Kurt Kasznar

Austrian American actor (1913–1979)

Kurt Kasznar (born Kurt Servischer; August 13, 1913 – August 6, 1979) was an Austrian American stage, film and television actor who played roles on Broadway, appearing in the original Broadway productions of Waiting for Godot, The Sound of Music and Barefoot in the Park. He also appeared in feature films and had many notable parts in television, including the science fiction series Land of the Giants. "A big, glib, dapper man who spoke with an accent, he was almost always cast as some sort of a Continental gentleman," reported The New York Times. As a soldier in World War II, Kasznar was among the first U. S. Army photographers to film the ruins of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Kurt Kasznar was born Kurt Servischer on August 13, 1913, in Vienna, Austria Hungary. His family was Jewish. His father left the family when Kurt was very young. After his mother married Hungarian restaurateur Ferdinand Kasznar, Kurt assumed his surname. While working as an apprentice waiter at his stepfather's restaurant, Kasznar met director Max Reinhardt and enrolled in his seminars. "There I learned to act, write, build sets and live," Kasznar said later. At age eleven Kasznar appeared in Der Zirkuskönig (The King of the Circus, 1924), the last movie made by Max Linder, which was filmed in Vienna. Kasznar began working on the stage in 1931, in a performance of Jedermann (Everyman) at the Salzburg Festival. He appeared in Reinhardt's production of The Eternal Road, playing the role of Zebulon in the premiere performance July 7, 1937, and performing at least a dozen roles during the three month Broadway run of the epic production. Kasznar's first major Broadway appearance was in the 1950 production of Samuel A. Taylor's play, The Happy Time. He recreated his role, that of Uncle Louie, for the 1952 film version and earned a Golden Globe nomination for his performance. Kasznar also appeared on Broadway as the director in Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Author (1955–1956), and he played Pozzo in the original Broadway production of Waiting for Godot (1956). While performing on stage in Noël Coward's Look After Lulu! in March 1959, Kasznar was also playing detective Nero Wolfe in what would have been television's first series based on Rex Stout's characters. Co starring William Shatner as Archie Goodwin and initially slated to air on CBS in September 1959,

Kasznar created the role of Max Detweiler in the original Broadway production of The Sound of Music (1959–1963), for which he received a Tony Award nomination. "When that musical had marked its 1,000th performance, Mr. Kasznar was the only actor who had never missed a show," reported The New York Times. In 1978 he played Mansky in Molnár's The Play's the Thing with "enormous authority," wrote New York Times critic Mel Gussow. "It is the kind of character he has played often, and consummately, on stage and in films." The daughter of a New York woolen merchant, Woolley was widely known in the theater world for her philanthropy. She died at home unexpectedly in June 1948, at age 48; at the time, Kasznar was performing in John Houseman's Broadway production of Joy to the World. Kasznar met his second wife, actress Leora Dana, when they worked together in the Broadway production of The Happy Time (1950). They married in 1950 and divorced in 1958.

Kasznar died on August 6, 1979, at age 65, in Santa Monica, California. Ten months earlier, he had been diagnosed with cancer. He had no known survivors.