When most people think of early acting, they are brought back to the early days of Hollywood, with young American actors making their Hollywood name and fame with silent movies or colorless classics that captivated the nation. Americans weren’t the only ones doing acting in the first half of the twentieth century, though. Over in Europe, screen acting was quite popular as well. In Denmark, where the movies served as a refuge from the cold air, actors like Aage Bendixen were earning acclaim for their quality work.
Aage Bendixen was born on June 16, 1887, but did not take to acting until much later on in his life. While screen acting may have been slow to catch on all over the world, Denmark and the rest of the Scandinavian nations were some of the earliest to adopt the popular past time. Specifically, there was great success in the comedy genre for Danish actors and their films. That’s where Aage Bendixen carved his niche. When he began acting in the 1920s, his best work was done in a series of short comedy films that kept Danish audiences laughing heartily.
Among Aage Bendixen’s most popular works was a remake of the notable Spanish novel “Don Quixote”, which he skillfully worked on in 1926. Though he had completed previous works as early as 1919, it was not until that production that Aage Bendixen really made a name for himself. Some of the actor’s other most recognizable performances came in the 1925 film Fra Piazza del Popolo and 1930 classic Pas paa pigerne. Both films came to be rousing hits for Aage Bendixen in the Cinema of Denmark.
Aage Bendixen was able to work on a dozen films in his twenty year career before finally calling it quits in the 1930s. His work spanned over a couple of genres and served to bring a new age of screen acting to Denmark and the rest of the European nations. Aage Bendixen’s short comedy work at the Cinema of Denmark remains some of the most classic acting in the entire world.
If laughter really is the best medicine, then that could explain why Aage Bendixen lived such a long life. Though his cinematic work stopped in the 1930s, Bendixen lived to the ripe age of 86, passing away in December of 1973. His work has served as a great influence on young actors looking to make their way in the less publicized cinemas away from Hollywood.
