Trivia

Was interred at the cemetery of Badenweiler-Lipburg.

Father of Carola Regnier.

Was also a noted voice actor, best known for performing "Dracula".

Ensemble member at the famous Vienna Burgtheater from 1961 to 1962, where he had directed for several years before.

As he spoke French fluently, he -like his wife Pamela Wedekind- also worked as a translator of novels and scripts from French into German.

In films invariably portrayed eminent personae of knowingly superior disposition or haughty mien: senior physicians or public servants, clever barristers or detectives, powerful aristocrats or elegant men of the world.

On stage from 1938. Worked from 1941-58 as actor/director at the Münchner Kammerspiele. Remained first and foremost a man of the theatre, for whom films remained a sideline.

His grandfather was French. His father was a physician born in America, who committed suicide in 1924.

Father of Anatol Regnier (with Pamela Wedekind).

His idiosyncratic, decidedly intellectual acting style and his sometimes slightly mocking, coolly detached demeanor became his trademarks and made him a sought-after character actor.

In the 1950s and the 1960s, he was one of the busiest German theatre and film actors.

From 1961 to 1962, he was an ensemble member of the Wiener Burgtheater. Regnier preferred not to make a distinction between high art performances and entertainment, saying, "The public should find my work effective, entertaining, in short: agreeable.".

His first acting performance was starring as the Countess Y in this piece. "As an actor I never again had the opportunity to play a lady, but often showed how one plays a lady," Regnier wrote in his personal memoirs.

In 1941, Regnier was invited by Otto Falckenberg to join the ensemble of the Munich Kammerspiele, where he remained until 1958.

Regnier at times filmed more than ten movies a year and appeared in over 100 films and television productions. From 1973 to 1975, he had his own television series on ZDF, "Mordkommission" (Murder Squad), in which he played Chief Inspector Georg Wieker in over 26 episodes.

When his mother contracted tuberculosis in 1929, the family decided to move to the sanatorium at Davos. Here, Charles met a number of celebrities, including the writer Klabund, who awakened Regnier's interest in literature and the theatre. Together with his brothers, Charles produced Klabund's comedy XYZ: For three actors in three acts for a performance in Klabund's private living room.

Regnier lived in Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Regnier focused on sophisticated boulevard theatre. Together with his second wife, the actress Sonja Ziemann, Regnier regularly toured theatres in Germany, Austria and Switzerland well into old age.

Regnier owed his French name to his grandfather, a native of Alsace.

His literary estate can be found in the archives of the Academy of the Arts in Berlin.

Regnier's first engagement was in 1938 at the theatre at Greifswald, where he met actress and singer Pamela Wedekind, a daughter of the playwright Frank Wedekind. They married on 21 June 1941 in Berlin.

From 1946, Regnier worked as a drama teacher at the newly founded Otto-Falckenberg-Schule.

Charles Regnier also directed plays, wrote screenplays, and made a name for himself as a translator. He primarily translated French writers such as Georges Simenon, Jean Cocteau, François Mauriac, and Sidonie Gabrielle Colette, but also British authors like William Somerset Maugham.

His father was a general practitioner, which is why Regnier initially wanted to become a doctor himself. His dream was to travel the world like his childhood idol Albert Schweitzer and help people.

In 1934, Regnier was arrested and interned in the Lichtenburg concentration camp, on charges of homosexuality. After nine months, he was released after he - like many other prisoners - had to sign a pledge not to report anything about what happened in the concentration camp. Traumatized by his imprisonment, Regnier left for Italy, where he opened a souvenir store in Portofino. As the business brought in little, Regnier returned to Berlin and completed a private acting course there.