Ralph Erwin

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}} {{short description|Austrian composer}} {{Infobox person |image = |imagesize = |caption = | name = Ralph Erwin | birth_date = 31 October 1896 | birth_place = Bielitz, Austrian Silesia, Austria-Hungary | death_date = {{death date and age|1943|5|15|1896|10|31|df=y}} | death_place = Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp, Loiret, France | othername = | occupation = Composer | yearsactive = }} '''Ralph Erwin''' (31 October 1896 – 15 May 1943), originally '''Erwin Vogl''', was the Austrian-born French composer of a number of film scores.

==Career== Erwin Vogl was born in Bielitz, in the part of Silesia which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He served in the Austrian Army during the First World War.

After the war, Erwin established himself as a leading German songwriter. He had a great success with ''I Kiss Your Hand, Madame'' ({{Langx|de|Ich küsse Ihre Hand, Madame}}), which featured in the film of the same title of 1929. The song became the signature tune of Richard Tauber.<ref>Symonette & Kowalke p.221</ref> It was prominently used in the 1933 film ''Baby Face'' and Bing Crosby also later sang an English version, in ''The Emperor Waltz'' (1948)

Erwin was a Jew and, following the Nazi rise to power in 1933, he went into exile in France. There, he continued to work on film scores.

Erwin was still in the country during Nazi Occupation of France and was eventually arrested. He died in the Beaune-la-Rolande internment camp.

==Selected filmography== * ''I Kiss Your Hand, Madame'' (1929) * ''Le Roi des resquilleurs'' (1930) * ''The Little Escapade'' (1931) * ''Checkmate'' (1931) * ''When Love Is Over'' (1931) * ''Amourous Adventure'' (1932) * ''The Importance of Being Earnest'' (1932) * ''Madame Makes Her Exit'' (1932) * ''The Beautiful Adventure'' (1932) * ''You Don't Forget Such a Girl'' (1932) * ''Baby Face'' (1933) * ''Employees Entrance'' (1933) * ''Dinner At Eight'' (1933) * ''A Weak Woman'' (1933) * ''Let's Touch Wood'' (1933) * ''Monsieur Sans-Gêne'' (1935) * ''Widow's Island'' (1937) * ''The Lady from Vittel'' (1937) * ''Storm Over Asia'' (1938)

==References== {{Reflist}}

==Bibliography== * Symonette, Lys & Kowalke, Kim H. ''Speak Low (When You Speak Love): The Letters of Kurt Weill and Lotte Lenya''. University of California Press, 1997.

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0260016}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Erwin, Ralph}} Category:1896 births Category:1943 deaths Category:Austrian male composers Category:Austrian composers Category:People from Bielsko Category:Austro-Hungarian military personnel of World War I Category:Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Category:Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Category:Austrian people who died in the Holocaust Category:Silesian Jews Category:20th-century French composers Category:20th-century French male composers Category:Austrian film score composers Category:French film score composers Category:French male film score composers