama Private Jones, a prince in Adorable and a lawyer in The Devil's in Love, the last featuring future Casablanca bit actors Paul Porcasi (native introducing Ferrari) and Leo White (Emile the waiter).
             The following year, Twardowski played Ivan Shuvolov in The Scarlet Empress, about the life of Catherine the Great, starring Marlene Dietrich in the title role.
             In 1935, Twardowski appeared as Count Nicholas of Hungary in the Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades starring Loretta Young and with future Casablanca bit actor Dewey Robinson. It would be two years before Twardowski appeared in another movie and that was a small part in the romance Thin Ice starring Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power with other future Casablanca bit actors White, Torben Meyer (Dutch banker), Alberto Morin (French officer), Frank Puglia (Arab merchant) and Georges Renavent (conspirator). Because of the time he spent directing and appearing in on stage, it would be another two years before he worked in another movie.
              With World War II about to began in 1939, Twardowski's career picked up as he appeared in two of Warner Bros. anti-Nazi movies. First as a German spy Max Helldorf in Warner Bros.'s Confessions of a Nazi spy starring Edward G. Robinson and including future Casablanca bit actors Lotte Palfi (woman selling her diamonds) and Creighton Hale (Rick's American friend). Next Twardowski, and future Casablanca bit actor Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers), appeared in another spy thriller Espionage Agent starring Joel McCrea which was released just three weeks after Germany invaded Poland to start the Second World War.
               Later in 1939, Twardowski and Zilzer appeared in the highly controversial anti-Nazi movie Hitler - Beast of Berlin (it was actually banned in New York City until it was edited) featuring Alan Ladd. Twardowski plays Albert Stalhelm, a SS storm trooper who is disillusioned about the brutality the Nazi's. His character accidentally betrays his anti-Nazi friends to his fellow SS members, who in turn murder him.
               With the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent increase in war movies, Twardowski received uncredited rolls as Nazi's. He portrayed storm troopers, U-Boat captains, army officers and even Nazi SS Commandant Reinhard Heydrich. 
               It would be three years before he got another part in a movie but 1942 and 1943 would be busy years for Twardowski. He appeared in seven films in 1942, including a large role as Captain Gemmler in the Nazi spy thriller Dawn Express. He next received an uncredited role as a sergeant in The Pied Piper starring Monty Woolley as an Englishman trying to get out of German occupied France with an increasing amount of children. Otto Preminger portrayed the villainous Major Diessen and included future Casablanca actors Marcel Dalio (Emil), Henry Rowland (German officer), Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel), Jean Del Val (Police radio announcer) and William Edmunds (conspirator). Next, he and Zilzer appeared in the comedy Joan of Ozark.
                Next, Twardowski appeared as one of the many German soldiers in Desperate Journey with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. This movie had five other Casablanca bit actors; Grünig, Dantine, Rowland and Louis V. Arco (conspirator). He received a bit part as a U-Boat captain in RKO's The Navy Comes Through starring Pat O'Brien and featuring Casablanca actor Helmut Dantine. He had another bit part in the comedy Once Upon a Honeymoon starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rodgers.
               In June of 1942, Twardowski, age 44, received a small part in Casablanca playing, of course, a German officer. He is seen Rick's Cafe with Yvonne (Madeleine LaBeau) and gets into a fight with a French officer (Alberto Morin) who is very upset with Yvonne for being with a German.
              1943 was just as busy as Twardowski appeared in the Fritz Lang movie Hangman Also Die, portraying the notorious Nazi SS Commandant Reinhard Heydrich known as "The Hangman" and also starring Brian Donlevy and Walter Brennen. Twardowski received two uncredited roles after this. First as a German officer in Raoul Walsh's Background To Danger starring George Raft, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre along with Casablanca bit actors Del Val, Edmunds, Puglia, White, Porcasi, Renavent, Charles La Torre (Italian officer) and Michael Mark. This was followed by a bit part as a Nazi captain in the war drama First Comes Courage with Casablanca bit actors Rowland and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz).
               Next Twardowski, along with Zilzer, appeared in The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler with other Casablanca actors and actresses; Arco, Grüning, Ryen, Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag) and Trude Berliner (women baccarat player). Later that year, he had a small part in the war drama The Cross of Lorraine starring Gene Kelly and Cedric Hardwicke along with Casablanca actors Lorre, Ryen and Arco.
              Twardowski's last two movies were 1944 war dramas; first he appeared as a doctor in The Hitler Gang showing the rise of Adolf Hitler, again with Arco, Ryen and Palfi and later as a German Red Cross representative in Resisting Enemy Interrogation with Casablanca bit actor Henry Rowland.
               With the end of the Second World War came the end of Twardowski's movie acting career. However, he continued to write and direct plays. He originally starred on stage as the Dauphin in Schiller's productions of "Die Jungfrau von Orleans." In the thirties, Twardowski directed and appeared in the stage productions of "The Brothers Karamazov" and "Old Heidelberg" in the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1939, he produced a play in Brooklyn's St. Felix Street Playhouse called "Shakespeare Merchant - 1939" that he wrote based on the Shakespeare play "Merchant of Venice." Twardowski also sang tenor in a number of musicals.
               Twardowski died of a heart attack on November 19, 1958 in his New York City apartment at age 60.

---

Gregory Gaye as the German Banker:  Born on October 10, 1900 in St. Petersburg, Russia. He is one of the two Russian actors, along with Leonard Kinskey, in Casablanca. Gaye came to the United States after the Russian Revolution in 1917. He has appeared in small roles in over a hundred movies. His first was a bit part in the 1928 John Barrymore silent movie Tempest. His first credited role was as Prince Ordinsky in the Will Rodger's comedy They Had to See Paris in 1929. Gaye appeared in three of Rodger's movie including; Young As You Feel and Handy Andy.
             Later in 1929, Gaye received a bit part in the John Ford film Black Watch starring Victor McLaglen (John Wayne and Randolph Scott also had bit parts in this movie). In 1930, Gaye received a good role as Baslikoff, a suave violinist, chasing Gloria Swanson in the romance comedy What a Widow!  Later that year, he appeared as Vologuine in the Victor Fleming film Renegades with Myrna Loy and Bela Lugosi. In 1932, Gaye played Rudolph Kammerling in the comedy Once in a Lifetime about a Hollywood studio during the transition from silents to talkies.
             In 1934, Gaye played Mr. Kolinoff in Warner Bros.'s British Agent starring Leslie Howard, directed by Casablanca director and featuring other Casablanca bit actors Paul Porcasi (Native introducing Ferrari), Olaf Hytten (man being pickpocketed at bar), Michael Mark (vendor) and Leo White (waiter). Two years later, Gaye receives a good role as Baron Kurt Von Obersdorf in Dodsworth starring Walter Huston and Mary Astor and including Casablanca bit actors Gino Corrado (waiter) and Louis Mercier (diamond smuggler). Later that year, again playing an aristocrat, as Count Raul Du Rienne in Under Your Spell with Casablanca bit actors Corrado and Creighton Hale (dubious gambler). Also in 1936, he received another good role as Enrico Borelli in the mystery Charlie Chan at the Opera starring Boris Karloff.
             In 1937, Gaye portrayed a pianist named Dmitri 'Didi' Shekoladnikoff in the comedy Mama Steps Out starring Guy Kibbee. Fellow Casablanca actors Corrado, Frank Puglia (Arab merchant) and Alberto Morin (French officer insulting Yvonne) also had parts in the movie. Next, Gaye plays a German Captain Freymann in Lancer Spy starring George Sanders and Peter Lorre along with Hytten and Puglia. Gaye continued to play aristocrats like Count Frederic Brekenski in Warner Bros.'s Tovarich starring Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer and Basil Rathbone along with Casablanca bit actors Torben Meyer (Dutch banker), Curt Bois (pickpocket) and White. The following year, Gaye played another aristocratic count in Love, Honor and Behave starring Pricilla Lane. Later that year, Gaye received the part of Popoff in the M-G-M's comedy Too Hot to Handle starring Clark Gable and Myrna Loy and including Alberto Morin in a bit part.
             Gaye, in a role he was getting used too, played Count Georges De Remi in Paris Honeymoon starring Bing Crsoby and including Casablanca bit actors Leo Mostovoy (usual suspect) and Michael Mark (vendor) in 1939. Later that year, he played Vitray in 20th Century Fox's The Three Musketeers starring Don Ameche and including Casablanca bit actor Georges Renavent (conspirator). Next that year, Gaye received a good part as exiled Count Alexis Rakonin who is forced to work as a waiter in a French hotel in M-G-M's Oscar-nominated classic Ninotchka starring Greta Garbo in the title role and Melvyn Douglas and including Casablanca bit actor Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers). He spies on the three Russians (Sig Rugmann, Alexander Granach and Felix Bressart) and reports about what they have to Ina Claire's character.
             As World War II raged in Europe, Gaye's parts started to move away from aristocrats and toward Nazi's. In 1941, Gaye played Von Mueller in They Dare Not Love starring George Brent and Paul Lukas. The movie takes place in Austria during the war and includes other Casablanca actors Leon Belasco (dealer) and Georges Renavent. Next, he played a waiter in I Wake Up Screaming starring Betty Grable and Victor Mature. Next he plays Becker in the war drama Flight Lieutenant starring Pat O'Brien and Glen Ford along with Marcel Dalio (Emil) and Frank Puglia.
             In 1942, Gaye plays a Nazi spy and saboteur named Feldon in Columbia's spy serial Secret Code. Next he played a Nazi named Karl in the comedy Fall In along with Casablanca bit actor Gino Corrado.
             Later in 1942, at age 41, he landed a small role in Casablanca as an official of Hitler's Reichbank. In the movie he tries to gain entrance to the back-room casino, but is stopped by Abdul (Dan Seymour). He tells Rick, "I have been in every gambling room between Honolulu and Berlin, and if you think I'm going to be kept out of a saloon like this, you're very much mistaken." Rick tells him, "your cash is good at the bar." He responds, "What? Do you know who I am?" To which Rick replies, "I do, you're lucky the bar is open to you." Gaye angrily responds, "This is outrageous! I shall report it to the Angrif" and storms away.
             After Casablanca, Gaye received many small, and mostly uncredited, roles throughout the 1940's and 1950's. In 1944, he received a bit part as a Russian correspondent Peter Voroshevski, who again is stopped at the door and not allowed in, in Purple Heart starring Dana Andrews and Richard Conte based on the captured pilots from the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo and including other Casablanca bit actors Meyer and Martin Garralaga (waiter). In the mystery Seven Doors To Death, Gaye received a large part as Henry Gregor. Later in 1944, Gaye appeared with Henreid, Greenstreet and Lorre in the spy thriller  The Conspirators along with Casablanca bit actors Mercier, Dalio, Belasco, Monte Blue, William Edmunds (conspirator) and Martin Garralaga (waiter).
             In 1945 Gaye appeared in seven movies. One of them was with Casablanca actor Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz), a war drama Paris Underground about two women trying to help downed Allied pilots escape Nazi occupied France. He also played the part of Joe Sapphire in a small crime drama Tiger Women. In another, he again plays a German banker, this time in Cornered starring Dick Powell.
             After that year, the roles became scarcer. In 1946, Gaye received a role in a small mystery Passkey to Danger. The following year, Gaye played a book forger in Republic's mystery The Trespasser starring Dale Evens. Next he received a bit part as a Maitre d'hotel in the comedy The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer starring Cary Grant.
             Gaye continued to receive parts into the 1950's. He got a small role in Cargo to Capetown starring Broderick Crawford. He also received a part in Republic's sci-fi serial Flying Disc Man from Mars (it was released as a feature film called Missile Monsters in 1958). Gaye appeared in the adventure film Mask of the Avenger starring Anthony Quinn. This was followed with an appearance in the thriller Peking Express. Next was a part as Ali in Columbia's The Magic Carpet starring Lucille Ball. In 1952, Gaye appeared as Paul Shushaldin in Raoul Walsh's historical adventure The World in His Arms starring Gregory Peck and Ann Blyth. The following year, Gaye appeared in Savage Mutiny starring Johnny Weissmuller (one of two movie they appeared in together). Later, he got a small role in South Sea Woman starring Burt Lancaster and Virginia Mayo. In 1955, Gaye portrayed an ex-Nazi mad scientist who teams up with a mobster to bring dead gangsters to life by using radioactivity so the mobster can enact revenge in Columbia's "B" sci-fi horror movie Creature with the Atom Brain. Gaye appeared in Kelly and Me starring Van Johnson in 1957 and the following year as Vladimir Klinkoff in Auntie Mame starring Rosalind Russell.
             In 1960, he played a casino owner named Freeman in Ocean's Eleven starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and  Sammy Davis Jr. The following year, he played Joan Blackman's father, Elvis Presley's co-star in Blue Hawaii.
             In 1962, portrayed a salesman in Vincente Minnelli's drama The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse starring Glenn Ford, Paul Lukas and Charles Boyer and including Casablanca bit actor Henry Rowland (German officer). Later that year, Gaye portrayed General Erwin Rommel in Hitler starring Richard Baseheart in the title role. The next year, Gaye played a Russian reporter in The Prize starring Paul Newman and Edward G. Robinson.
             It would be three years before Gaye received another role. This time he had a small role portraying the Soviet U.N. ambassador in Batman in 1966. Three years after that in 1969, he received his next part, a small uncredited role in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Topaz.
            Gaye didn't appear in any more movies until the late 1970's. He appeared in a couple of television movies before, at age 79, he did his last movie which was the Science Fiction movie Meteor where he had a small role as the Soviet Premier in 1979.
            Gaye was also in television. In 1953, he played the evil Ruler who tries to destroy the earth in the television series Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe. Between 1954 and 1970, Gaye appeared as a guest in a number of television shows, including five guest appearances on The F.B.I.
            Gaye died on August 23, 1993 in Studio City, California. He was cremated and his ashes are held privately. Gaye is the uncle of Finish actor George Gaynes (he played Commandant Eric Lassard in the Police Academy movies).

