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Birth Date: October 11, 1884
Birth Place: Hamburg, Germany
Also Credited as: Siegfried Rumann
Date of Death: February 14, 1967 / Age: 82
Location of Death: Julian, California, USA
Cause of Death: heart attack
Biography: Wonderfully talented German born actor, capable of tremendous comedic & dramatic performances, usually as some type of pompous bureaucrat, or similarly arrogant individual. Ruman was born on October 11th, 1884 in Hamburg Germany and actually studied electro-technology in college, before making the switch to acting. He served with the Imperial German Forces in World War 1, before coming to the United States in 1924. He became friendly with playwright "George S. Kaufman" and critic "Alexander Woolcott", and was regularly appearing in high quality stage productions on Broadway.
With the advent of "talkies", he was kept very busy in the cinema, and became a favorite of the "Marx Bros.", appearing as stiff shirted NYC opera owner "Herman Gottlieb" in the comedy classic _Night at the Opera, The (1935)_ , he played a know it all surgeon crossing swords with Groucho Marx over what exactly was wrong with hypochondriac Margaret Dumont in _Day at the Races, The (1937)_ , and a dual role in _A Night in Casablanca (1946)_ . With his German accent, he was also a regular in several WW2 espionage thrillers....including Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), They Came to Blow Up America (1943), The Hitler Gang (1944), and his superb portrayal of the two-faced POW guard, "Schulz" in the splendid Stalag 17 (1953). He was also popular with famed director Ernst Lubitsch who cast Ruman in Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). In all, he notched up over 100 feature film appearances, as well as guest star spots on many TV shows!
Ruman suffered ill health for the final two decades of his life and passed away on February 14th, 1967 from a heart attack.
Biography Credit:
IMDB
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