On Stage in the Provinces: Willi Forst’s Early Career as a Theatrical Actor

This article aims to shed a light on the early career as a theatrical actor of Austrian film director Willi Forst. Among the great names in the history of German-language cinema between the 1930s and 1950s, Forst was born in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century and started working as an actor in the theater and film following the end of the First World War, before debuting in 1933 as a director with the musical film Leise flehen meine Lieder. The film marked the start of a successful career as a film director, producer, writer, and actor, which would flourish in the years to follow in both Austria and Germany. After having been long overlooked by scholars, Forst's work as a film director has recently undergone a critical reappraisal, yet little attention has been paid to Forst's career as an actor thus far. With the objective of throwing light on a scarcely investigated aspect in Forst’s work, the following article puts the focus on Forst’s beginnings as a theatrical actor in the early 1920s.