Helmut Dantine

Darkly handsome Austrian-born leading man, Helmut Dantine had finely chiseled features and deep-set eyes. A fugitive from the German Anschluss of Austria, he moved to California in 1938. Soon thereafter he joined the Pasadena Community Players, gaining enough acting experience to make his film-debut playing a Nazi in International Squadron (1941) with Ronald Reagan. Soon he had cornered the market on young Nazi characters in Hollywood films, particularly after his popular performance as a downed and wounded Luftwaffe pilot in Mrs. Miniver (1942), his third film. Later Dantine was promoted to stardom by Warner Brothers, who gave him his first lead role in Edge of Darkness (1943). He went on to play leads and second leads in many films of the '40s and '50s, but made few films after 1958. In 1958 he directed the unmemorable film Thundering Jets. After marrying the daughter of Nicholas M. Schenck, the former president of Loew's Inc., he became the vice president of the Schenck Enterprises film production and distribution organization in 1959; in 1970 he became its president. In the '70s Dantine was the executive producer of three films, two of which he appeared in.

~ All Movie Guide