---

Ludwig Stössel as Mr. Leuchtag:  Ludwig Stössel was born in Lockenhaus, Austria  on February 12, 1883. Lockenhaus is a small town in southeastern Austria in the Burganland region, a few miles from the Hungarian border and 45 miles due south of Vienna (it's famous for it's 13th century castle). He was one of four Austrian actors, along with Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo), Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel) and Ilka Grünig (his wife), who had parts in Casablanca.
              Stössel began performing on the stage in Austria and Germany when he was only 17. He soon became a successful character actor and played for the most important stages of Germany, among other at Max Reinhardt in Berlin, at the Barnowsky-Bühne and at the German Künstlertheater. Stössel became a movie actor at a later age. His first motion picture was a small role in the silent movie, In der Heimat, da gibt's ein Wiedersehn! in 1926 at the age of 43. He appeared in about a half dozen silent movies in Germany after this. Stössel received more roles with the arrival of sound.
            Stössel's first sound movie was Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Skandal um Eva in 1930. The following year, he appeared in Max Neufeld's Opernredoute (Opera Ball). Later that year, he appeared as a hotel owner in the German comedy Die Koffer des Herrn O.F. (The suitcases of Mr. O.F.) starring Peter Lorre and Hedy Lemarr. In 1932, he appeared as Riederer, The Amtshauptmann of the town of St. Vigil in Der Rebell. Next he played Leon in Hände aus dem Dunkel (Hands from the Darkness). In 1933, Stössel received a small part in Fritz Lang's famous mystery thriller Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (The Crimes of Dr. Mabuse). This film was later banned by the Nazi government. Later, he played Pichler in the Carl Boese's comedy Heimkehr ins Glück (Lucky Homecoming). This would be his last movie in Germany.
             When Hitler came to power in 1933, Stössel was forced to leave Germany because of his Jewish background. He went back to Austria and appeared in few movies but his main activity was in the theater. In 1934, he appeared in the comedy, Eine Nacht in Venedig (A Night in Venice). His last movie in Austria was in 1937 with Pfarrer von Kirchfeld (The Pastor From Kirchfeld). After Hitler's forces took over Austria in the Anschluß of 1938, Stössel was imprisoned several times before he was able to escape Vienna and get to Paris. He, and his wife Lore Birn, eventually made it to London. He worked in two British film productions before heading to Hollywood in 1939.
            Stössel received his first role in an American movie in 1940. It was a good part as he played a pastor in Czechoslovakia during the Nazi take-over in the wartime drama  Four Sons starring Don Ameche with other future Casablanca actors, Torben Meyer (Dutch banker), Lotte Palfi (women selling diamonds) and Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers). His best scene is when he delivers the news to Frau Bern (Eugenie Leontovich) that her son has been killed in the war.
            In 1942, he appeared with Zilzer again and two other future Casablanca actresses Ilka Grüning (who plays his wife in Casablanca) and Lotte Palfi (women selling her diamonds) along with actors Louis V. Arco (conspirator) and Henry Rowland (German officer) in Underground. Stössel and Grünig appeared again in the Oscar-nominated Kings Row starring Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains. Stössel and Grünig also appeared together in the Sonja Henie film Iceland. Later that year, Stössel was cast to play Lou Gehrig's father in Pride of the Yankees starring Gary Cooper in the title role. German actress Elsa Janssen played Gehrig's mother.
            A few months later, at the age of 59, he received the role of Mr. Leuchtag, who along with his wife are leaving Europe for America in Casablanca. They have only one scene in the movie when they are having a drink in Rick's Cafe with their good friend Carl the waiter (S.Z. Sakall) and struggling a bit with their English. He asks his wife (Ilka Grünig) for the time, "Liebchen - sweetnessheart, what watch?" She answers, "Ten watch" and he replies "such much." Carl assures them they will get along beautifully in America [note: The German translation for 10 o'clock is "zehn Uhr" however Uhr is also the German word for clock or in this case watch, thus ten watch].
            Stössel appeared in supporting roles in over 40 movies after Casablanca, most in the following ten years. The following year, he had a small role as a Dutch merchant marine captain in another Humphrey Bogart movie, Action in the North Atlantic with other Casablanca role actors Monte Blue (American), Creighton Hale (dubious gambler), Louis V. Arco (conspirator), Frank Puglia (Arab merchant) and Jean Del Val (police radio announcer).
            He did a couple of anti-Nazi movies like Hitler's Madman in 1943. In this movie he portrays the mayor of a small town that is wiped out by a Nazi mass-execution in reprisal for the assassination of SS Commander Erich Heydrich. Later that year, he appeared in The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler with other Casablanca actors Grüning, Arco, Zilzer, Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz), Hans Twardowski (German officer with Yvonne) and Trude Berliner (women baccarat player).
            In 1944, he appeared in the Boris Karloff horror movie, The Climax. Later in 1944, Stössel teamed up with his movie wife from Pride of the Yankees, Elsa Janssen, to play Mr. and Mrs. Steelman, a German couple loyal to America who drive their traitorous pro-Nazi son, played by George Sanders (who is actually working undercover for the U.S. government), out of their house in the spy drama They Came to Blow Up America. In 1945, they teamed up again to play Mr. and Mrs. Otto in the "B" crime drama Dillinger. Next, he was bitten in the throat by Count Dracula, played by John Carradine, in House of Dracula. Later in 1945, Stössel played a teacher, who along with a llama, is in the opening scene of the Fred Astair musical Yolanda and the Thief with other Casablanca bit players Meyer, Charles La Torre (Italian officer), Leon Belasco (dealer), Gino Corrado (waiter), Martin Garralaga (waiter), Franco Corsaro (conspirator) and George Renavent (conspirator).
            When the Second World War ended in 1945, Stössel decided not to return to Germany like many other German actors and actresses but remained in his adopted country making movies. In 1946, Grünig and Stössel got to play husband and wife again. Instead of being the 'Leuchtags', they were now the 'Muellers' in Temptation starring Merle Oberon, George Brent and Paul Lukas.
            In 1947, he had a small role portraying Albert Einstein in The Beginning or the End. In 1948, he portrayed one of the lonely bachelor professors at a musical research institute in the Danny Kaye musical A Song is Born. In 1949, Grünig and Stössel appeared in their last film together when they received roles in the drama The Great Sinner starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and including other Casablanca bit actors Garralaga, Del Val and Curt Bois (pickpocket). In 1953, Stössel played a Grand Duke in the musical Call Me Madam starring Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor and including Casablanca actors Belasco, Meyer and Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel). His last film was in 1960, where he had a small role in the Elvis Presley movie, G.I. Blues.
            Stössel also did television. In 1955, he played Ludwig, a Carl the waiter clone, in the television version of Casablanca. Other Casablanca actors Marcel Dalio (Emil) and Dan Seymour (Abdul) also had parts. From 1958 to 1960, Stössel played Charles Bronson's father in ABC's television series Man with a Camera. From 1953 to 1963, Stössel appeared as a guest in a number of television shows including; Cavalcade of America, Father Knows Best, Perry Mason, My Three Sons, The Donna Reed Show and The New Phil Silvers Show (where he parodied his Gallo television commercials).
            Stössel became famous doing a long series of commercials for Gallo wine producers. Dressed in an Alpine hat and lederhosen, Stössel was their spokesman. His motto was, "That Little Old Winemaker, Me!" (they didn't use his voice but had Jim Backus' voice dub the line).
            Stössel died on January 29, 1973 in Beverly Hills after a fall just 14 days short of his 90th birthday. He was cremated at Groman Mortuary in Hollywood Forever, and the ashes were sent to Vienna, Austria.

