Franz Schafheitlin(1895-1980)

Character actor with distinctive grey beard and crew cut, the son of a teacher and an opera singer. Trained under Max Reinhardt in Berlin and on stage from 1920. Ensemble member of the Wiener Volkstheater from 1930 to 1936. Played Mephisto under Reinhardt's direction at the Salzburg Festival in 1936. Ensemble member at the Volksbühne Berlin, 1937-45. Prolific in films from 1927, usually in patriarchal roles: attorneys, magistrates, physicians, noblemen or heads of state, as well as occasional villains.