Walter Slezak was an Austrian-born film and stage actor active between 1922 and 1976. He mainly appeared in German films before migrating to the United States in 1930 and performing in numerous Hollywood productions.
Slezak typically portrayed wily and loquacious characters, often philosophical, and often with a taste for food, drink, and fine-living to match his ever-expanding girth. He was a crafty villain as a U-boat captain in Alfred Hitchcock's film Lifeboat, a charming but two-timing major domo to a tycoon in Come September, and a wandering gypsy in The Inspector General. He stood out as shrewd but unscrupulous private investigators in film noir, as in Cornered and Born to Kill.