Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Finding Aid for Oscar Homolka papers
0205
0205
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Oscar Homolka papers
Collection number: 0205
Contributing Institution:
USC Libraries Special Collections
Language of Material:
English
Physical Description:
1.0 Linear feet
2 boxes
Date (inclusive): 1935-1960
Abstract: This collection consists of manuscripts written by Oscar Homolka during his stay in Southern California. The collections also
contains some photographs and ephemera relating to Homolka.
creator:
Homolka, Oscar, 1898-1978
Biographical Background Oscar Homolka
Oscar Homolka (born August 12, 1898 in Vienna, Austria, died January 27, 1978 in Sussex, England) was an Austrian-American
actor.
Homolka attended the Royal Dramatic Academy in Vienna and began his career on the Austrian stage. Success there led to work
in the much more prestigious German theatrical community in Munich and Berlin. His first films were Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheins
(The Adventures of a Ten Mark Note, 1926), Hokuspokus (Hocuspocus, 1930), and Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Case, 1930). After the
Nazi rise to power, Homolka moved to Britain in 1934 and later was one of many Jewish actors and theatrical people who fled
Europe for the United States.
In 1936, he played the bomber in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage. Although he often played villains such as Communist spies and
Soviet-bloc military officers or scientists, he was nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of the crusty, beloved uncle
in I Remember Mama (1948). Homolka also acted with Ingrid Bergman in Rage in Heaven, with Marilyn Monroe in The Seven Year
Itch, with Ronald Reagan in Prisoner of War, and with Katharine Hepburn in The Madwoman of Chaillot.
Homolka returned to England in the mid-1960s, to play the Soviet KGB Colonel Stok in Funeral in Berlin (1967) and Billion
Dollar Brain (1968), opposite Michael Caine. His last film was the Blake Edwards romantic drama The Tamarind Seed in 1974.
[Identification of item], Oscar Homolka papers, Collection no. 0205, Feuchtwanger Memorial Library, Special Collections, USC
Libraries, University of Southern California.
Collections contains mainly manuscripts by Oscar Homolka but also a few photographs, newspaper clippings and an audio recording.
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Exile Studies Librarian
at ullmann@usc.edu. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items
and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE. Advance notice required for access.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Homolka, Oscar, 1898-1978 -- Archives
Reagan, Ronald
Actors--California--Los Angeles--Archival resources
Audiotapes
California, Southern--Emigration and immigration--Archival resources
Ephemera
Exiles--Austria--History--20th century--Archival resources
Exiles--Germany--History--20th century--Archival resources
Exiles--United States--History--20th century--Archival resources
Feature films--California--Archival resources
Germany--Emigration and immigration--History--1933-1945--Archival resources
Jewish refugees--California, Southern--Archival resources
Jewish refugees--Europe--20th century--Archival resources
Photographs
Scripts
Theater--Austria--20th century--Archival resources
Theater--Germany--20th century--Archival resources