News from Austria (Austrian Federal Chancellery)
Vienna gets a “Leon Askin Square.“ The square near the last stop of tram line 52 in Vienna’s district Penzing will be named after the actor and director who died in 2005. Askin, born Leon Aschkenasy in Vienna in 1907, studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. He won international renown as a political cabaret artist in Vienna, Düsseldorf and Paris in the 1930s. In 1938 he fled to Paris. In 1940 he moved to the USA, where he first became a successful theatre actor (production of Goethe’s “Faust“ on Broadway in 1949) and started his film career in Hollywood in 1952. In 1960 he played a role in the film “One, Two, Three“ directed by Billy Wilder and in 1972 he participated in “Hammersmith Is Out,“ with Peter Ustinov as the film director. In 1994 he finally returned to his native city Vienna, where he impressed the audience with his stage acting even at a very old age.
Vienna gets a “Leon Askin Square.“ The square near the last stop of tram line 52 in Vienna’s district Penzing will be named after the actor and director who died in 2005. Askin, born Leon Aschkenasy in Vienna in 1907, studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and the Performing Arts. He won international renown as a political cabaret artist in Vienna, Düsseldorf and Paris in the 1930s. In 1938 he fled to Paris. In 1940 he moved to the USA, where he first became a successful theatre actor (production of Goethe’s “Faust“ on Broadway in 1949) and started his film career in Hollywood in 1952. In 1960 he played a role in the film “One, Two, Three“ directed by Billy Wilder and in 1972 he participated in “Hammersmith Is Out,“ with Peter Ustinov as the film director. In 1994 he finally returned to his native city Vienna, where he impressed the audience with his stage acting even at a very old age.