Biography

Elegant silent screen matinée idol, the son of a tax collector. In films from 1914, he appeared as romantic lovers and bon vivants opposite most of the major female stars of the period. He set up his own production company in 1922. His career was disrupted by a motorcycle accident in 1924, as a result of which he suffered severe injuries from which he never fully recovered. Having failed to make the transition to sound Kastner committed suicide by hanging himself in 1930.

The great Asta Nielsen spot him for her movie "Engelein" in 1914. The oddest of all film careers started. Although Bruno Kastner wasn't a very good actor and also no critics left out an occasion to announce it, he conquered the hearts of the female audience in not time.

Kastner attended schools in Fürstenwalde and afterward served a short, seventeen day stint in the military before being relieved of his duties due to an injury.

He subsequently travelled to Berlin and took acting lessons from stage actor Paul Biensfeldt and then relocated briefly to Hamburg where he performed at the Harburger Theater. After a brief period in touring companies he worked as a choral singer and actor at the Meinhard-Bernauer Bühnen in Berlin.

The onset of sound films proved disastrous to Kastner's career in 1930 upon the release of his first talkie titled Das Land des Lächelns (The Land of Smiles) when filmgoers discovered that he stammered.