---

  Ilka Grünig as Mrs. Leuchtag: Born in September 4, 1876 in Vienna in the old Austrian-Hungarian Empire. She was one of four Austrian actors, along with Paul Henreid, Helmut Dantine and Ludwig Stössel, in Casablanca.
          Grünig's first film, at age 43, was a German silent movie called Todesurteil in 1919. Next, she starred with Conrad Veidt (Major Strasser) in Peer Gynt. Later that year, she and Veidt appeared in Die sich verkaufen.
          She continued making silent movies in Germany into the 1920's. In 1920, she appeared in the film  Die Bestie im Menschen based on a Émile Zola novel. This were two of 11 films she appeared in that year alone. Grünig appeared in a couple of  Veidt's "Christian Wahnschaffe" movies; Weltbrand in 1920 and Die Flucht aus dem goldenen Kerker in 1921. In 1922, she had a small part as a landlady in Lady Hamilton starring Veidt as Lord Horatio Nelson and including future Casablanca bit actor Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (German with Yvonne) as Nelson's stepson, Joshua Nesbitt. This was one of four movies that she and Twardowski appeared in together; F.W. Murnau's drama Phantom, Es leuchtet meine Liebe and Der Falsche Dimitri.
          In 1923, she portrayed Frau Gött in Max Mack's Das Schöne Mädel. Later that year, she portrayed the wife of Johann Kaspar Schiller in Friedrich Schiller - Eine Dichterjugend. Next she played Rosalindes' mother in Max Mack's Die Fledermaus (this was the 5th film she did with the German directer). In 1924, she appeared in F.W. Murnau's drama Die Finanzen des Großherzogs (this was the third film she made with Murnau, the legendary German director).
          In 1925, Grünig appeared in the silent Die Freudlose Gasse, directed by the legendary Georg Wilhelm Pabst, which featured a 20-year old Greta Garbo. Marlene Dietrich was also in the film, uncredited as "Maria's friend", making this the only film featuring both Marlene Dietrich and Greta Garbo. Deitrich is the dark-haired friend of Maria's who actually catches Garbo when she collapses from hunger in the Vienna butcher shop line. The following year, she appeared in her third Pabst' movie Geheimnisse einer Seele. In 1927, Grünig appeared in Halloh - Caesar! which C.Z. Sakell (Carl the waiter) helped write. Later that year, she and Sakell appeared together in Familientag im Hause Prellstein.
          In 1929, Grünig appeared in her first 'talkie', Melodie des Herzens. It would be three years before she appeared in another film. In 1932, she received a part in Max Neufeld's Hasenklein kann nichts dafür, which would be her last movie in Germany.
          Grünig, had played Strindberg and Ibsen for legendary German director Max Reinhardt and had run the second most important drama school in Berlin, left Germany after Hitler and the Nazi's came to power. After arriving in America, she received help from the European Film Fund in resettling to America. It would be nine years before she appeared in another movie.
         With the outbreak of World War II and the need for older German women for war movies, Grünig started receiving parts. Her first Hollywood movie was in 1941 as Erwin Kalser's husband in Warner Bros.' war drama Underground starring Philip Dorn and Martin Kosleck (as the evil Nazi Colonel Heller) and featuring future Casablanca bit actor's Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers), Louis V. Arco (conspirator), Lotte Palfi (women selling her diamonds), Henry Rowland (German officer) and Ludwig Stössel (who would play her husband in Casablanca).
          Grünig was busy in 1942. First, Grünig (playing Anna) and Stössel appeared in the Oscar-nominated Kings Row starring Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan and Claude Rains. She then played Christian Rub's wife in the spy thriller Dangerously They Live starring Nancy Coleman and Raymond Massey and featuring Casablanca bit actors Henry Rowlands and Leo White (waiter). This was followed by playing the wife of Karl Pfeiffer, a German millionaire living in America (played by Charles Winninger) in Friendly Enemies. Grünig (playing Aunt Sophie) and Stössel appeared together again in a Sonja Henie film Iceland. Next, playing a Gestapo impostor, she appeared in Desperate Journey with Reagan and Errol Flynn and including five other Casablanca bit actors; Arco, Twardowski, Rowland, Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel) and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz).
         Also in 1942, at the age of 66, the oldest actor in the movie, Grünig received the role of Mrs. Leuchtag, who along with her husband (played by Ludwig Stössel) are leaving Europe for America in Casablanca. She has only one scene (a total of 30 words) in the movie when her and her husband are having a drink in Rick's Cafe with their good friend Carl the waiter and struggling a bit with their English. Her husband (Ludwig Stössel) asks her for the time, "Liebchen - sweetnessheart, what watch?" She answers, "Ten watch" and he replies "such much." Carl assures them they will get along beautifully in America.
           In 1943, Grünig received a bit part as George Tobias' mother in This Is the Army. Next she appeared in The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler with other Casablanca actors Stössel, Ryen, Twardowski, Arco, Zilzer and Trude Berliner (women baccarat player). Grünig, along with Casablanca bit actors William Edmunds (conspirator) and Leo Mostovoy (usual suspect), received bit parts in Madame Curie starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon (as the Curie's).
            Grünig appeared in only one movie in 1944 as Mrs. Vronsky in the drama An American Romance starring Brian Donlevy, Ann Richards and John Qualen (Berger) and including Casablanca bit actors Ryen, Paul Porcasi (Native introducing Ferrari) and Leon Belasco (dealer). Grünig wouldn't get another part until 1946 when she received a bit part in the mystery Murder in the Music Hall. She received a couple of other small parts that year; the first as Herman Bing's wife in Rendezvous 24, which also featured Henry Rowland.
          Next Grünig and Stössel got to play husband and wife again. Instead of being the 'Leuchtags', they were now the 'Muellers' in Temptation starring Merle Oberon, George Brent and Paul Lukas. The following year, she played Paul E. Burns' wife in the film-noir Desperate which featured Raymond Burr. Playing Mattie, she appeared next in Repeat Performance along with another Casablanca bit actor Jean Del Val (police radio announcer). In 1948, Grünig, along with other Casablanca bit actors Torben Meyer (Dutch banker), Michael Mark (vendor) and Leo Mostovoy (usual suspect) appeared in Letter from an Unknown Woman starring Joan Fontaine. Later she played a German women in Billy Wilder's comedy romance A Foreign Affair starring Marlene Dietrich. She also had a small part in the M-G-M musical Words and Music.
          The following year, she played a grandmother in the film-noir Caught starring James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes and including Curt Bois (pickpocket). Later that year, Grünig and Stössel appeared in their last film together when they received roles in the drama The Great Sinner starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and including other Casablanca bit actors Bois, Del Val and Martin Garralaga (waiter). She played another old women in Mr. Soft Touch with Glen Ford.
          In 1950, she received a good part as Edgar Bergen's wife in the adventure film Captain China starring John Payne, Gail Russell and including John Qualen. She next another good role in the film-noir Convicted starring Glenn Ford and Broderick Crawford. The following year, she appeared as Brett King's mother in Payment on Demand with Bette Davis. Her last Hollywood movie was as Mama Ludwig, Griff Barnett's wife, in the western Passage West starring John Payne.
          Like many German and Austrian actors, Grünig went back to Berlin in the 1950's, but found it wasn't the same country she left. Many former Nazi's returned and it became difficult for Grünig to integrate back into the film industry. She did, at age 76, appear in a small Swiss movie in 1952 called Die Venus vom Tivoli which was her last movie. After this Grünig returned to America.
          Grünig died on November 11, 1964 in Los Angeles, at the age of  88. She was cremated and her ashes rest in Columbarium of Faith in Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, California. This is the same cemetery that Paul Henreid (Victor Laszlo) is in.

