Gusti Huber

Gusti Huber
Born Auguste Huber
July 27, 1914
Wiener Neustadt, Austria-Hungary
Died July 12, 1993 (aged 78)
Mount Kisco, New York, U.S.
Occupation Actress

Auguste "Gusti" Huber (July 27, 1914 – July 12, 1993) was an Austrian-American theater and film actress.

Life and career

Huber was born in Wiener Neustadt, Austria in 1914. She received training as an actress from Dr. Beer who later arranged her stage debut in Zurich. She had her first film role in 1935. Two years later she achieved her career breakthrough in the film adaptation of Unentschuldigte Stunde (Unexcused Hour). Among the best-known of her films were Land der Liebe (Land of Love; 1937), Marguerite (1939) and Jenny und der Herr im Frack (Jenny and the Gentleman in Tails; 1941), after which she worked for four years at the Viennese Burgtheater and other stages.

Around 1946, she and her second husband, Joseph Besch, an officer in the US Army, moved to the United States, and acted only occasionally thereafter, most notably appearing on Broadway three times (Flight into Egypt, Dial M for Murder as Margot Wendice, and The Diary of Anne Frank). Her last film role was Das Tagebuch der Anne Frank (The Diary of Anne Frank; 1959), in which she reprised the role of Anne Frank's mother, Edith, which caused controversy in some circles as Huber was rumoured to have been too close to the National Socialists,[1] but Garson Kanin reportedly stood by the casting.

American Heritage wrote of Huber's attempts to distance herself from her wartime past:

In Vienna before the war she [Huber] had refused to work with a Jewish actor and director, and in Germany during the war she had continued to make movies under the Third Reich. ... At the very same time Anne was murdered in Bergen-Belsen, Gusti was busy shooting a screen comedy. ... But Huber was a Broadway star and [the charges against her] never ... gained traction.[2]

Family

Huber had two children, Bibiana ("Bibi"), who became an actress, and Christiane (or Chrisiana) by her first marriage, to Gotfrid Köchert, an Austrian racing driver, who served in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Huber's two younger children, Drea and Andrew, were from her second husband, Joseph Besch, who adopted Huber's daughters from her first marriage, and who took his surname. Actress Samantha Mathis, Bibi's daughter, is one of her grandchildren.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ↑ Controversy over selection of actress Gusti Huber to play the role of Edith Frank
  2. ↑ American Heritage profile of Gusti Huber

External links