Sig Ruman

Siegfried Carl Alban Rumann, billed as Sig Rumann and Sig Ruman, was a German-American character actor known for his portrayals of pompous and often stereotypically Teutonic officials or villains in more than 100 films.

Born in Hamburg, German Empire, he studied electrical engineering, then began working as an actor and musician before serving with the Imperial German Army during World War I, resuming his acting career after the war.

After his emigration to the United States in 1924, his acting career blossomed. Befriending playwright George S. Kaufman and theater critic Alexander Woollcott, he enjoyed success in many Broadway productions including Once There Was a Russian (1961), Lily of the Valley (1942), Eight Bells (1933), Alien Corn (1933), Grand Hotel (1930), Half Gods (1929), and The Channel Road (1929). He made his film debut in Lucky Boy (1929).

Around 1936, Ruman modified his screen name from Siegfried Rumann to Sig Ruman in an attempt to make it a little less German-sounding, as anti-German prejudice was rising at that time, just prior to the outbreak of the Second World War.

His German accent and large stature kept him busy during World War II, playing sinister Nazi characters in a series of wartime thrillers.

During this period, he also appeared in several films by director Ernst Lubitsch, a fellow German émigré, including Ninotchka (1939), portraying a Russian, and To Be or Not to Be (1942). He played the role of Professor Herman Von Reiter in Shining Victory (1941), an adaptation of an A. J. Cronin play. Ruman continued his trend of portraying over-the-top German characters later in his career for Lubitsch's protege Billy Wilder, in his films The Emperor Waltz (1948), Stalag 17 (1953), One, Two, Three (1961), and in a cameo in The Fortune Cookie (1966).

Despite declining health during the 1950s and 1960s, Ruman continued to appear in films and made many guest appearances on television.

With the Marx Brothers
Ruman became a favorite comic foil of the Marx Brothers, appearing in A Night at the Opera, A Day at the Races, and A Night in Casablanca.

Personal Life
Ruman was married to Else and the couple had a daughter, Senta. Ruman died of a heart attack at his home in Julian, California at 82.