Iván Petrovich

In Vienna he met a film director Mihály Kertész, who fled Hungary after the war, and who will later make a major Hollywood career as Michael Curtiz. Kertész directed Petrovich in three movies: The Sunflower Woman in 1918 on the play by Ivo Vojnović, The Lady with the Black Gloves in 1919 and, the most successful, The Star of Damascus in 1920.[6] Kertész thought that Petrovich's name Svetislav is too hard to remember, so he chose Iván for him.[4] He later worked with a prominent Hungarian directors Paul Czinner (Homo immanis, 1918) and Béla Balogh (Under the Mountains, 1920), before moving to France.

In the mid 1920s he became an international star with a string of French movies, styled "the most cherished lover of the French cinema".[4] He marked the period, mostly being typecast as a latin lover, in the movies of Léonce Perret (Koenigsmark, 1923; The Nude Woman, 1926; Morgane, the Enchantress, 1928), Germaine Dulac (Heart of an Actress, 1924) or Marco de Gastyne (The Lady of Lebanon, 1926). He was partnered on screen with the most popular French actresses of the day like Louise Lagrange, Nita Naldi and Arlette Marchal.

Petrovich was noticed by Hollywood director Rex Ingram who at the time lived and worked in Southern France, where he established a studio in Nice. Ingram directed Petrovich in three films, all co-starring Ingram's wife, Alice Terry: The Magician in 1926, and The Garden of Allah and The Three Passions, both in 1927. At one point, Petrovich was considered as one of the potential successors of Rudolf Valentino, who died prematurely in 1926.[6]

With the advent of sound, Petrovich's career did not seem to be hampered. Tall, handsome and good looking, with a sonorous voice, he even prospered, expanding his acting range to the more character roles, like the aristocrats, noblemen, officers and priests, in the "Slavic charm" manner. However, even though multilingual, his bad English accent turned out to be an insurmountable obstacle, so he had to scrap his Hollywood plans.[6]

He made some 40 films in Germany before the outbreak of the war, under the direction of the best German directors and co-starring with the most popular actors of the period. As a good singer, he was frequently cast in filmed operettas.

He worked often with directorial couple Jacob and Luise Fleck (The Orlov in 1927, Doctor Schäfer in 1928, The Tsarevich in 1929) and Richard Oswald (Victoria and Her Hussar in 1931, The Flower of Hawaii in 1933, co-starring Marta Eggerth). Other movies from this period include 1928 Alraune by Henrik Galeen, co-starring Brigitte Helm and Paul Wegener, 1929 Latin Quarter by Augusto Genina, 1931 The Opera Ball by Max Neufeld, co-starring Liane Haid and Die Fledermaus by Karel Lamač, 1932 Grandstand for General Staff by Eugen Thiele, 1934 Paganini, in title role, by E. W. Emo, co-starring Theo Lingen, and The Last Waltz by Georg Jacoby, 1935 The Cossack and the Nightingale by Phil Jutzi, 1937 Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit by Paul Wegener and 1939 Zentrale Rio by Erich Engels, co-starring Ita Rina.

After the World War II began, Petrovich continued to act in mostly lightweight, fun movies. He stayed in touch with Serbian issues by visiting his friends, captured Serbian officers, in Nazi camps, which caused him problems with the Nazi Security Service.[4] After being pressured to participate in propaganda flick Enemies, directed by Viktor Tourjansky, which tried to justify German occupation of Poland, Petrovich migrated to Hungary. He spent there the remainder of the war, acting in several movies along popular stars like Pál Jávor and Katalin Karády. Most notable was 1941 Géza von Radványi's antimilitary Europe does not respond.[6]

After the war ended and Communist government was set in Hungary, Petrovich moved back to Germany. In the next 15 years he continued mostly in the supporting roles, but was still sought actor in the German-speaking countries.

His notable roles from this period include films The Trial by G.W. Pabst, Beethoven's biopic Eroica by Walter Kolm-Veltée and Sissi – The Young Empress by Ernst Marischka. Among Petrovich's last movies were Louis Malle's first feature film Elevator to the Gallows in 1958 and Anatole Litvak's The Journey in 1959.

Apart from acting, in this period he also worked as a radio announcer on Radio Free Europe,[6] which was headquartered in Munich at the time.