Jaro Fürth


Jaro Fürth was an Austrian stage and film actor.

Early life

Fürth was born Edwin Fürth-Jaro to Jewish parents in Prague. Initially he studied law, but began his acting career under the tutelage of Alexander Römpler before taking stage engagements in Scandinavia, performing in roles created by Henrik Ibsen. In 1905 he travelled to Vienna, where he received an engagement at the Deutschen Volkstheater.

Film career

In the late 1910s he went to Berlin and began appearing in silent films. Under the direction of F.W. Murnau, he appeared in such films as: The Head of Janus and Satanas, and after that followed with roles in films such as Das Blut der Ahnen and Der falsche Dimitry . He played Councilor Rumfort in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's 1925 drama Joyless Street, opposite Danish actress Asta Nielsen, with Swedish actress Greta Garbo, playing his daughter.
Fürth would transition to the era of sound film with ease, and would become a notable character actor throughout the late 1920s and 1930s, appearing in such films as G. W. Pabst's drama Diary of a Lost Girl opposite American actress Louise Brooks, and Karel Lamač's Die Fledermaus opposite Czech actress Anny Ondra.

Nazi persecution and death

Fürth left Germany after the German National-Socialists seized power in 1933 and he moved to Vienna. After the 1938 Anschluss, in which Germany occupied and annexed Austria, Fürth took leave of his acting and was deported by the Nazis to Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942. He lived to see the end of the war, but died several months later in Vienna at the age of 74.

Selected filmography