Holger Hagen - film actor, understudy for German. Famous actors such as Frank Sinatra, Charlton Heston, Dean Martin and Bert Lancaster speak his voice in films. He is also known for his roles in the films "Man on a String" (1960), "Glass of Water" (1960) and "The Power of the Uniform" (1956).
Family and childhood
Holger Hagen was born on August 27, 1915 in Halle in eastern Germany. His father, Oscar Frank Leonard Hagen, was a successful opera director and art critic. He is known as the founder of the Handel Festival, the annual festival of early music in Göttingen. Mother, Tyra Leisner, was an opera singer with a wonderful soprano. She became famous as the prima donna of the first productions at the Handelev Festival. Holger's younger sister, Uta Hagen, also pursued a career as an actress. She became one of the most influential American acting teachers of the 20th century. Their parents instilled their love for art in children - from childhood they took them with them to the opera, introduced them to the world of music and theater.
Moving to the USA
In 1924, Oscar Hagen was offered a job at Cornell University, one of the largest and most respected educational institutions in the United States. There he headed the Department of Art History. The whole family immigrated to the United States, to the city of Madison in Wisconsin.
Holger attended the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he received his theater education. He studied acting and conducting for five years. After successfully graduating from university, the future actor moved to New York, where he made his debut at the Broadway theater. There he met the famous pianist Bruno Walter and continued his music studies.
Return to Germany
Holger Hagen returned to Germany in 1945 as an officer in the US Army. His family remained in Wisconsin. Until 1948, he worked for the US military government, created after the end of hostilities in occupied Germany during World War II. There he was promoted to government office and was head of the music department at Radio Frankfurt.
In 1946, Holger began lecturing on art history in Darmstadt, a German city located in the American-controlled zone of Germany. Wishing to revive the cultural life after the war, the mayor of the city Ludwig Metzger founded the International Contemporary Music Courses. There the listeners were introduced to composers who were outlawed by the Nazis: Bartok, Hindemith, Schoenberg, Stravinsky. These meetings gave birth to the avant-garde musical movement of Darmstadt, which included young composers: Pierre Boulez, Luigi Nono and Luciano Berio.
Holger Hagen also wrote music reviews for the Neue Zeitung, an American magazine in German that was published during the occupation of Germany by the United States.
Becoming an actor
In the early 1950s, Hagen began his career as an understudy. He has voiced popular actors into German: Richard Burton (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?), James Garner (The Big Escape), William Holden (The Wild Gang), Dean Martin (Rio Bravo), Marcello Mastroianni ("Eight and a Half") and Tony Randall ("Our Man in Marrakech"). In the American television series Big Valley, he voiced Jarrod Barkley, and in Star Trek, he can be heard in the opening credits. The introduction to the classic film Casablanca also begins with his calm, recognizable voice.
Twice the actor acted as a narrator throughout the film: in the documentaries "The Serengeti Must Not Die" by Michael and Bernhard Grzimek and "Animals are Beautiful People" directed by Jemmy Yuis. Both paintings are dedicated to the nature of Africa: the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania and the human habits of African animals. The Serengeti Must Not Die won an Oscar in 1959 and Animals Are Wonderful People a Golden Globe in 1974.
Hagen's last job was the role in the German television series Inspector Derrick. In 1986, he starred in the cameo role of the Artz police officer in the series "Complete End".
Over the 45 years of his understudy career, Holger Hagen has voiced over 200 films and the same number of roles in television series.
In addition to working as a stunt double, Holger Hagen continued to act in films and television. In The Strength of the Uniform (1956), he played a minor role as Dr. Jellinek. The most famous films in Hagen's career are The Man on a String (1960) and The Fake Traitor (1962), where he starred with William Holden.
Personal life
In 1971, Holger Hager married the popular German actress Bruni Löbel (real name Brunhild Melitta Löbel). Among her major works - the main female role in the comedy series "A Night Without Sin", where she starred with Paul Klinger and a role in the telenovela "Storm of Love".
Holger and Bruni have performed together several times at the theater. They also starred on television in an episode of the series "Dream Ship" of the West German channel ZDF. This is one of the most popular TV shows in Germany. The action takes place on board a cruise ship traveling the world.
The couple lived in marriage for 25 years - until Holger's death. They had no children. From a previous marriage with the Austrian composer Gerhard Bronner, Bruni had a daughter, Felix Bronner. Nothing is known about her career.
Holger Hagen died in Munich on October 16, 1996. He was 81 years old. The actor was buried in the Bavarian commune of Rattenkirchen in the main city cemetery. The urn with the ashes of his wife, who died in 2006, is nearby.
