Pinkas Braun(1923-2008)
- Actor
- Writer
- Director
This lean, incisive, basso-voiced Swiss actor with the unsettling
mephistophelean countenance was the son of a Galician-Jewish merchant.
Pinkas Braun began his chosen vocation at the age of eighteen as an
extra with the Zürcher Schauspielhaus (embracing what he considered the
'order and discipline' inherent in a theatrical career). A member of
the company's ensemble from 1945 to 1956, Braun featured in numerous
premieres of plays by Brecht (who played a pivotal role in his training
as an actor), Camus, Dürrenmatt and Frisch. Braun's personal favorite
and his critically most acclaimed performance was as Shylock in
Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". On the screen, his looks and
voice naturally predetermined him for arch villainy. At the very least,
he would be cast as sinister schemers, occasionally mitigated by a
charming blend of rascality. Braun found his widest audience during the
1960's in several lurid
adaptations of crime thrillers by Edgar Wallace
which have since acquired a substantial cult following:
L'orchidée rouge (1962)
(as a wealthy orchid collector and blackmail victim);
La porte aux sept serrures (1962)
(as the criminally insane Dr. Staletti);
La Malédiction du serpent jaune (1963)
(Fing-Su, demonic leader of a murderous sect of Chinese
snake-worshippers). At his scene-stealing best, Braun took full acting
honours as the ruthless Percyval Glyde in a superbly-mounted TV
mini-series,
Die Frau in Weiß (1971),
based on the classic novel by
Wilkie Collins. As the owner of a
distinctively sonorous voice he was guaranteed regular employment in
radio drama or for synchronisation (notably, as William of Baskerville,
chief protagonist of Umberto Eco's "The Name
of the Rose"). Braun also established a reputation as a theatrical
director of note and as the leading translator into German of the
complete works of Edward Albee.
