Curt Bois

Curt Bois, born Kurt Boas on April 5, 1901, in Berlin, was a German actor of Jewish heritage whose career extended across more than eight decades. He died on December 25, 1991, in Berlin, at the age of 90.

Bois began performing as a child, taking a role in the 1907 short film Bauernhaus und Grafenschloß and establishing himself among the earliest child actors in cinema. Two years later, in 1909, he played the title role in Der Kleine Detektiv. His early career encompassed theatre, cabaret, musicals, silent films, and sound pictures. He worked under the direction of Max Reinhardt and achieved notable stage success in 1928 with a production of Charley's Aunt at the Josefstadt Theater in Vienna. During this period, film studios attempted to position him as a German equivalent of Harold Lloyd, reflecting his standing as a successful character comic.

The rise of institutionalized antisemitism in Nazi Germany compelled Bois to leave his homeland in 1934 and relocate to the United States. He found work on Broadway, appearing in Tomorrow's a Holiday and Help Yourself between 1935 and 1936. By 1937 he had moved to Hollywood, where he began accumulating film credits. His most recognized Hollywood performance came in Casablanca (1942), in which he played a pickpocket who warns an English gentleman about thieves while simultaneously stealing the man's wallet. He also appeared in a supporting role in Caught (1949), alongside Robert Ryan, Barbara Bel Geddes, and James Mason, portraying Franzi Kartos, the conflicted fixer of Ryan's character, a megalomaniacal industrialist openly modeled on Howard Hughes.

In 1950, following the end of World War II, Bois returned to Germany, where he continued performing for decades at venues including the Schiller Theater and the Theater des Westens. One of his final screen appearances was in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire (1987), in which he portrayed the aged poet Homer, a figure who wanders Berlin endlessly in pursuit of capturing the city in writing. Bois received the European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for this performance. His last role came in the 1989 short film Das letzte Band, concluding a film career of 82 years.