World War II Forums - View Single Post - The Karl-Otto Alberty Appreciation Thread.

C.Evans · #3 (**permalink**) December 20th, 2007, 11:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Otto

I just wanted to pay tribute to one the best and most evil looking "nazis" ever to show his scarred face on the silver screen. He almost never played a leading role in any film, but his unique blond & brute look gave him the role of the "nazi" in many a classic WWII film. I'm speaking of none other than the man currently featured in my avatar, Mr. Karl-Otto Alberty.

Probably best known as the menacing German Tiger Tank Commander in Kelly's Heroes [1970], he played a series of German combatants in other films, including Steinach (the man who captures Roger Bartlett) in The Great Escape [1963], Luftwaffe Chief of Staff Gen. Jeschonnek in Battle of Britain [1969], Capt. Heinz Schroeder in Raid on Rommel (1971) and had an uncredited role in The Devil's Brigade [1968], as well as plenty of other German roles.

From Wikipedia:

"He started out as an amateur boxer before discovering a talent for acting, making his debut at the City Theatre in Konstanz in 1959. He then began to take supporting roles in films. He made his first appearance in English-language films as a German officer (who captures Richard Attenborough) in The Great Escape (1963). With his broad face, broken nose and distinctive white-blond hair, he would go on to play variations on the role of the brutal Nazi in a series of films, notably The Battle of the Bulge (1965), Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969), and Kelly's Heroes (1970). He also continued to work in both Germany and Italy in a wide variety of films from dramas and comedies to spaghetti westerns. He also made regular appearances on German television. His last appearance was in the TV series War and Remembrance (1988). He has been variously credited as Charles Albert, Charles Alberty and Carlo Alberti."

Ladies and Gentlemen; Karl-Otto Alberty.

Otto, if you ever get the chance to watch both: The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, K.O. Alberty appears in several of the episodes in this some 50 hour long movie. Anyway, he at first is seen in one or more episodes in: The Winds of War, and he is shown as somekind of a nazi "official"' who while attending a Spanish club of some type, he drinks a bit too much and starts becoming a rude and loud-a$$hole. He forces the Spanish Troubador into playing and singing "O Solo Mio" and insults Byron Henry's (Jan-Michael Vincent) Fiancee: a lady by the name of: Natalie Jastrow (Ali McGraw, and who is very pretty and its easy to see why Steve McQueen fell in love with her) who happens to be an American born Polish-Jew. So after she is unsulted by Alberty's character, Jan-Michael Vincent (Byron Henry) gets up and walks over to him and punches him in the mouth. Great great scenes.

Anyway, one might think that that's the last you might see of the Alberty character-no-you also see him in a few episodes of: War and Remembrance. It turns out that he is a Waffen SS NCO - and who meets up with: Natalie Jastrow later on at one of the Jewish Ghettos somewhere in Poland. He plays a perfect nazi-prick. Anyway, in War and remembrance: Natalie Jastrow is not played by Ali McGraw but she was replaced by: Jane Seymour who was younger and was of the age needed for that role. Ever since I first saw her in War and Remembrance, I have been a fan of hers.