Jannings' early film career was rather uneventful. Not until 1919 did he begin acquiring an international reputation in a string of notable UFA pseudohistorical dramas with a Germanic slant in which he played such imposing figures as Louis XV, Henry VIII, Danton, and Peter the Great. The best of these were directed by Jannings' friend from his theater days, Ernst Lubitsch. Next came a series of literary adaptations that solidified his reputation as the most distinguished performer of the German screen.
A powerfully built man with an enormous screen presence, Jannings was an ideal tragic figure of King Lear stature. Following his tours de force in Murnau's THE LAST LAUGH (1924) and Dupont's VARIETY (1925), he was widely acclaimed as the world's greatest film actor, although his acting was more in the theatrical than the screen tradition. His international fame led to a Paramount contract in 1927. Jannings' Hollywood films were designed to accommodate his gift for tragedy. Like some of his German vehicles, they typically dealt with a solid citizen ruined by sin. In the first ever Academy Award ceremony, he won an Oscar for his combined efforts in the first two of his American films, THE LAST COMMAND (1928) and THE WAY OF ALL FLESH (1927). But his thick German accent put an end to his American career when the industry switched to sound. In 1929 he returned to Germany, where the following year he gave his immortal portrayal of Professor Rath, the pompous solid citizen enslaved and degraded by his passion for Marlene Dietrich in von Sternberg's THE BLUE ANGEL (1930).
With the Nazi rise to power in 1933, Jannings was recruited by the propaganda-conscious regime to lend his talent and reputation to Goebbels' cultural onslaught. Although not a party member, he was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazi ideology and gladly accepted roles in anti-British and other propaganda films. In 1938 he was rewarded with a medal from Goebbels and an appointment as head of Tobis, the company that produced his films. In 1941 he was honored as "Artist of the State." In December of 1944 he began his last film, WO IST HERR BELLING? / WHERE IS MR. BELLING?, but production was halted in January of 1945 when illness and anguish over the apparent Nazi defeat combined to drive Jannings into retirement. The film was never completed. Blacklisted by the Allied authorities, he never made another. He died lonely and bitter five years later at age 65.
Actor 1927: THE WAY OF ALL FLESH and THE LAST COMMAND (co-nomination)
1 nomination, 1 Award