---

Torben Meyer as Dutch Banker: Born on December 1, 1884 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Meyer started a stage career in Denmark and appeared in his first silent movie Vor tids dame in 1912. This would start a 50 year career in which Meyer appeared in over 180 films.
          Meyer appeared in 20 more silent movies, before making Don Quixote in 1926. This movie achieved considerable international stature, and Meyer followed the migration of top European actors to Hollywood the following year. His first American film was the silent movie The Man Who Laughs starring Casablanca star, Conrad Veidt in 1928.
          Meyer arrived just when sound movies were being made. Unlike other European actors, his thick accent became a plus for him. He appeared uncredited in numerous movies throughout the 30's and 40's and despite his Danish origins, Meyer was almost always cast as a German.
          In 1930, Meyer received a small part in a Michael Curtiz (Casablanca director) film A Soldier's Plaything. In 1932, Meyer appeared in a couple Swedish language American films, Trådlöst och kärleksfullt and Halvvägs till himlen. Later that year, he had a small part in Murders in the Rue Morgue, based on the Edgar Allen Poe novel and starring Bela Lugosi.
          Also in 1932, Meyer had small parts as waiters in five different movies; in famed German director Ernst Lubitsch's film Broken Lullaby starring Lionel Barrymore, in George Cukor's What Price Hollywood?, where he plays a waiter in the famous Hollywood restaurant 'The Brown Derby', in Downstairs starring Paul Lukas, in Mervyn LeRoy's Big City Blues starring Joan Blondell (Humphrey Bogart also had a small uncredited role in this movie) and in The Match King which also had Casablanca bit actor George Meeker (Rick's friend). Also that year, he received a small part in The Animal Kingdom starring Leslie Howard.
          Next Meyer went from waiter to butler in a number of films in the 1930's; The Crime of the Century, John Ford's The World Moves On, Preview Murder Mystery starring Reginald Denny, Piccadilly Jim and The First Hundred Years both starring Robert Montgomery, The King and the Chorus Girl starring Joan Blondell and including Casablanca bit actors Georges Renavent (conspirator) and Michael Mark (vendor).
          However, there was again the call to be a waiter throughout the 30's; in Reunion in Vienna starring Lionel Barrymore and including Casablanca bit actor Paul Porcasi (man describing Ferrari), in The Good Fairy starring Margaret Sullavan and including Casablanca bit actor Gino Corrado (waiter), in Break of Hearts starring Katharine Hepburn and Charles Boyer (in this one he was headwaiter at The Ritz), in Two for Tonight starring Bing Crosby, in The Gay Deception which also had Casablanca bit actor Olaf Hytten (man being robbed at the bar) as a butler and in To Beat the Band.
          In 1935, Meyer got to be strangled by Boris Karloff's Frankenstein in James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein.  In 1937, Meyer had a number of bit parts; as a servant in Tovarich starring Claudette Colbert, Charles Boyer and Basil Rathbone along with Casablanca bit actors Gregory Gaye (German banker), Curt Bois (pickpocket) and Leo White (waiter), as Raymond Massey's servant in The Prisoner of Zenda starring Ronald Colman in the title role and as Tyrone Power's chauffeur in Sonja Henie's Thin Ice. In 1938, Meyer played a German Police Prefect in a Simon Templar movie, The Saint in New York which also had Casablanca bit actor Leon Belasco (dealer). the following year, he played a doorman in Topper Takes a Trip starring Roland Young and Billie Burke and including Casablanca bit actors Belasco, Porcasi and Renavent.
          In 1939, Meyer received a bit part in warner Bros. anti-Nazi movie Nurse Edith Cavell starring Anna Neagle in the title role and including casablanca bit actors William Edmunds (conspirator) and Louis V. Arco (conspirator). The following year, Meyer and Arco received small parts in Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet starring Edward G. Robinson, Ruth Gordon and Otto Kruger. Torben played Kadereit, Dr. Ehrlicht's assistant.
          Later in 1940, he had a small role in the Charlie Chaplin movie, The Great Dictator. He also appeared that year in Four Sons starring Don Ameche with other future Casablanca actors, Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag), Lotte Palfi (women selling diamonds) and Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers). He is seen in the beginning of the movie as a farmer driving a hay wagon from Nazi Germany into Czechoslovakia and then gives Don Ameche's character a ride home. Later that year, he got to play Mr. Schmidt in Christmas in July. This was his first with producer and director Preston Sturges, and ending with The Beautiful Blonde of Bashful Bend in 1949. Evidently as a private joke, Sturges nearly always cast Meyer as a character named "Schultz", with conspicuous exceptions as playing Dr. Kluck in The Palm Beach Story in 1942.
          In 1942, Meyer received one scene in the anti-Nazi movie Berlin Correspondent with Dana Andrews. Here he plays a restaurant manager who is harassing Virginia Gilmore for her ration card. Future Casablanca actors like Zilzer, Edmunds, Arco, Henry Rowland (German officer) and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz) also had small roles in the movie.
          Next in 1942, at age 57, he received a small part as a Dutch banker in Casablanca who is seated at a baccarat table. His female friend (played by Trude Berliner) wants to have a drink with Rick but is told no by Carl, the headwaiter. Meyer is annoyed by this rebuff telling Carl, "Perhaps if you told him I ran the second largest banking house in Amsterdam." He is informed that it wouldn't impress Rick, "the leading banker in Amsterdam is now the pastry chef in our kitchen" and "his father is the bellboy!"
          In 1943, Meyer plays a waiter again in RKO's spy thriller Journey Into Fear starring Joseph Cotten, Dolores del Rio and Orson Wells. Next, Meyer played a gypsy in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man starring Bela Lugosi and Lon Chaney Jr. in the title roles. This was followed with a bit role in Warner Bros.'s war drama Edge of Darkness, starring Errol Flynn and Ann Sheridan, where he plays a clerk for Kaspar Torgerson (Charles Dingle) in a Norwegian Cannery. Next he plays Gottwald in the spy drama They Came to Blow Up America starring George Sanders and Ward Bond and including Wolfgang Zilzer.
          The following year, Meyer, wearing a beard and mustache, plays a sympathetic Swiss Red Cross representative named Karl Kappel in the 20th Century Fox war drama of captured army pilots from the Doolittle Raid over Tokyo put on trial in Japan called Purple Heart starring Dana Andrews and Richard Conte and featuring other Casablanca bit actors Gaye and Martin Garralaga (waiter). After this, he plays Dr. Dahlmeyer in The Great Moment starring Joel McCrea. Next he played Emil Rameau's butler in the musical Greenwich Village starring Carmen Miranda and Don Ameche. Meyer received a bit part as a hotel manager in Once Upon a Time starring Cary Grant.
          In Hotel Berlin in 1945, which starred Helmut Dantine and Peter Lorre, Meyer plays a barber named Franz. Casablanca bit actors Leo White and Wolfgang Zilzer also had small parts. Later in 1945, Meyer played a town official in the Fred Astair musical Yolanda and the Thief with other Casablanca bit players Stössel, Corrado, Renavent, Belasco, Garralaga, Charles La Torre (Italian officer) and Franco Corsaro (conspirator).
          After World War II, Meyer continued to receive roles. In 1946, he played a Count in the Bob Hope comedy Monsieur Beaucaire which featured other casablanca actors Del Val, Garralaga and Leonid Kinskey (Sascha). The following year, he received a small part in Millie's Daughter which featured Casablanca actress Norma Varden (British women). Later that year, Meyer who once played a waiter in the famed Los Angeles restaurant The Brown Derby back in 1932, now gets to play the Headwaiter there in Variety Girl which had cameos from literally dozens of Hollywood stars. In 1949, Meyer got to play doctors in two movies; he had a small part as Doctor Shultz in the comedy The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend starring Betty Grable and a larger one as Doctor Hans Heinrich in the Bowery Boy's film Hold That Baby!  Later that year, Meyer played a captain of an ocean liner in the Bob Hope comedy The Great Lover which also had Casablanca bit actors La Torre and Louis Mercier (diamond smuggler) as sailors.
          In 1951, Meyer plays Donovan in Grounds for Marriage starring Van Johnson. Later that year, he got a part as an auto mechanic in Come Fill the Cup starring Jimmy Cagney and including Casablanca bit actor Oliver Blake (waiter at the Blue Parrot). The next year, Meyer played the mayor of a small French town during World War I in the John Ford drama What Price Glory starring Jimmy Cagney and including Casablanca bit actor Louis Mercier. Later in 1952, Meyer played a station master in The Merry Widow starring Lana Turner and including Casablanca actors Stössel, Mercier, Michael Mark (vendor), George Dee (Lt. Cassell) and Marcel Dalio (Emil). The next year, Meyer played appeared in the musical Call Me Madam starring Ethel Merman and Donald O'Connor and including Casablanca actors Belasco, Stössel and Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel). Next he played a waiter in the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis comedy The Caddy which also had Casablanca actors Edwards and Frank Puglia (Arab merchant). He appeared as a chef in another Martin and Lewis comedy the following year called Living it Up which also had Del Val and Corraldo.
         Meyer, Puglia, Blake and Corraldo appeared in the Bob Hope (This was the 4th Bob Hope movie that Meyer appeared in) comedy Casanova's Big Night also starring Joan Fontaine and John Carradine in 1954. Next, he got to play cards again, as he did in Casablanca, in Deep in My Heart starring José Ferrer and Merle Oberon and including Paul Henreid and Ludwig Stössel. Meyer was out catching butterfly's in the Michael Curtiz's comedy We're No Angles starring Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov and including Casablanca actors Dee and Mercier. Meyer played a scribe in the John Wayne film The Conqueror in 1956. Later he played a French waiter in the musical Anything Goes starring Bing Crosby and Donald O'Connor and including Casablanca actors Dalio, Del Val and Morin.
          Meyer played Gaston in the sci-fly classic The Fly starring Vincent Price in 1958. Next he plays Alex, the headwaiter at the Harmonica Club in The Matchmaker starring Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins and Shirley MacLaine. The following year, he played Hugo in The Earth is Mine starring Rock Hudson and Claude Rains along with Casablanca bit actor Alberto Morin. The year after, Meyer and Stössel appeared in the Elvis Presley movie G.I. Blues. In the 1950's and 60's, Meyer did some guest appearances on TV shows such as I Dream of Jeannie, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and I Love Lucy.
          In 1961, at age 76, he received his best role in the classic Judgment at Nuremberg starring Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich and Maximilian Schell. Meyer plays guilt-ridden Werner Lampe, one of the ex-Nazi judges on trial, in one of the stronger performances in the movie. Two years later, he received a small uncredited role in what would be the last movie of his career, A New Kind of Love. In his 50-year career, Meyer appeared in over 170 films, most uncredited.
           Meyer died on May 22, 1975 of bronchial pneumonia in in Hollywood, California at the age of 90. He was cremated and his ashes are in the Chapel of the Pines Crematory in Los Angeles along with Nigel Bruce (of Dr. Watson fame), Edmund Gwenn (Santa Claus in Miracle on 34th Street), Margaret Dumont ("straight woman" to Groucho Marx) and Ann Sheridan.

