Walter Slezak

WALTER SLEZAK d1983. Austrian-born film and stage actor active between 1922 and 1976. He mainly appeared in German films before migrating to the United States in 1930 and performing in numerous Hollywood productions. He typically portrayed wily and loquacious characters, often philosophical and often with a taste for food, drink and fine living. He played a crafty villain as a U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat (1944) / a charming, two-timing major domo to a tycoon in Come September (1961) and a wandering gypsy in The Inspector General (1949). He stood out as shrewd, unscrupulous private investigators in film noir, as in Cornered (1945) and Born to Kill (1947)