Biography

Marian died in a road accident in 1946 near the village of Dürneck (today part of Freising) in Bavaria, probably driving under the influence. It is said that he was on his way to Munich with a borrowed car to collect denazification papers that with the permission by US film officer Eric Pleskow would allow him to work again, having celebrated this news just beforehand. Other sources suggest that the accident was suicide.

Leading Austrian actor, born to musical parents. On stage in Graz from 1924. From 1938 at the Deutsches Theater Berlin, as well as tenures in Prague and Vienna. Starred in the notorious Nazi propaganda film Jud Süß (1940), a fact which harmed his career after 1945. Otherwise, however, seen as charming bon vivants or gentleman crooks in popular romantic pictures. Stood out in the film Romanze in Moll (1943) opposite Marianne Hoppe. Was killed in an automobile accident near Munich.

In 1949, soon after the trial of Veit Harlan (the director of "Jud Süss"), Marian's widow Maria Byk was found drowned in Hamburg.

With the film "Jud Süss" (1940) he sealed his later destiny. In this film he constituted a smutty Jew, the film itself was drafted as a baiting of the Jewish nation. First Marian refused to play this part. Goebbels wrote into his diary: "Talked with Marian about the Jud-Süss material. He hesitate to play the Jew. But I make him to play the part emphatically.".

After three successive propaganda movies Marian took part again in non-political films, especially "Romanze in Moll" (1943) and "Münchhausen" (1943) were very popular.