---

Gerald Oliver Smith as the Pickpocketed Englishman: Born on June 26, 1892 in London, England. Smith is one of three Casablanca actors, along with Claude Rains and Norma Varden, born in London.
          He received small, usually uncredited roles playing butlers, in over 50 movies in a career that spanned almost 40 years. His first was a silent movie The Mysterious Miss Terry starring Billie Burke in the title role in 1917. Eight years later, he received a larger part in his second film, the silent movie School for Wives in 1925.
          After appearing in a few shorts in the early 1930's, Smith received his first credited role as Throckton Van Cortland in The Man I Marry in 1936. 1937 was a busy year for Smith as he appeared in nine movies. He played Cora Witherspoon's husband in the comedy The Lady Escapes followed by Girl Overboard, both starring Gloria Stuart. Also that year he appeared; playing Gerald Meeker in When You're in Love starring Cary Grant and included Casablanca bit actor Frank Puglia (Arab merchant) and Dewey Robinson (usual suspect), in the musical Top of the Town, as a butler in One Hundred Men and a Girl starring Deanna Durbin, in the comedy Behind the Mike and the drama The Lady Fights Back.
          Between 1938 and 1940, Smith appeared in 14 movies, but almost all were uncredited. Of those 14 movies, he played a butler in half of them. He did receive a large role in the crime drama Invisible Enemy, again with Puglia in 1938. He had a small part as a maitre d' in New York's famous restaurant Delmonico's in The Law West of Tombstone. In 1940, he received a bit part as Col. Fitzwilliam in Pride and Prejudice starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier. Later that year, Smith played a butler in the Our Gang Comedy short Kiddie Kure (this was the last Our Gang film with Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer).
          Again playing a butler, Smith appeared in The Singing Hill starring Gene Autrey in 1941. The following year, he had a small part as a car dealer in the Oscar-winning film Mrs. Miniver starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon and featuring Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel). Next he played Chadwick in Beyond the Blue Horizon starring Dorothy Lamour.
          Later in 1942, at age 51, he received a one-scene role in Casablanca. He plays a English tourist, wearing a monocle and a somewhat bizarre zebra stripped tie, sitting at an outside cafe with his wife (played by Norma Varden) watching the 'usual suspects' being herded into the police station. When asked by a pickpocket, played by Curt Bois, if he has heard what has happened, Smith replies, "We hear very little and we understand even less." Smith is warned by Bois that the "Scum of Europe have gravitated to Casablanca" and that there are vultures everywhere as he is stealing his wallet. After Bois leaves, Smith says to his wife, "amusing little fella" and then discovers his wallet is missing.
            In 1943, Smith is seen in an air-raid shelter in World War II London in Forever and a Day which had a huge all-star cast. Next he played, as usual, one of the Van Cleve butlers in Heaven Can Wait starring Gene Tierney and Don Ameche. The following year, Smith played a footman (it's like a butler) at Gateshead in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre starring Orson Welles and Joan Fontaine. Next he plays an English colonist in the old Dutch colony of New Amsterdam (modern day New York City) in the historical comedy Knickerbocker Holiday starring Nelson Eddy. Smith got to be a chauffeur, a change of pace from being the butler all of the time, in Casanova Brown starring Gary Cooper and Teresa Wright and including Casablanca bit actor Charles La Torre (Captain Tonnelli). Back to his old job, he next played Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon's butler in Mrs. Parkington. Lastly in 1944, he appeared in National Velvet starring Elizabeth Taylor and including his Casablanca wife Norma Varden. He has one scene towards the end of the film when, playing a photographer, he takes a photo of little Donald Brown (played by Jackie Jenkins).
            When World War II ended in 1945, Smith did not have to worry like some other actors about not getting parts since there was always a demand for English butlers. He played Hume Cronyn's butler in the comedy The Sailor Takes a Wife and then Roy Rodgers butler in Rainbow Over Texas which also had Casablanca bit actor George J. Lewis (Haggling Arab monkey seller).
           In 1946, Smith appeared in a movie with Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre in the crime thriller The Verdict along with other Casablanca bit actors Leo White (waiter), Creighton Hale (dubious gambler) and Olaf Hytten (man being robbed at the bar). The following year, he has a small part as a hotel desk clerk in the mystery Moss Rose starring Peggy Cummins, Victor Mature and Ethel Barrymore. Next he received a small part in Singapore starring Fred MacMurray and Ava Gardner. 
            Smith received one of his larger roles in a while as Wilson in M-G-M's 1949 production of That Forsyte Woman starring Errol Flynn, Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon and including Casablanca bit actor Olaf Hytten. In 1951 he appeared, again as a butler, with Monty Woolley and Marilyn Monroe in As Young as You Feel. Smith did not appear in another movie for two years later before appearing in, at age 61, what would be his final feature film when he played Sir Norman Blandish in Sword of Venus starring Robert Clarke in 1953. In 1955, he appeared on the screen in the western The Titled Tenderfoot, which were really two episodes of the television show Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok that he did back in 1951 that were edited together and released as a movie. In 1955 and 56, Smith made a guest appearance on the television show The 20th Century-Fox Hour.
            Smith died on May 28, 1974 in Woodland Hills, California at age 81. Smith is buried in Pierce Bros. Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles. This is a famous Hollywood cemetery with fellow Casablanca actor Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel) and such stars as Marilyn Monroe, Donna Reed, Dean Martin, Natalie Wood, Roy Orbison, Carroll O'Connor, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau, George C. Scott, Burt Lancaster, Cornel Wilde, Richard Conte, Eva Gabor, Truman Capote and Robert Stack.

