Leon Askin

My father was an ardent socialist for many years.

In the morning we received some very thin coffee. For lunch we had potato soup with a few pieces of meat in it, in the evening we had a very thin meat soup with some potatoes in it.

I was put in the Air Corps. I was never educated to serve in the military, but soon my activities in the American Air Corps became very interesting to me.

From that moment on I knew my profession in life was and has remained until today an actor’s life.

A Dumont actor was considered to be too stilted – the way we Dumont actors used to speak.

It is a great deal of difference to receive an honorary title or a title in his profession.

Unfortunately I put the opening date on the 5th of December 1941 and on the 7th of December the Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbour. My dream of a theater in Washington D.C. came to a prompt end.

It was one of the great chances in my life to become a Dumont actor.

The interest of my mother was more in the entertainment field. She loved to go to concerts and to the theatre.

Directors and producers were afraid of a Dumont actor while at the same time they admired him.

We wanted to bring the political situation in Austria on stage. Naturally we could not do that without pointing to Austrian’s northern neighbor Germany.

Especially for my father it was a great change. He used to be a socialist and even a member of the socialist party. But then he became an orthodox Jew.

1988 I also received from the city of Vienna the cross of honour for art and science. These titles and the various honors mean a great deal to me, most of all for the reason that they would mean a great deal to my parents too.

At the end of my life, I have achieved belated fame and recognition in the city of my birth.

To be a Dumont actor was considered to be a great honor for an actor, yet it also had its disadvantages.