The following year, Twardowski played Ivan Shuvalov in The Scarlet Empress. In 1935, Twardowski appeared as Count Nicholas of Hungary in the Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades starring Loretta Young. It would be two years before Twardowski appeared in another movie and that was a small part in the romance Thin Ice starring Sonja Henie and Tyrone Power. Because of the time he spent directing and appearing in plays on stage, it would be another two years before he worked in another movie.
Later in 1939, Twardowski appeared in the highly controversial anti-Nazi movie Hitler - Beast of Berlin. Twardowski plays Albert Stahlhelm, a Stormtrooper of the Waffen-SS, who becomes disillusioned with the brutality of the Nazi regime. His character accidentally betrays his anti-Nazi friends to his fellow SS members, who in turn murder him.
With the outbreak of World War II and the subsequent increase in war movies, Twardowski received uncredited roles as Nazis. He portrayed storm troopers, U-boat captains, and army officers. He appeared in seven films in 1942, including a large role as Captain Gemmler in the Nazi spy thriller Dawn Express. He next played an uncredited role as a sergeant in The Pied Piper starring Monty Woolley as an Englishman trying to get out of German-occupied France with a group of children. He also appeared in the comedy Joan of Ozark. Twardowski appeared as a German soldier in Desperate Journey with Errol Flynn and Ronald Reagan. He received a bit part as a U-boat captain in RKO's The Navy Comes Through starring Pat O'Brien. He had another big part in the comedy Once Upon a Honeymoon starring Cary Grant and Ginger Rogers.
Twardowski's acting career ended along with World War II. However, he continued to write and direct plays. He originally starred on stage as the Dauphin in Schiller's productions of Die Jungfrau von Orleans. In the 1930s, Twardowski directed and appeared in the stage productions of The Brothers Karamazov and Old Heidelberg in the Pasadena Playhouse. In 1939, he wrote and produced a play in Brooklyn's St. Felix Street Playhouse titled Shakespeare Merchant - 1939, based on Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice. Twardowski also sang tenor in a number of musicals.
After his retirement from movies, Twardowski worked again as a stage actor.
Personal life
Twardowski was in a relationship with fellow German actor Martin Kosleck from the early 1930s until his death.[1] He was a close friend of Marlene Dietrich.[1]
Death
Twardowski died from a heart attack in his New York City apartment on 19 November 1958 at age 60.[citation needed]