---

Norma Varden as the Wife of the Pickpocketed Englishman: The daughter of a retired sea captain, she was born on January 20, 1898 in London, England. Varden is one of three Casablanca actors, along with Claude Rains and Gerald Oliver Smith, born in London. She received small, usually uncredited, roles in over 100 movies.
          As a youngster of 9, she was an accomplished pianist appearing in concerts through her teens. At some point during this time she decided upon acting as the best way to make a living and she joined local acting companies doing mostly drama. Her first stage appearance, while still in her teens, was in Peter Pan where she played the much older Mrs. Darling. Her versatility showed when she tried comedy and she joined Britain's famed Aldwych Theater group from 1929 to 1933. She made her film debut in  A Night Like This in 1931 as Mrs. Tuckett. She was often cast as older women because of her 'mature' look. She remained busy in the British film industry for over a decade mostly having good roles in smaller productions. In the early years, director/actor Tom Walls used her in five of his movies.
            In 1933, she portrayed Robertson Hare's husband in Turkey Time, again in Stormy Weather in 1935 and the following year in Foreign Affaires. Varden played the Duchess of Richmond in The Iron Duke starring George Arliss in the title role (The Duke of Wellington) in 1934.
            She appeared in a number of Will Hay comedies in the 1930's; Boys Will Be Boys in 1935, Were There's a Will and Windbag the Sailor both in 1936.
          In 1935, she portrayed Mrs. Rawlingcourt in Get Off My Foot. The following year, she received a bit part in The Amazing Quest of Ernest Bliss starring Cary Grant. Later that year, she played Lady Mallory in East Meets West. In 1937, Varden received second billing as Mrs. Broadbent in Strange Adventures of Mr. Smith. Later that year, she received a bit role playing Tamara Desni's governess in the classic Fire Over England starring Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh.
          Varden continued to receive roles in comedies, both in England and the United States, during the late 1930's like Warner Bros.'s Fools For Scandal starring Carol Lombard. In 1937, she received a bit role in the musical The Lilac Domino which also featured future Casablanca actor S.Z. Sakall (Carl). In 1940, Varden received her first good part in a large production as Robert Montgomery's husband and Ronald Sinclair's mother in the M-G-M drama The Earl of Chicago which also featured future Casablanca actor Olaf Hytten. Next she received another bit part as a restaurant hostess in the classic war drama Waterloo Bridge starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor.
           Varden moved to Hollywood in 1941 and found herself typecast in many character roles which kept her out of larger more glamorous roles like Lady Heathcote in the crime drama Scotland Yard starring Edmund Gwenn. She has worked on stage, in radio and on television mostly playing haughty British or New York aristocrat who looked down with disdain at the "commoners."
           Later in 1941, Varden received the small part of Clara Kimble in the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby musical Road to Zanzibar with two other future Casablanca bit actors Paul Porcasi (local introducing Ferrari) and Georges Renavent (conspirator). Early in 1942, she played Russell Hicks' husband in the movie version of Noel Coward's play We Were Dancing with future Casablanca actor Gino Corrado (waiter). In the classic comedy The Major and the Minor, Varden played Robert Benchley's wife, Mrs. Osborne, in the movie which also starred Ginger Rodgers and Ray Millard. Next, she played Veronica Lake's dinner guest in The Glass Key starring Brian Donlevy and Alan Ladd.
           In May of 1942, she received a small role as the wife of the pickpocketed Englishman in Casablanca. They are seen in the beginning of the movie sitting in an outdoor cafe. Varden is wearing an interesting hat. She watches unknowingly as her husband, played by Gerald Oliver Smith, is being pickpocketed by Curt Bois. 
          Later in 1942, Varden played Ronald Coleman's sister in Random Harvest. The following year, she plays Douglas Wood's wife in the comedy The Good Fellows. In 1944, she played Mrs. Bland who ran a boarding house in White Cliffs of Dover with Alan Marshall and a young Roddy McDowell. Later that year, Varden appeared with Mickey Rooney and Elizabeth Taylor as Miss Sims in the classic National Velvet. Her husband from Casablanca, Gerard Oliver Smith, has a small part in the movie as a photographer. This is the only other movie outside of Casablanca that they both appeared in. In 1945, Varden is a prison warden in Girls of the Big House. Later that year, she played Lewis L. Russell's wife in the comedy Hold That Blonde starring Eddie Bracken. 
          In 1946, Varden received a small part as Mrs. Bosomley in the drama The Green Years starring Charles Coburn. She next appeared in the war drama The Searching Wind starring Robert Young. The following year, she played Mrs. Sarah Harris in the drama Millie's Daughter. She followed this portraying Lewis Russell's wife in the comedy The Trouble With Women starring Ray Milland. She appeared in 1947's Thunder in the Valley and Forever Amber. Later that year, Varden appeared in the comedy Where There's Life starring Bob Hope.
          In 1948, Varden appeared in the crime drama Hollow Triumph starring Paul Henreid. In three of her next four movies, Varden portrayed nurses; in the Hedy Lemarr romance comedy Let's Live a Little in 1948, the dramas My Own True Love and The Secret Garden, both in 1949.
          In 1950, Varden appeared as Lady Maude in the comedy Fancy Pants with Bob Hope and Lucille Ball. The following year, Varden appeared as a society lady named Mrs. Cunningham, who is nearly strangled by Robert Walker, in the Warner Bros. Alfred Hitchcock thriller Strangers on a Train along with Casablanca bit actor Georges Renavent. Later that year, she appeared in the crime drama Thunder on the Hill starring Claudette Colbert.
          In 1952, Varden had a small part as a U.S. Congresswomen in Something For the Birds starring Victor Mature and Patricia Neal. The following year, she played Lady Tyrwhitt, Alan Napier's wife, in the historical drama on the early life of Queen Elizabeth I of England in Young Bess starring Jean Simmons in the title role. Charles Laughton got to play King Henry VIII. Next she played Aunt Agatha in a Bowery Boys comedy Loose in London. Later in 1953, she played Lady Beekman, Charles Coleman's bejeweled wife, in 20th Century Fox's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes with Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe. Casablanca bit actor Leo Mostovoy played the ship's captain in the movie.
          1954 was a slow year in the movies for Varden who received bit parts in Elephant Walk starring Elizabeth Taylor, Three Coins in a Fountain starring Clifton Webb and The Silver Chalice starring Virginia Mayo. In 1955, Varden played George Sanders' dragonlike mother in Jupiter's Darling.
          Two years later, in one of her more famous roles, Varden played Emily French in the Agatha Christie story Witness For the Prosecution starring Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich and Charles Laughton. In the movie, Varden, whose character loves flamboyant hats, is murdered (off-screen) in her home before the story begins so Varden only appears in two flashback scenes. In 1958, she had the small part of Madame Hilaire in the pirate/Battle of New Orleans movie The Buccaneer starring Yul Brenner and Charlton Heston. Since she was a regular on television from 1961 to 1965, she didn't appear in many movies during this time.
          In 1965, she appeared in another very recognized role as Frau Schmidt, the housekeeper in the Von Trapp house, in 20th Century Fox's The Sound of Music. Her character, tells Julie Andrews that "Von Trapp children don't play. They march." It was almost a much bigger role when she was considered for the part of Mother Superior, but the producers instead went with Peggy Wood. Later that year, she portrayed Mother Plum in A Very Special Favor starring Rock Hudson and Charles Boyer.
         Two years later, Varden played Lady Petherington in 20th Century Fox's Doctor Dolittle. The following year, Varden did her last three movies; she had a small part in The Impossible Years with David Niven and the television movies Istanbul Express and Doc.
          In 1953, Varden started a TV career playing Mrs. Benson in an episode of I Love Lucy. She went on to appear in episodes of TV shows like Superman, Make Room for Daddy, Bonanza, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Mister Ed, Batman (as Mrs. Mongagle), Perry Mason, Bewitched and The Beverly Hillbillies. From 1961 to 1965, she was a regular as Harriet Johnson in the television show Hazel starring Shirley Booth.
          Varden, considered one of the greatest character actresses, retired from acting in 1972 and spent most of her time working for the Screen Actors Guild lobbying for better health benefits for older actors. She is a lifetime donor of the Santa Barbara Zoo.
          Varden died of heart failure on January 19, 1989 in Santa Barbara, California the day before her 91st birthday. Varden was cremated and is interred in Santa Barbara Cemetery in Santa Barbara, California, which also has actor Ronald Coleman (A Tale of Two Cities & Lost Horizon) who she stared with in Random Harvest.

---

Lotte Palfi as the Women selling her diamonds:   Born in Bochum, Germany on July  28, 1903, Lotte Palfi had played stage roles at a prestigious theater in Darmstadt. She left Germany when the Nazi's came to power in 1933. After arriving in America, having no money, she received help from the European Film Fund.
             Her first movie was a small roll in the Edward G. Robinson film Confessions of a Nazi spy in 1939 playing Paul Lukas's nurse, which also featured other future Casablanca actors Hans Twardowski (German officer with Yvonne) and Creighton Hale (dubious gambler). The following year, she appeared in a small role in the war drama Four Sons starring Don Ameche with other future Casablanca actors, Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag), Torben Meyer (Dutch banker) and Wolfgang Zilzer (man with expired papers). She plays a refugee peasant women fleeing the Nazi's. She is seen in a wagon asking Frau Bern (Eugenie Leontovich) for some milk for her daughter Gretchen.
             Palfi received small, usually uncredited roles, in a number of movies in 1940 and 41. She was Norma Shearer's maid in the spy thriller Escape with Conrad Veidt and Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel) also featuring future Casablanca bit actors Zilzer, William Edmunds (conspirator) and Henry Rowland (German officer).
             In 1941, Palfi and Zilzer did a 11-minute short movie on the evils of Nazism in Out of Darkness. She followed this with an appearance in another spy drama, playing a member of the underground named Greta, in  Underground starring Philip Dorn and with future Casablanca bit actors Zilzer, Rowland, Stössel, Ilka Grüning (Mrs. Leuchtag) and Louis V. Arco (conspirator). Later that year, Palfi had a bit part as a maid in the Edna Gladney biography Blossoms in the Dust starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon. 
             In 1942, at the age of 39, Palfi received a one-line role in Casablanca as a refugee women trying to sell he diamonds. When told she would receive a small sum, she asked the dealer, "But can't you make it just a little more, please?" She accepts 2,400 in Moroccan francs (about $72) as the price. The following year, Palfi married Casablanca actor, and German refugee, Wolfgang Zilzer, who had just changed his name to Paul Andor. They had appeared in a number of movies together and had fallen in love during the filming of Casablanca. She appeared in movie credits now as Lotte Palfi-Andor.
             Palfi appeared in only seven more movies from 1943 to 1945, usually playing German women and later, older German women. After Casablanca, she appeared in another war drama as a rather unpleasant German woman in Reunion in Paris starring Joan Crawford and John Wayne along with other Casablanca bit actors Rowland, Edmunds, Jean Del Val (police announcer) and Louis Mercier (diamond smuggler). Palfi did one movie in 1943, a fairly good part as Ottilie in the spy thriller Above Suspicion starring Fred MacMurray, Joan Crawford and Conrad Veidt and Casablanca bit actor Ludwig Stössel.
            In 1944, Palfi had a small part as Wanda in the Paul Henreid movie In Our Time along with Casablanca bit actor Gino Corrado (waiter) and her husband Wolfgang Zilzer (Paul Andor). She followed this up with a small part as Hermann Göring's wife Karin in The Hitler Gang along with other Casablanca bit actors Arco, Twardowski and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz). Next she played a receptionist in the crime drama Mask of Dimitrios with Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre along with Casablanca bit actors Mercier, Georges Renavent (conspirator) and Monte Blue. Finally that year, she received a small part of a housekeeper in the melodramatic war drama on the early life of Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in Enemy of Women starring her husband Wolfgang Zilzer (Paul Andor) in the title role. Palfi appeared in one movie in 1945, playing an old women in another World War II drama Son of Lassie with Peter Lawford and, of course, Laddie, son of a Lassie (Laddie was played by Pal - the dog who played the original Lassie in Lassie Come Home).
            After the war the demand for German actors became smaller and Zilzer and Palfi moved to New York City and concentrated more on performing on stage.
            In 1952, Palfi received a movie role of Mrs. Anna Kafer in Walk East on Beacon! starring George Murphy in his last big screen appearance. Palfi had a guest appearance as Maria Lubasz in the television show Naked City in 1961.
             Palfi didn't appear in another film until 1976, when she received a small but memorable role in Marathon Man, staring Dustin Hoffman, Laurence Olivier and Roy Scheider, playing an old women and concentration camp survivor who runs after Olivier, playing a former Nazi doctor who performed medical experiments on Jews in concentration camps, down 47th street in New York City screaming "Szell!... Szell!... Szell!.. Der Weiss Engel!... Der Weiss Engel! (Weiss Engle in German is the "White Angel" which was Olivier's character's nickname in the concentration camps)" She tries to cross the street to get to Olivier when she is knocked down by a taxi and Olivier gets away.
              Three years later in 1979, she has another bit role of an old women in Bob Fosse's All That Jazz again with Roy Scheider. She is seen in a hospital bed when Scheider's character, who is wandering around the hospital, comes into her room and gives her a kiss. In 1981, Palfi played Ida Miller in the television movie Bill starring Mickey Rooney in the title role. Palfi's last movie, at the age of 80, was a small role in the Dudley Moore comedy Lovesick later in 1983. It was also the last movie for her husband, Wolfgang Zilzer (Paul Andor).
              Wolfgang (Paul) and Lotte divorced when Zilzer's Parkinson's disease grew worse. Zilzer wanted to die in Germany and Lotte refused ever to go there again. Zilzer died on June 26, 1991 in Berlin, Germany at the age of 90. After a long illness, Palfi died two weeks later on July 8, 1991 in her apartment in New York City, just 20 days short of her 88th birthday.

