Lionel Royce

Lionel Royce (born Leon Moriz Reiss; March 30, 1891 – April 1, 1946) was an Austrian-American actor of stage and screen, also known during his European career as Leo Reuss. He began his career in theater in Vienna, Austria, in 1919, before moving to Berlin in 1925. Being Jewish, his work began to be restricted in the 1930s in Nazi Germany. Fleeing the Nazis he returned to Austria in 1936, where to hide his heritage, he created the persona of Kaspar Brandhofer, a Tyrolian peasant, and became a sensation as a natural actor on the stage in Vienna. When he admitted his ruse, he became blacklisted in Austria, after which he emigrated to the United States in 1937. He had an active film career in the United States, appearing in almost 40 films between 1938 and 1946. While on tour with the USO, he died in Manila in 1946.

Early life

He was born in the city of Dolyna, in what is now Ukraine, to Jewish parents. In 1913 he entered the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian Army and served in the Infanterie-Regiment Hoch- und Deutschmeister Nr. 4. In 1916 he married his first wife, Stephanie Wagner, with whom he had two children, Margaret Ilse Royce (née Reiss; 1917–1995) and Hans "John Henry" Royce (né Reiss; 1920–1997). He entered the war as a private in 1914, and rose to the rank of lieutenant by the war's end. Wounded several times, he received a medal for valor.