Ludwig Donath

Ludwig Donath started his stage career in his native Vienna, shortly after matriculating from that city's Royal Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. A prominent actor on the Berlin stage in the late 1920s and early 1930s, Donath fled Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933. He relocated in the U.S., where he made his screen debut in 1942's The Lady From Chungking. Among his wartime films was The Strange Death of Adolph Hitler (1943), in which he played an actor required to impersonate Der Fuehrer. Donath is most fondly remembered for his portrayal of Papa Yoelson in the twin biopics The Jolson Story (1946) and Jolson Sings Again (1949). Blacklisted in the 1950s for his alleged left-wing political views, Ludwig Donath returned before the cameras in the early 1960s; perhaps significantly, one of his comeback performances was on the 1963 Twilight Zone episode "He Lives", a cautionary fable about the resurgence of fascism in America.

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide