Moser, Hans

(1880–1964)

   One of the most beloved of all Viennese popular comics, Moser was born Jean Julier to immigrant French parents who had come to Vienna from France. His father was an academic painter. The son took the stage name Moser after studying diction with an actor of the same name. He acquired a wide variety of theatrical experience after 1907 as he traveled throughout the lands of the Habsburg Empire as an itinerant player. Working in Vienna by 1910, he appeared in plays, cabaret performances, and vaudeville. He also played at the Theater in the Josefstadt and the Salzburg Festivals.

   Both his local popularity and renown abroad, however, came largely from the enormous number of films he made from the 1920s until just before he died. In them, he generally played benevolent, though often wily, characters, always ready to deflate the pretentious and to help the deserving realize their hopes. The latter were often young people whom societal convention or financial problems kept from marrying. His mastery of local Viennese dialect (Wienerisch) gave his characters their remarkable authenticity and enduring appeal.

   See also Theater.