Karel LamaÃÂ (27 January 1897 – 2 August 1952) was a Czech film director, actor, screenwriter, producer and singer. He directed more than 100 films in Czechoslovakia, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Lamaàwas born 27 January 1897 in Prague, Austria-Hungary. His parents were Karel Lamaàsr. (1863âÂÂ1938), opera singer and a pharmacist, and Frantià ¡ka LamaÃÂová (née PrusÃÂková, 1860âÂÂ1949). In his childhood Lamaàwas interested in pharmacy, electrical engineering, stage magic and acting. Before WWI he went to apprentice in camera manufacturer company Ernemann in Dresden. During the war he was a combat cameraman. After the war he became a technical director of film laboratory in Excelsiorfilm. He started working in movies in 1918, first as an actor, later as a writer and a director. Among his best movies of this period are crime drama The Poisoned Light, comedy Catch Him! and drama White Paradise. In 1923 he wrote a book How to write a film libretto. His frequent collaborators were actress Anny Ondra, cinematographer Otto Heller and screenwriter Václav Wasserman. In 1926 he co-founded a film studio KavalÃÂrka where he made his movies until it burned down in 1929.
In 1930 he founded a production company Ondra-LamaÃÂ Film with his then girlfriend Anny Ondra in Berlin. During 1930s he was making movies in Germany, Czechoslovakia, France and Austria. After the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia he left to Netherlands to make De Spooktrein and then to United Kingdom. He served in RAF until 1941. He made war documentaries and three feature movies during WWII. After the war he made two movies in France. In 1947 then went to USA where he worked on technical innovations of color film and camera lenses. In 1951 he returned to Germany and directed his last film The Thief of Bagdad.
He died in Hamburg, West Germany due to serious problems with his kidneys.