Sig Arno

Sig Arno
File:Sig Arno.jpg publicity photo (1931)
Born	Siegfried Aron 27 December 1895 Hamburg, Germany
Died	17 August 1975 (aged 79) Woodland Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	German-Jewish stage and film actor
Years active	ca. 1915–1961
Spouse(s)	Caroline Dahms 1922–1932 (divorce) Barbara Kiranoff 1934–1953 (divorce) Kitty Mattern 1953–1975 (his death)

Sig Arno (27 December 1895 – 17 August 1975) was a German-Jewish film actor who appeared in such films as Pardon My Sarong and The Mummy's Hand. He may be best remembered from The Palm Beach Story (1942) as "Toto", the nonsense-talking mustachioed man who hopelessly pursues Mary Astor's "Princess Centimillia".

Biography

Siegfried Arno was born Siegfried Aron in Hamburg, Germany. Before beginning to make films in 1920 he was well known in Germany as a stage comedian. He acted in ninety films in Germany – including G.W. Pabst's Pandora's Box with Louise Brooks – playing primarily comic roles, before leaving the country in 1933, due to the rise of Hitler. He worked in Europe until 1939, when he moved to Hollywood.

During the next twenty years he appeared in over fifty films, often playing waiters, maitre d's and "funny Europeans". Arno also appeared three times on Broadway, notably in the musical Song of Norway and the play Time Remembered by Jean Anouilh, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as "Best Featured Actor in a Play" in 1958. In 1966, Arno won an honorary award at the German Film Awards "for his continued outstanding individual contributions to the German film over the years."

Personal life

Arno was also a successful portrait painter. He was married three times:

• Caroline Dahms (1922–1932, ended in divorce, 1 child)
• Barbara Kiranoff (1934–1953, ended in divorce)
• Kitty Mattern (1953–1975, ended with his death)

Death

He died from Parkinson's disease in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California on August 17, 1975, aged 79.

Partial filmography

• The Wife of Forty Years (1925)
• A Woman for 24 Hours (1925)
• Manon Lescaut (1926)
• The Third Squadron (1926)
• Darling, Count the Cash (1926)
• The Son of Hannibal (1926)
• The Love of Jeanne Ney (1927)
• The Transformation of Dr. Bessel (1927)
• Family Gathering in the House of Prellstein (1927)
• Lützow's Wild Hunt (1927)
• Marie's Soldier (1927)
• Der Ladenprinz (1928)
• Tragedy at the Royal Circus (1928)
• The Orchid Dancer (1928)
• Looping the Loop (1928)
• Modern Pirates (1928)
• Her Dark Secret (1929)
• Beyond the Street (1929)
• The Girl with the Whip (1929)
• We Stick Together Through Thick and Thin (1929)
• Vienna, City of Song (1930)
• The Caviar Princess (1930)
• Fairground People (1930)
• Schubert's Dream of Spring (1931)
• Moritz Makes his Fortune (1931)
• The Big Attraction (1931)
• Without Meyer, No Celebration is Complete (1931)
• Wild Cattle (1934)
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) as Tailor
• The Mummy's Hand (1940)
• Dark Streets of Cairo (1940)
• A Little Bit of Heaven (1940)
• This Thing Called Love (1940)
• The Great Awakening (1941)
• Gambling Daughters (1941)
• The Captain from Köpenick (1941)
• Two Yanks in Trinidad (1942)
• The Devil with Hitler (1942 short)
• The Palm Beach Story (1942)
• Juke Box Jenny (1942)
• His Butler's Sister (1943)
• Song of the Open Road (1944)
• Duchess of Idaho (1950)

External links

• Sig Arno at the Internet Movie Database
• Sig Arno at the Internet Broadway Database
• Sig Arno at AllMovie
• Sig Arno @ Virtual History Film (photos)
• Sig Arno at Find a Grave