Trivia

Directed 4 actors to Oscar nominations: Joan Crawford (Best Actress, La possédée (1947)), Jane Wyman (Best Actress, La Femme au voile bleu (1951)), Joan Blondell (Best Supporting Actress, La Femme au voile bleu (1951)), and Eleanor Parker (Best Actress, Mélodie interrompue (1955)).

Claimed to have invented the transparent style of sets that was used for his film Payment on Demand.

Father of Steven Bernhardt.

Father of 'Tony Bernhardt'.

Granddaughter is 'Emily Bernhardt'.

Bernhardt directed films in France and England before moving on to Hollywood to work for Warner Brothers in 1940.

He produced and directed his last Hollywood picture, Kisses for My President (1964), about the nation's first female Chief Executive starring Polly Bergen and Fred MacMurray.

Bernhardt made films in Germany from 1925 until 1933, when he was forced to flee the Third Reich - which briefly had him arrested - because he was Jewish.

He trained as an actor in Germany, and performed on the stage, before starting as a film director in 1924, with Nameless Heroes.

After the Nazis seized power, Bernhardt emigrated to the United States in 1933, where he changed his name from Kurt to Curtis. In 1946, he became an American citizen.