Harry Meyen


Harry Meyen was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 40 films and television productions between 1948 and 1975. In the 1960s he also worked as a theatre director in West Germany.

Personal life

Meyen was born in Hamburg, the son of a Jewish merchant who was deported to a concentration camp during the Nazi regime. The 18-year-old Meyen himself was incarcerated as a Mischling and survived the Neuengamme concentration camp.
After the war, he began his career with Willy Maertens at the Hamburg Thalia Theater. From 1952 he performed at the Theater Aachen and from 1955 moved to Berlin. Also starring in films directed by Helmut Käutner, Falk Harnack and Wolfgang Staudte, he played the role of a young Luftwaffe officer in the 1955 movie Des Teufels General side by side with Curd Jürgens. He also worked as a dubbing actor giving his voice to Dirk Bogarde, Robert Mitchum, Michel Piccoli, Peter Sellers, and Jean-Louis Trintignant.
From 1953 to 1966 he was married to actress Anneliese Römer. In July 1966 he married Romy Schneider in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Their son David Christopher was born 3 December 1966; the family lived in Berlin and later in Hamburg. Meyen dealt with the production of theatre plays and operas, however with moderate success. The couple finally divorced in 1975, and Schneider took their son with her to France.
Meyen was a depressive, his condition caused by the torture he had received from the Nazis for being half-Jewish. In 1979, Meyen hanged himself at home in Hamburg. He is buried in the Ohlsdorf Cemetery. His son died in an accident two years later.

Selected filmography