---

Louis Mercier as the Diamond Smuggler: Born on March 7, 1901 in Alguer, Algiers. Mercier had a long career playing Frenchman in Movies and on television.
          He came to Hollywood in the 1920's and began his career of appearing in over 100 movies with an uncredited role in an early Joan Crawford movie called Paris in 1926. It would be three years before he received his second role in the 1929 mystery Seven Footprints to Satan starring fellow Casablanca bit actor Creighton Hale (dubious gambler).
          Later in 1929, Mercier received a small role in Tiger Rose starring fellow Casablanca bit actor Monte Blue. Mercier's first large role was in the 1930 Paramount Pictures L' Énigmatique Monsieur Parkes with Adolphe Menjou and Claudette Colbert. It was a French speaking version of another film made that year. This is one of a few French-speaking American films he appeared in during the 1930's.
          Throughout the 1930's, Mercier received small uncredited roles in numerous films including a bit part in Jezebel with Bette Davis in 1938. He received a better role playing Mayor Jean Philippe Napoleon Dupres in Bulldog Drummond's Bride in 1939.
          In the 1940's, Mercier continued to receive small roles. At age 41, he appeared in Casablanca, which was one of four movies he appeared in during 1942. He had a small role of a smuggler in Rick's Cafe in the opening of the movie. He is seen with Lotte Palfi appraising her diamond jewelry that she wants to sell. She wants more then he offers and he responds that "diamonds are a drug on the market. Everyone sells diamonds." and then offers "two thousand four hundred" (which is equalivant to $72) which she accepts.
          The following year, he received a bigger role as Jean Leroux in Sahara with Humphrey Bogart. Later that year, he appeared in The Song of Bernadette with fellow Casablanca bit actors, Louis V. Arco (conspirator), Marcel Dalio (croupier), Jean Del Val (police announcer) and Charles La Torre (Captain Tonnelli). In 1944, Mercier, with a small part playing a ship's engineer, is reunited with many of the Casablanca cast in Passage to Marseille with Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre, Dantine, Del Val, La Torre, Monte Blue, Frank Puglia (linen merchant) and singer Corinna Mura. Later, he appeared as Gerard in the classic To Have and Have Not, with Humphrey Bogart and Dan Seymour (Abdul). Also in 1944, Mercier appeared in The Conspirators with other Casablanca actors Henreid, Greenstreet, Lorre, Dalio, Blue, William Edmunds (conspirator) and Gregory Gaye (German banker). This just shows you how much Warner Bros. kept their actors busy.
          Mercier, playing Jean Duval, along with Del Val and Gaye received large roles in a weak French based movie So Dark the Night in 1946.  Later that year, Mercier got to play François, the Chef in the John Ford classic, My Darling Clementine with Henry Fonda. Also that year, he appeared with De Val and Georges Renavent (conspirator) in The Return of Monte Cristo.
          Mercier continued to play small bit roles in movies into the 1950's. In 1952, he appeared in the John Ford movie What Price Glory with Jimmy Cagney and fellow Casablanca actor Torben Meyer (Dutch banker). Later that year, he played a French Tour Guide in The Merry Widow with Casablanca bit actors Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag), George Dee (Lieutenant Casselle), Dalio and Meyer. He teamed up again with Del Val in Tripoli staring Paul Henreid in 1955. Later that year, he and Alberto Morin received small parts in the Alfred Hitchcock thriller To Catch a Thief. Mercier played a French blacksmith in the 1956 war movie Attack with Jack Palance. The following year, Mercier received a bit part in the romance An Affair to Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. In 1959, he received a bit part in the Gary Cooper movie Wreck of the Mary Deare with Del Val and Dee.
            Mercier appeared in only eight more movies after 1960. In 1970, he portrayed a French general in Darling Lili with Julie Andrews. His next and last movie had him portraying a Parisian taxi driver in The Other Side of Midnight starring Susan Sarandon in 1977.
            Mercier also appeared in numerous television shows between 1952 and 1967. This includes Superman, Maverick, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bonanza, Thriller, Perry Mason and I Dream of Jennie. His last appearance was playing waiter in Green Acres in 1967.
          Mercier died a little over two weeks after his 92nd birthday on March 25, 1993 in Pasadena, California.

---

George Dee as Lieutenant Casselle, Renault's aide: George Dee was born on April 1, 1901 in France.
            In 1942, at age 41, Dee received his first movie role, the part of Lieutenant Casselle, Renault's very talkative aide, in Casablanca. He has a few scenes in the movie. We first see him blowing a whistle during the 'round up the usual suspect' scene at the beginning of the movie. Next at the airport when Major Strasser arrives and he interrupts Italian officer Tonnelli (Charles La Torre) and later in front of Rick's Cafe when he is seen entering Rick's talking to Tonnelli. Renault and Rick are watching when Renault exclaims that if Tonnelli gets a word in it will be a major Italian victory. Later they are seen inside, again with Dee doing all of the talking. If you understand French, you will know that George Dee is demeaning the Italian war effort, "...d'Italie est immonde, qu'est ce que vous auriez fait sans l'armées Allemande..." [translation: ...Italy is odious, you couldn't have done anything without the German armies...]. Dee received $300 for his part in Casablanca.
              Dee would appeared in 13 more films, 12 of them were uncredited. It would be five years after Casablanca before Dee received another role. This time he played a waiter in Monsieur Verdoux with Charlie Chaplin. The following year, Dee played a French peasant in Victor Fleming's Joan of Arc with Ingrid Bergman. Casablanca bit actor Frank Puglia (Arab linen merchant) also had a part. In 1950, he received a bit part in A Life of Her Own with Ray Millard.
            1952 was a busy year as Dee received parts in three movies. He played a Frenchman in the crime drama The Light Touch with Stewart Granger. Then he played a waiter in the musical The Merry Widow with Lana Turner and Fernando Lamas. Other Casablanca actors Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag), Marcel Dalio (croupier), Louis Mercier (conspirator) and Torben Meyer (Dutch banker) also had parts in this movie. Lastly, he played Maquis in the war drama Operation Widow with Cornel Wilde.
            The following year, Dee received his only credited movie as Pierre Neff in The 49th Man, a "B" grade espionage thriller. Along with Mercier and Meyer, Dee appeared in another Humphrey Bogart movie, the comedy Were No Angels in 1955. Two years later, Dee and Casablanca bit actor Jean Del Val (police radio announcer) received small parts in the romantic comedy Funny Face with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire. In 1959, Dee, along with Del Val and Mercier, had a small part as a French ship captain in the thriller The Wreck of the Mary Deare with Gary Cooper and Charlton Heston.
            It would be three more years before Dee got another bit part, this time as a waiter in the Dean Martin comedy Who's Got the Action. Three years later in 1965, Dee got his next part in another war drama set during the Second World War. He plays a French informer in the drama 36 Hours with James Garner and Eva Marie Saint. Casablanca bit actor Henry Rowland (German officer) also has a small part playing, once again, a German soldier. James Doohan, of Star Trek fame, has a small part in this movie playing a bishop. Dee's last movie appearance was a bit part in the Elvis Presley movie Double Trouble in 1967.
              Dee died on August 24, 1974 at the age of 73 in San Mateo, California.

