Leon Askin - biography

“A Dumont actor was considered to be too stilted - the way we Dumont actors used to speak.”

“Directors and producers were afraid of a Dumont actor while at the same time they admired him.”

“It was one of the great chances in my life to become a Dumont actor.”

“The interest of my mother was more in the entertainment field.  She loved to go to concerts and to the theatre.”

“To be a Dumont actor was considered to be a great honor for an actor, yet it also had its disadvantages.”

“We wanted to bring the political situation in Austria on stage.  Naturally we could not do that without pointing to Austrian’s northern neighbor Germany.”

“At the end of my life, I have achieved belated fame and recognition in the city of my birth.”

“Unfortunately I put the opening date on the 5th of December 1941 and on the 7th of December the Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbour.  My dream of a theater in Washington D.C.  came to a prompt end.”

“From that moment on I knew my profession in life was and has remained until today an actor’s life.”

“Especially for my father it was a great change.  He used to be a socialist and even a member of the socialist party.  But then he became an orthodox Jew.”

“My father was an ardent socialist for many years.”

“1988 I also received from the city of Vienna the cross of honour for art and science.  These titles and the various honors mean a great deal to me, most of all for the reason that they would mean a great deal to my parents too.”

“I was put in the Air Corps.  I was never educated to serve in the military, but soon my activities in the American Air Corps became very interesting to me.”

“In the morning we received some very thin coffee.  For lunch we had potato soup with a few pieces of meat in it, in the evening we had a very thin meat soup with some potatoes in it.”

“It is a great deal of difference to receive an honorary title or a title in his profession.”

Leon Askin has appeared in the following films:
Assignment: Paris (1952)
Road to Bali (1952)
China Venture (1953)
Desert Legion (1953)
South Sea Woman (1953)
The Robe (1953)
Three Lives (1953)
Knock on Wood (1954)
Secret of the Incas (1954)
Son of Sinbad (1955)
The Last Blitzkrieg (1959)
Bis daß das Geld euch scheidet (1960)
Die Herrin der Welt – Teil II (1960)
Die Herrin der Welt – Teil I (1960)
Herrin der Welt – Teil I, Die (1960)
Herrin der Welt – Teil II, Die (1960)
Herrin der Welt (1960)
One, Two, Three (1961)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1962)
Sherlock Holmes und das Halsband des Todes (1962)
Do Not Disturb (1965)
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1965)
The Perils of Pauline (1967)
Double Trouble (1967)
La Bataille de San Sebastian (1968)
Ruba al prossimo tuo (1969)
Hammersmith Is Out (1972)
Going Ape! (1981)