Louis V. Arco

Who was Louis V. Arco?

Louis V. Arco was an Austrian-born actor who was born Lutz Altschul in Baden, Austria-Hungary, about 5 miles south of Vienna.

His first film was the German silent movie Liebesfeuer in 1925. Two years later, Altschul starred as Nicola Sacco in the Austrian silent film Sacco und Vanzetti. In 1929, he appeared in his last silent movie Napoleon auf St. Helena about Napoleon's last days. This movie was directed by Lupu Pick, who loved making silent movies so much that he couldn't handle the switch to talkies and ended up poisoning himself in Berlin in 1931.

His first talkie was the film Rosenmontag in 1930. The following year, he appeared in Yorck. In 1932, Altschul appeared in his last German movie, Der Schwarze Husar starring Conrad Veidt. After the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933, Altschul went home to Austria.

After Hitler's forces took over Austria in the Anschluss of 1938, Altschul came to America and changed his name to Louis V. Arco. His first movie in America was the 1939 war drama Nurse Edith Cavell. In 1941, he received a small role in Warner Bros. war drama Underground directed by Vincent Sherman.