The death-bed conversion of Emil Jannings, winner of Hollywood's first " Oscar," is believed to have come from a study of
Church history he began last year in preparation for a new film.
The film, entitled The Holy Year, was to be produced in Rome by an English-Italian society. It was to revolve about the life of Pope Boniface VIII, the first to proclaim a Holy Year.
Mr. Jannings died at his home at Sanct Wolfgang. Upper Austria, at the age of 63, and was buried at the Catholic cemetery there. He received the Last Sacraments the day before he died. For most of his life, he was a Protestant. His first close acquaintance with the Catholic Church seems to have come when he went to Sanct Wolfgang after the war. Mr. Jannings became famous in Hollywood for such pictures as " The Patriot " and " The Way of All Flesh," which won him the Academy award (Oscar) when it was first given in 1927.
He received numerous Nazi decorations and was believed a favourite of Hitler. A denazification court. however, found him not guilty of being a Nazi.