Dorothy Clara Louise Haas was a German-American actress and singer who played in German and American films. After moving to the United States, she often appeared in Broadway plays. She became a naturalized US citizen and married Al Hirschfeld, a noted portraitist and caricaturist in New York City.
Life and work
Haas was born in Hamburg, Germany, to Charles Oswald Haas, a bookseller of British-German origin, and Margarete Maria. Haas was already an accomplished actress in German cinema before moving to the United States. Her father Charles Haas was half-German, but had grown up in England, and had British citizenship. Dolly and her sister, Margarete, attended Jacob Loewenberg's girls' school Lyzeum in Hamburg, the Anerkannte höhere Mädchenschule.
Marriage and family
Hass married German-born film director John Brahm. At one time, he was resident director for acting troupes such as Deutsches Theater and the Lessing Theater, both in Berlin. They divorced. After moving to the US, Haas became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She married again in 1943, to Al Hirschfeld in Baltimore, Maryland. They lived in New York, where he worked for the New York Times as a portraitist and caricaturist. His work was also published in the New York Review of Books. They had a daughter, Nina, born in 1945.
Career
Dolly Haas had her debut as a professional actress in 1927 in Berlin. She worked at the city's Grosses Schauspielhaus, before embarking on a film career. The latter took her to England and to Hollywood, United States. Haas enjoyed a brief but successful stage career in the United States as well. She made her New York stage debut in 1941 in Erwin Piscator's production of The Circle of Chalk. She also performed with such luminaries as John Gielgud and Lillian Gish in the 1947 revival of Crime and Punishment. In 1946 Haas followed Mary Martin in the lead role in Lute Song for the touring production. Her co-star, Yul Brynner, said that Haas's casting substantially improved the show. He said, "Dolly Haas understood the part. She had an affinity for it, and the play immediately improved. It wasn't at all that Dolly was a better actress. She was just better casting for the part than Mary." Mary Martin agreed with Brynner's assessment, and helped Haas to prepare for the role in the short time allotted for rehearsal. Haas also performed in Off Broadway productions of The Threepenny Opera and Brecht on Brecht. Although Haas did not appear in many English language films, she had an important role in Alfred Hitchcock's1953 film, I Confess. Haas was a personal friend of Hitchcock, and he cast her as Alma Keller, the wife of the murderer—janitor Otto Keller. This high-profile film also starred Montgomery Clift, Anne Baxter, Karl Malden and Brian Aherne.
Death
Haas died 16 September 1994 from ovarian cancer in New York City, aged 84.
