--- name: "Curt Bois" canonical: "https://film.one/person/curt-bois" fi1m_id: "curt-bois" imdb_id: "nm0092290" tmdb_id: 2313 wikidata_id: "Q66479" roles: ["Actor"] born: "5 April 1901" died: "25 December 1991" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 86 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-09-20T00:26:50.825901+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Curt Bois ## Identity Curt Bois - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/curt-bois - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** curt-bois - **IMDb ID:** nm0092290 - **TMDB ID:** 2313 - **Wikidata ID:** Q66479 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Bois, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q66479, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092290/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2313 Actor. Born 5 April 1901 in Berlin, Germany. Died 25 December 1991. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 5 April 1901, Berlin, Germany - **Died:** 25 December 1991 - **Active:** 1941–1987 - **Also known as:** Курт Буа - **Average Fi1m score:** 86, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 86 (2), 1980s 88 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 2 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Romance 3, Fantasy 1 - **Screen time:** 6 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $14m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curt_Bois, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q66479, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0092290/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/2313 ## Streaming the US now - **HBO Max:** [*Wings of Desire*](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md) (88) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Curt Bois > Curt Bois spent eighty years playing clerks, headwaiters and pickpockets, and made most of them worth remembering. Hollywood kept him busy and kept him small; Berlin, at the very end, gave him Homer, and that was the part that lasted. The pickpocket in *Casablanca* (1942) warns a pair of tourists that the town is full of vultures, and lifts a wallet while he says it. It is a scene of perhaps two minutes, and people who cannot name the actor can still describe the moment. That was the Bois trade: a neat man in a good suit, a little too pleased with himself, doing something quick with his hands while his face carried on being helpful. He had been doing it, in one form or another, since 1907, when he started as a child actor in Berlin, one of the first there were. The career splits cleanly in three. There is the German stretch, silent shorts and then theatre under Max Reinhardt, with stage success in the twenties that included a Viennese *Charley's Aunt*. There is exile, from 1933–34: Broadway, then Hollywood from 1937, where he worked steadily until 1950 and was almost never given more than a corner of the frame. And there is the return to Germany in 1950, stage work in both halves of Berlin, at the Schiller Theater and the Theater des Westens, and a late run of film and television that ended with a last screen appearance in 1989. The Hollywood corner is where most of us met him, and it shows both what he could do and what he was not allowed to. In *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941) he is Bonbois, the hotel manager, and he is funny in the early going; then the film turns its attention to Charles Boyer's conscience and Bois simply drops out of the picture, which is roughly what happened to him for thirteen years. *Caught* (1949), for Max Ophüls, gave him a larger part as a fixer with divided loyalties, and it is worth seeking out for that reason. Even back in Germany there was a reservation that his style was too refined for the broad post-war audience, which is another way of saying he did not push. Then Wim Wenders cast him as Homer in *Wings of Desire* (1987), an old poet wandering a Berlin that has changed around him, and the miniaturist was finally allowed to be still. We were moved by him more than by the film's romance, which slows in the second half; the sight of that small, precise figure moving through Henri Alekan's roaming camera, unhurried and unnoticed, is the film's argument about ordinary lives made flesh. He was eighty-six. Start with the wallet in *Casablanca*, because it takes two minutes. Then watch the Wenders and notice that the hands are still doing the work, only slower. ## Biography Curt Bois was a German actor. Born Kurt Boas in Berlin on 5 April 1901, he began acting as a child in 1907 and appeared in silent films, theatre, cabaret and sound pictures over a career spanning more than eighty years. He is best known for his roles as the pickpocket in *Casablanca* (1942) and as the poet Homer in *Wings of Desire* (1987). In 1934 he left Germany for the United States, where he worked on Broadway and in Hollywood films, before returning to Germany in 1950. Bois won the European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for *Wings of Desire*, his final feature film. He died in Berlin on 25 December 1991. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *Wings of Desire* (1987), Fi1m 88, as Homer — [page](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md) - *Casablanca* (1943), Fi1m 93, as Pickpocket — [page](https://film.one/film/casablanca.md) - *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941), Fi1m 78, as Bonbois — [page](https://film.one/film/hold-back-the-dawn.md) ## Complete filmography (95) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Faraway, So Close!* (1993), In Memory Of - *Wings of Desire* (1987), as Homer — Fi1m 88, [page](https://film.one/film/wings-of-desire.md) - *Kir Royal* (1986), series, as Friedrich Danziger - *Detektivbüro Roth* (1986), series, as Robert Maschenberg - *Kleine Stadt, ich liebe dich* (1985), series, as Theo Kleber - *War was, Rickie?