ACTOR
Ernst Winar
16 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (16)
- #001
Ernst Winar married the actress Colette Brettel.
- #002
The actor Ernst Winar was born Wilhelm Joseph Carl von Eichhoff. After abandoning his engineering studies because of the First World War, he played his first small roles in 1916 in films such as "Majoor Frans" (1916), "Gloria transita" (1917) and "Een Carmen van het Noorden" (1919).
- #003
In 1922 he directed his first feature film, the crime film Der Mann im Hintergrund, but the film was only released in October 1924 after several changes.
- #004
Winar was one of the few Dutch directors who had mastered the craft of film directing, and he would have a major influence in the 1940s and 1950s, when the emergence of the Dutch feature film was rare.
- #005
Winar co-directed De Kribbebijter/The Double-Patch (1935) for the Cinetone studios and served as assistant director to the German émigré director Hermann Kosterlitz, also known as Henry Koster. This successful comedy starred Cor Ruys and Frits van Dongen, who later became a well-known film actor in Berlin and Hollywood under the name Philip Dorn.
- #006
His first films were shorts featuring the character Flappy, played by Adolphe Engers. His first feature film, "Der Mann im Hintergrund" (22), followed.
- #007
From 1921 onward, Ernst Winar also made his first films as a director.
- #008
During the war he presented, together with Max Croiset, the film De laatste dagen van een eiland (1942), based on a story by Klaas Norel. The film had already been shot in 1938 and was shown privately later that year, but it was only publicly released in 1942, probably because only a few films were approved by the German occupiers. It was the second film produced by the Dutch Christian Film Centre, but during the war this organisation had already been closed.
- #009
In 1976 he finally acted once more, in a small role in the TV film Volk en vaderliefde (1976), based on a story by Herodotus.
- #010
With the arrival of talkies marking a new era in film history, Ernst Winar's film career in Germany came to an end. He appeared only in "Die heiligen drei Brunnen" (1930), then returned to the Netherlands, where his last film, "Vier jongens en een Jeep" (1955), was made.
- #011
In 1923 he taught directing classes at the Terra film school in Berlin.
- #012
He appeared on stage under the name W. Eikhof with the Casino company in The Hague.
- #013
When he went to Berlin in 1920, he achieved a major breakthrough on the screen and played his first leading role in "Die Benezif-Vorstellung der vier Teufel" (1920). In the following years he appeared as a prolific actor in popular German silent films.
- #014
He also worked at the Film en Wetenschap (Film and Science) Foundation in Utrecht.
- #015
After finishing school he began studying engineering in Germany, but the First World War forced him to abandon this education. He was temporarily exempted from military service and was hired at the Filmfabriek Hollandia in Haarlem as a veritable Jack of all trades.
- #016
After the Second World War, Winar's interest shifted to children's films, such as Dik Trom en zijn dorpsgenoten (1947), in which his former director Theo Frenkel Sr. played one of the supporting roles, and Vier jongens en een jeep (1955) with Sylvain Poons. This was his last feature film as a director, and he also acted in it, making it his last film as well.
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