Rudolph Schildkraut, Noted Jewish Actor, Dies at 70

Rudolph Schildkraut, noted German-Jewish actor, died suddenly today at the home of his son, Joseph Schildkraut, film star, as a result of a heart attack which he suffered while working at a film studio. He was 70 years old.

Rudolph Schildkraut was famed both in Europe and in this country. He first began to play roles in German, then in Yiddish and eight years ago he mastered the English language. He made his debut as an actor in English in Sholom Asch’s “God of Vengeance” in December, 1922, in which he was acclaimed by all the New York critics and which drama he had first played seventeen years before in German, when it was produced by Max Reinhardt in Berlin. He later appeared in motion pictures here.

Mr. Schildkraut was born in Constantinople and was educated in Vienna and Berlin. He became an actor in his early youth, appearing in South America, Asia and Europe with his son, Joseph, with whom he subsequently appeared in this country also.

In 1910 Mr. Schildkraut first came to America as the head of a German company at the Irving Theatre and appeared here in many roles in German and Yiddish. He had played many Shakespearean roles in Europe under Max Reinhardt, in whose “Miracle” he appeared both here and abroad. Several years ago Mr. Schildkraut appeared with his own company for a while in a small Yiddish theatre in the Bronx which he owned and managed.