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| Detlef Sierck alias Douglas Sirk
1897 - 1987 |
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. The director Detlef Sierck finished his education in jurisprudence and he began his professional career as an editor for the "Neue Hamburger Zeitung". He got in touch with the performing arts in 1920 for the first time when he got an assistant for dramaturgy at the Deutsches Theater in Hamburg. It followed an engagement an the Bremer Schauspielhaus as a director and as a manager at the "Altes Theater" in Leipzig. He was able to realise his first movie as a director in 1934 and he shot the short film "Zwei Genies" (34). Afterwards he soon became a demanded director of feature movies and he made the Swedish singer and actress Zarah Leander to a star. To his well-known movies of the 30s belong "April, April" (35), "Das Mädchen vom Moorhof" (35), "Schlussakkord" (36), "Zu neuen Ufern" (37) and "La Habanera" (37). Because Detlef Sierck was married with the Jew Hilde Jary - she was his second wife - the couple had to leave Germany. They went to the USA via France and the Netherlands and Detlef Sierck was able to continue his film career as a movie director. He used now the name Douglas Sirk. In the 40s he realised the movies "Hitler's Madman" (43), "Summer Storm" (44), "The Strange Woman" (46) and "Sleep, My Love" (48). He experienced the height of his film career in the 50s and he was responsible for numerous popular movies. To these works belong "The First Legion" (51), "Meet Me at the Fair" (53), "All I Desire" (53), "Magnificent Obsession" (54), "Written on the Wind" (56),"Interlude" (57), "A Time to Love and a Time to Die" (58) and "Imitation of Life" (59). Detlef Sierck retired from the film business because of health problems and he moved to Switzerland. It followed single directions for plays at the theater in Germany and at the end of the 70s he worked as a director again for the short films "Sprich zu mir wie der Regen" (76), "Silvesternacht" (78) and "Bourbon Street Blues" (79). Detlef Sierck's first wife was the actress Lydia Brincken. Their son Klaus Detlef Sierck became a popular child actor who took part in 13 movies. He died in action at the age of only 18 in 1944 on the Russian front.
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