Frederick Valk

Frederick Valk (10 June 1895 – 23 July 1956) was a German-born Jewish stage and screen actor of Czech Jewish descent who fled to the United Kingdom in the late 1930s to escape Nazi persecution, and subsequently became a naturalised British citizen.

Frederick Valk
Born(1895-06-10)10 June 1895
Hamburg, Germany
Died23 July 1956(1956-07-23) (aged 61)
London, England
OccupationActor
Years active1920s–1956

Despite making his later career in the English-speaking world, Valk never attempted to shed his heavy Mitteleuropa accent in either his stage or film work, and it became a trademark, particularly in film where he was often the first choice for a role which called for a German or Central European accent.

Stage career

Valk made his first appearance on the London stage in 1939, going on to play in numerous productions of classic drama including leading roles in Shakespeare, with his performances as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and in the title role of Othello, attracting critical admiration.[1][2] In 1946 he won the Ellen Terry Award for best actor for his performance in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.[3]

Valk also toured overseas, in the 1950s performing at the fledgling Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada.[4] When challenged by local journalists that as a Jew he should feel uneasy about playing Shylock, he replied that the assertion made no more sense than saying a Scotsman should baulk at playing Macbeth, that he in fact found a strong pro-Semitic message in the play and that he deplored "that people are beset with prejudices of all sorts and can't bring themselves to wipe their eyes and read and think".[5]

Critics responded with fulsome praise for his performance: "Mr Valk works in the grandest continental manner...every gesture breathes intelligence and every vocal note is true".[6]

The Canadian Jewish Congress however, which had protested vociferously over the inclusion of the play in the Stratford programme, loathed the production, stating: "We were assured...in advance of the staging of the play that it would not emerge an anti-Semitic production, that Frederick Valk would rise to great heights as Shylock. These predictions did not materialize: the play remains the vilest anti-Semitic production on record."[7]

Film career

Valk never received top-billing in films, but was happy to accept supporting roles in good screen productions. High-profile films in which he featured include The Young Mr. Pitt and Thunder Rock (both 1942), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Mrs. Fitzherbert (1947), The Magic Box (1951),[8] and The Colditz Story (1955).[9]

Death

Aged 61, Valk died suddenly in London on 23 July 1956 during the run of the play Romanoff and Juliet in which he was appearing. His wife Diana subsequently wrote a memoir entitled Shylock for a Summer in which she revealed that Valk had been planning to write an autobiography at the time of his death, and had written a note to himself stating: "I don't want to talk at length of my histrionic adventures – the idea of this is to draw a curve of a life, lived in shadow and sun but lived with gratefulness."[10]

Partial filmography

References
  1. "Frederick Valk - Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
  2. Carlebach, Julius; Hirschfeld, Gerhard; Newman, Aubrey; Paucker, Arnold; Pulzer, Peter (21 September 1991). Second Chance: Two Centuries of German-speaking Jews in the United Kingdom. Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 9783161457418 – via Google Books.
  3. "Frederick Valk Dies - Best Actor of 1946" The Glasgow Herald, 24 July 1956; retrieved 20 August 2010.
  4. "Frederick Valk acting credits". Stratford Festival Archives. Retrieved 2019-06-22.
  5. "Jewish Actor Defends Role Of Shylock", Ottawa Citizen, 21 May 1955; retrieved 20 August 2010.
  6. "Fresh Winds Over Stratford", Ottawa Citizen, 7 September 1955; retrieved 20 August 2010.
  7. "Shylock Does Us Little Good", The Canadian Jewish Chronicle, 7 August 1955; retrieved 20 August 2010.
  8. The Magic Box (film profile), IMDb.com; accessed 10 February 2018.
  9. "Frederick Valk".
  10. "An Actor and His Family, The Montreal Gazette, 26 July 1958; retrieved 20 August 2010.
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