* (1985), series, as Onkel Erwin - *Haus Vaterland* (1983), Actor - *The Roaring Fifties* (1983), Actor - *Gesucht wird... Drei Geschichten um nicht ganz ehrenwerte Herren* (1981), Actor - *Flächenbrand* (1981), as Bühler - *The Boat Is Full* (1981), as Lazar Ostrowskij - *Der Schützling* (1981), Actor - *Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe* (1980), Actor - *Bühne frei für Kolowitz* (1980), as Benjamin Weiß - *Wochenendgeschichten* (1980), Actor - *Die Alten kommen* (1980), Actor - *Liebe, Tod und Heringshäppchen* (1979), as Friedrich Schlick - *Das Idol von Mordassow* (1979), as Fürst - *The Old Fox* (1977), series, as Herr Nathan, Karl Brunner - *Das Rentenspiel* (1977), Actor - *Strychnin und saure Drops* (1974), Actor - *Der trojanische Sessel* (1971), as Franz Seider - *Der Pott* (1971), as Simon Norton - *Amerika oder der Verschollene* (1969), as Vater - *The Commissioner* (1969), series, as Ohlers, Vater Klinger - *Die hundertste Nacht* (1966), as Iwakichi - *Ganovenehre* (1966), as Seiden-Emil - *Der eingebildete Kranke* (1964), as Argan - *The Haunted Castle* (1960), as Hugo - *Herr Puntila and His Servant Matti* (1960), as Johannes Puntila - *Androcles and the Lion* (1958), Actor - *The Star of Africa* (1957), Actor - *Ein Polterabend* (1955), Director, Screenplay - *Fortunes of Captain Blood* (1950), as King Charles II - *Joe Palooka Meets Humphrey* (1950), as Pierre - *The Great Sinner* (1949), as Jeweler / Money Lender - *The Lovable Cheat* (1949), as Count de la Brive - *A Kiss in the Dark* (1949), as Hugo Schloss - *Caught* (1949), as Franzi Kartos - *The Woman in White* (1948), as Louis - *French Leave* (1948), as Marcel - *Arch of Triumph* (1948), as Tattooed Waiter - *The Woman from Tangier* (1948), as Parquit - *Jungle Flight* (1947), as Pepe - *Saratoga Trunk* (1945), as Augustin Haussy - *The Spanish Main* (1945), as Paree - *Blonde Fever* (1944), as Brillon - *Gypsy Wildcat* (1944), as Valdi - *Cover Girl* (1944), as Chef at Danny McGuire's - *The Desert Song* (1944), as François - *Swing Fever* (1943), as Nick Sirocco - *Princess O'Rourke* (1943), as Count Peter de Candome - *Paris After Dark* (1943), as Max - *Destroyer* (1943), as Swab with large nose - *Casablanca* (1943), as Pickpocket — Fi1m 93, [page](https://film.one/film/casablanca.md) - *Pacific Rendezvous* (1942), as Kestrin - *The Tuttles of Tahiti* (1942), as Jensen - *Blue, White and Perfect* (1942), as Friedrich Gerber, alias Nappy Dubois - *Hold Back the Dawn* (1941), as Bonbois — Fi1m 78, [page](https://film.one/film/hold-back-the-dawn.md) - *That Night in Rio* (1941), as Felicio Salles - *Bitter Sweet* (1940), as Ernst - *Hullabaloo* (1940), as Armand Francois - *He Stayed for Breakfast* (1940), as Comrade Tronavich - *Boom Town* (1940), as Ferdie the Tailor - *The Lady in Question* (1940), as Henri Lurette - *The Hunchback of Notre Dame* (1939), as Student - *Hotel Imperial* (1939), as Anton - *The Great Waltz* (1938), as Kienzl - *Garden of the Moon* (1938), as Maharajah of Sund - *Boy Meets Girl* (1938), as Dance Director - *The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse* (1938), as Rabbit - *Gold Diggers in Paris* (1938), as Padrinsky - *Romance in the Dark* (1938), as Von Hemisch - *Hollywood Hotel* (1938), as Butch · Dress Designer - *Tovarich* (1937), as Alfonso - *Scherben bringen Glück* (1932), Director, Writer - *A Tremendously Rich Man* (1932), as Curt Nickel - *The Schlemihl* (1931), as Hartwig - *Anschluß um Mitternacht* (1929), as Emil - *His Majesty the Barber* (1928), Actor - *The Fugitive Lover* (1927), as Simche Regierer - *The Masked Mannequin* (1927), as Egun Fürst - *Gräfin Plättmamsell* (1926), Actor - *Der Jüngling aus der Konfektion* (1926), as Moritz Spiegel - *The Golden Butterfly* (1926), Actor - *Wehe wenn sie losgelassen* (1926), as Ali ben Mokka - *She and the Three* (1922), as Der Hilfsregisseur - *The Oyster Princess* (1919), as Conductor (as Kurt Bois) - *Der Dieb* (1918), Actor - *Die Spinne* (1917), Actor - *The Indian's Gift* (1914), as Kind - *The Minister's Daughter* (1913), as Young Hans - *Ein neuer Erwerbszweig* (1912), Actor - *Klebolin Sticks to Everything* (1909), Actor - *Mother Love* (1909), Actor ## Gallery - ![Curt Bois](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-1ceb0ea8234c.jpg) Curt Bois — UnknownUnknown, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Curt_Bois_im_Schiller-Theater_-_cropped.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme.](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-0fda2c56f185.jpg) For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. — Unknown authorUnknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Bundesarchiv_B_145_Bild-P047613%2C_Curt_Bois_und_Fritz_Kortner_im_Schiller-Theater.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Curt Bois (left) & John Abbott in The Woman in White - publicity still (cropped) (1948)](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-e7a704f0c293.jpg) Curt Bois (left) & John Abbott in The Woman in White - publicity still (cropped) (1948) — unknown (Warner Bros.), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Curt_Bois-John_Abbott_in_The_Woman_in_White.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Travestieszene mit Curt Bois (als Egon Fürst) und Mona Maris (als Prinzessin Antoinette).](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-f5bb47bd4f3f.jpg) Travestieszene mit Curt Bois (als Egon Fürst) und Mona Maris (als Prinzessin Antoinette). — Deutsche Kinemathek, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Der_F%C3%BCrst_von_Pappenheim.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Curt Bois](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-257973db15c4.jpg) Curt Bois — Image via TMDB - ![Curt Bois](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-396d48a1cf26.jpg) Curt Bois — Image via TMDB - ![Emil Orlik Curt Bois](https://film.one/media/person/119030/gallery-c9dc1206ce1c.jpg) Emil Orlik Curt Bois — Emil Orlik, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Emil_Orlik_Curt_Bois.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) ## Awards ### Other awards — 2 won - Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1991: Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (won) - European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor 1988: European Film Award for Best Supporting Actor (won), for *Wings of Desire* *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/curt-bois