---

Charles La Torre as Captain Tonnelli: Charles A. La Torre was born on April 15, 1894 in New York City and graduated from Columbia University. He started a career on the stage while he lived in Queens with his wife Edith who he married in 1917. In the 1930's, he moved to Hollywood to start a film career.
            La Torre first feature film, at age 45, was as an Italian club owner named Garotti in Oscar Micheaux's Lying Lips starring Edna Mae Harris in 1939. Two years later in 1941, he received his second part, this time as a waiter in the Bob Hope comedy Louisiana Purchase.
            After this, La Torre started receiving a lot of parts. In 1942, La Torre appeared in six films. He played Captain Amadato in the comedy My Sister Eileen starring Rosalind Russell. Next, he received a small uncredited part in Flying Tigers starring John Wayne. He played a barber in Dr. Renault's Secret starring J. Carrol Naish and including Casablanca bit actors Jean Del Val (police radio announcer) and Louis Mercier (diamond Smuggler). La Torre played Mr. Spano in F. Scott Fitzgerald's Life Begins at Eight-Thirty starring Monty Woolley, Ida Lupino and Cornel Wilde.
            Also in 1942, La Torre receives a small part as an Italian officer in Casablanca who presents himself to Major Strasser at the airport, "Captain Tonnelli, the Italian service at your command, Major" but is interrupted by Lieutenant Casselle (George Dee). He has a couple of other scene when he is seen entering Rick's listening to Casselle. Renault and Rick are watching when Renault exclaims that if Tonnelli gets a word in it will be a major Italian victory. Later they are seen inside. If you understand French, you will know that George Dee is demeaning the Italian war effort.
           1943 is just as busy for La Torre with seven more films. He plays the Italian ambassador in the highly controversial Mission to Moscow starring Walter Huston and including other Casablanca actors Del Val, Helmut Dantine (Jan Brandel), Louis V. Arco (conspirator), Oliver Blake (waiter at Blue Parrot), Monte Blue (American), Gino Corrado (waiter), Olaf Hytten (man getting robbed at the bar), Michael Mark (vendor), Frank Puglia (Arab merchant), Georges Renavent (conspirator) and Richard Ryen (Colonel Heinz). Later that year, he played Coletti in the musical Jam Session starring Ann Miller and featuring Jazz great Louis Armstrong.
           La Torre had a small part as a hotel clerk in Three Hearts for Julia starring Ann Sothern and Melvyn Douglas. Next he had a small part in Raoul Walsh's Background to Danger starring George Raft, Sydney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre along with a number of other Casablanca actors Del Val, Mark, Renavent,  Puglia, William Edmunds (conspirator), Paul Porcasi (man introducing Ferrari), Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (German with Yvonne) and Leo White (waiter). Later that year, La Torre, along with Del Val, Arco, Mercier and Marcel Dalio (Emil), appeared in the Oscar-nominated film The Song of Bernadette starring  William Eythe, Charles Bickford and Vincent Price.
           In 1944, La Torre received a larger role in Passage to Marseille which starred Bogart, Rains, Greenstreet, Lorre and Dantine along with other Casablanca bit actors Blue, Del Val, Mercier, Puglia and Corinna Mura (singer). He plays Lieutenant Lenoir, who is constantly kissing Sydney Greenstreet's sinister character Maj. Duval's behind, but is later machine-gunned by Bogart during the mutiny scene on board the ship.
          Later that year, La Torre received a larger part as a Portuguese café proprietor in The Hairy Ape starring William Bendix and Susan Hayward which was followed by him playing Inspector Cogswell in Enter Arsene Lupin starring Charles Korvin in the title role. Later in 1944, he had a bit part in Bell for Adano starring Gene Tierney and including Casablanca actors Edmunds, Dalio, Corrado and Franco Corsaro (conspirator).
          The following year, he played a mailman in A Song to Remember starring Paul Muni, Merle Oberon and Cornel Wilde in the title role along with Casablanca actors Puglia and Gregory Gaye (German banker). This was the first of seven films that year. Among them he received a small part in A Thousand and One Nights starring Cornel Wilde. This was followed by him playing a Police Lieutenant in the Fred Astair musical Yolanda and the Thief with other Casablanca bit players Corrado, Corsaro, Renavent,  Torben Meyer (Dutch banker), Ludwig Stössel (Mr. Leuchtag), Leon Belasco (dealer) and Martin Garralaga (waiter). Later in 1945, he appeared in Adventure starring Clark Gable, Greer and Joan Blondell along with casablanca actors Garralaga and John Qualen (Berger).
          After World War II, the parts for La Torre became a little scarcer. In 1946, he appeared in only two movies; in the mystery The Walls Came Tumbling Down and the musical comedy Blue Skies starring Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire.
          The following year, La Torre appeared as Stellini in the crime drama George Cukor's A Double Life starring Ronald Colman, Signe Hasso and Shelley Winters.
          La Torre appeared in a half dozen movies in 1948. Among them were roles as; Fourcher in the comedy French Leave starring Jackie Cooper and Jackie Coogan along with Curt Bois, a waiter in Angel on the Amazon with Casablanca bit actor Alberto Morin (French officer insulting Yvonne) and as a tailor, with the unique name of 'Needles' in the 'Bowery Boys' comedy Trouble Makers.
          The following year, he appeared a steward onboard an ocean liner in the Bob Hope comedy The Great Lover which also had Casablanca bit actors Meyer as the captain and Mercier as a sailor.
          1950 was another good year as La Torre appeared in five movies including the crime dramas Harbor of Missing Men with Casablanca actor Gregory Gaye and 711 Ocean Drive. Next, he played Abdullah, a villain, in Bomba and the Hidden City with Casablanca bit actor Leon Belasco as Abdullah. Later that year, La Torre received a good role as Nick Corella in the Roy Rodgers western Sunset in the West. He received another good part as Tony Retella in the crime drama Secrets of Monte Carlo which also included a small part with Casablanca actor Georges Renavent in it.
          La Torre played a French ticket agent in the Cold War drama Diplomatic Courier starring Tyrone Power and Patricia Neal in 1952. His next part came two years later in 1954 when he had a small role as a chauffeur in Three Coins in the Fountain starring Clifton Webb and Dorothy McGuire. This movie included a few Casablanca actors like Alberto Morin as a waiter, Gino Corrado as a butler and Norma Varden as a guest at the cocktail party chatting with Webb.
          La Torre received a couple uncredited roles in the late 50's. In 1960, he received a bit part as Bartolatta in the crime drama Pay or Die starring Ernest Borgnine, as a New York City detective who investigates the Black Hand (early mafia), and Casablanca bit actor Franco Corsaro as Vito Zarillo.
          His last movie, at age 74, was a small part in the comedy The Last of the Secret Agents? in 1966 were he portrays an uncredited role as a Frenchman. He died on February 20, 1990 in Los Angeles, California at the age of 95.

---

Dan Seymour as Abdul - The Doorman: Born on February 22, 1915 in Chicago. Seymour graduated from the University of Chicago with a masters degree in fine arts. While in college, he started his acting career with various plays. He moved to Hollywood and began a movie career. Being a large person at 265 pounds, he received a number of roles as Hollywood heavies, appearing in over 60 movies for Warner Bros. in 35 years.
             Seymour's first movie was an uncredited role in the 1942 musical comedy, Cairo. He received two more small roles in other movies that year, including a part as a slave buyer in the Bob Hope and Bing Crosby comedy Road to Morocco.
             Next, Seymour received the small role of Abdul the doorman in Casablanca. It was his job to keep the unwanted out of the casino. This includes his big scene when he stops an official of Hitler's Reichbank (Gregory Gaye) from entering, "I am sorry sir, but this is a private room."  For his work in Casablanca, Seymour was paid $1,000.
            The following year, Seymour received his first credited role in a small musical Tahiti Honey. His first major role came later in 1943 when he played Pete Braganza in the war drama Bombs over Burma. In 1944, he received a large role as beret wearing pro-Vichy Captain Renard in the classic To Have and Have Not with Casablanca actors Humphrey Bogart, Marcel Dalio and Louis Mercier (diamond merchant). He portrayed a Captain Renault type, but quite villainous and much less suave. The following year, he received a good part as Mr. Muckerji in Confidential Agent starring Charles Boyer, Lauren Bacall and Peter Lorre and including Casablanca bit actors Olaf Hytten (man being robbed at the bar) and Geoffrey Steele (bar customer - cheerio!).
            Ironically, in 1946, Seymour played the part of Prefect of Police Capt. Brizzard in the Marx Brothers A Night in Casablanca. Also that year, he had good roles in The Searching Wind with Robert Young and Cloak and Dagger with Gary Cooper. He continued to get good roles in 1947, including Intrigue with George Raft. Also that year, Seymour plays a doctor in 'The Bowery Boys' comedy Hard Boiled Mahoney and Telek, an African chieftain in Slave Girl starring George Brent, Yvonne De Carlo and Broderick Crawford.
            In 1948, Seymour had a good role as one of Johnny Rocco's (Edward G. Robinson) goons in John Huston's Key Largo with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. He gives Robinson a shave midway through the movie but is double-crossed later and shot by Robinson (who in turn is shot by Bogart).
            Later that year and in 1949, he appeared; as Pacquet in the Oscar-nominated film Johnny Belinda starring Jane Wyman and including Casablanca bit actors Monte Blue (American) and Creighton Hale (dubious gambler), as Kelleher in Highway 13 starring Robert Lowery and as Duval in the western Trail of the Yukon starring Kirby Grant and Chinook the dog.
            In 1950, he received a role in his first of two Abbot & Costello movies, Abbot and Costello in the Foreign Legion. The following year, he received a bit role in another Bogart movie, Sirocco.
            Seymour worked in 23 films in the 1950's; he appeared in Fritz Lang's Rancho Notorius starring Marlene Dietrich and Mara Maru starring Errol Flynn in 1952, as Josef in Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy in 1955, as a Arab chieftain in the comedy Sad Sack starring Jerry Lewis and as Police Lt. Mike Travis in Undersea Girl in 1957 and finally as Mohamet in Watusi starring George Montgomery and as Max Berthold in the B-movie horror sequel Return of the Fly starring Vincent Price in 1959.           
            After a dozen years out of Hollywood, mostly doing television,  he returned in the 1970's to make five more movies. This includes a bit role in the 1973 Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford movie The  Way We Were. His last movie was as a mobster named Vito in The Manhandlers in 1975.
            In 1955, Seymour appeared in the television version of Casablanca playing the Sydney Greenstreet role of Ferrari. Between 1949 and 1978, Seymour appeared on numerous television shows including The Adventures of Superman (four episodes), The Untouchables (three episodes), Perry Mason (seven episodes),  My Favorite Martian (two episodes), Get Smart, Kojak and two episodes playing the Maharajah in Batman. His last television appearance was in an episode of Fantasy Island in 1978.
            Seymour married Evelyn Schwart in 1949 and had two children, Jeff and Greg. According to one biography, he smoked around 12 cigars a day.
            Seymour died on May 25, 1993 as the result of a stroke in Santa Monica, California. He is buried in the Mount of Olives in Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California. Hillside Memorial is also the final resting place of famous actors Al Jolson, Jack Benny, Eddie Cantor, Michael Landon, Lorne Greene, Moe Howard, Dinah Shore and Milton Berle along with baseball legend Hang Greenberg and Casablanca writers Julius and Philip Epstein.

---

---