After serving in the
Austro-Hungarian Army during the
First World War, Homolka attended the
Imperial Academy of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, the city of his birth, and began his career on the Austrian stage. In 1924 he played
Mortimer in the premiere of
Brecht's play
The Life of Edward II of England at the
Munich Kammerspiele, and from 1925 in Berlin where he worked under
Max Reinhardt. Other stage plays in which Homolka performed during this period include: The first German performance of
Eugene O'Neill's
The Emperor Jones, 1924,
Anna Christie, 1924, ''
, 1925, Juarez and Maximilian
, 1925–1926, Her Young Boyfriend
, 1925, The Jewish Widow
, 1925, Stir
, 1925, Mérimée and Courteline
, 1926, Periphery
, 1926, Neidhardt von Gneisenau
, 1926, Dorothea Angermann
, 1926–1927, Der Revisor, 1926, Androcles and the Lion, 1926, Bonaparte
, 1927, The Ringer
and The Squeaker
by Edgar Wallace, both 1927, Underworld
, 1930, Today's Sensation
, 1931, The Last Equipage
, 1931, The Waterloo Bridge
, 1931, Faust, 1932, Karl and Anna
, Doctor's Dilemma
, Pygmalion, Juno and the Paycock, and many Shakespearean plays including: A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1925, Troilus and Cressida, 1927, Richard III, King Lear, and Macbeth. After his arrival in London, he continued to star on stage, including with Flora Robson in the play Close Quarters''. His first films were
Die Abenteuer eines Zehnmarkscheines (
Uneasy Money, 1926),
Hokuspokus (
Hocuspocus, 1930), and
Dreyfus (
The Dreyfus Case, 1930),
Zwischen Nacht und Morgen (
Between Night and Dawn, 1931),
Geheimdienst (
Intelligence, 1931),
Junge Liebe (
Young Love, 1931), and
Nachtkolonne (
Night Column, 1932). According to Homolka's own account, he made at least thirty
silent films in Germany and starred in the first
talking picture ever made there. After the Nazi party came to power in Germany, Homolka moved to Britain, where he starred in the films
Rhodes of Africa, with
Walter Huston (1936) and
Everything Is Thunder, with
Constance Bennett (1936). Later, he was one of the many Austrian and specifically Viennese actors and theatrical people who left Europe for the US. In 1936, he appeared opposite
Sylvia Sidney in
Alfred Hitchcock's thriller
Sabotage. Although he often played villains such as Communist spies and Soviet-bloc military officers or scientists, he was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of the crusty, beloved uncle in
I Remember Mama (1948). in "The Ikon of Elijah", an episode of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) He also acted with
Ingrid Bergman in
Rage in Heaven, with
Marilyn Monroe in
The Seven Year Itch, with
Ronald Reagan in
Prisoner of War and with
Katharine Hepburn in
The Madwoman of Chaillot. He returned to England in the mid-1960s, to play the Soviet
KGB Colonel Stok in
Funeral in Berlin (1966) and
Billion Dollar Brain (1967), opposite
Michael Caine. His last film was the
Blake Edwards romantic drama
The Tamarind Seed in 1974. In 1967 Homolka was awarded the
Filmband in Gold of the
Deutscher Filmpreis for outstanding contributions to German cinema. His career in television included appearances in three
episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1957 and 1960, and a 1964 episode of
Hazel. In 1973, he appeared in "Border Line", an episode of
The Protectors, filmed in Austria. Homolka was referenced in
The Odd Couple. When
Oscar Madison makes his desperate last call to find a date and his prospect does not recall him, Madison asks "How many Oscars do you know?" After a pregnant pause, Madison replies, "You know Oscar Homolka?" ==Personal life==