Color of his hair...
Has anyone any idea why Oskar Werner had his beautiful blond hair darker when he grew older? This is something I have been wondering about for a long t ime.

:D Good question! I am not sure of the answer. Perhaps it just turned naturally darker? Many people with blonde hair find it turns darker as they get older.

You have a good point. But he kept it blond until he was in his fifties. He was around fifty in the "Playback" episode of Columbo. He looked fine. Some people also darken their hair too, hopefully, to make them look younger. I am thinking that may be the case. Either that, or he kept it lightened for years after it grew darker and then stopped, letting it go naturally. I do not believe this is the case, though. Usually by then, people have white or gray hair... :D

Hair
Thank you for answering that question. I thought he had dyed it.

With regard to Oskar and the color of his hair.... I knew him (via letters) during the last years of his life. I knew him well enough to know that his complete lack of vanity would prohibit such a paltry and silly thing as his dyeing his hair. People who are born blonde (we had that in common) often find their hair changing and darkening to some other color as they mature. With Oskar we have to remember how he loved the water and swimming. Every summer when I was a teenager I spent huge amounts of time out doors, with horses among other things. By the end of the summer my hair would be a color close to white, especially if I had spent a lot of time in a swimming pool. Just a week of that was enough. The color one's hair darkens to has a lot to do with heredity. My mother and two of her siblings, not blonde but very dark haired, both turned beautifully grey, just as it should. My niece, had light brown hair and her hair is now, at age 49, all beautifully grey. She is like her mother who had, not black, but just very dark brown hair. My niece's was lighter but she still turned grey early and gracefully. I, however, seem to have followed my mother's one lighter haired sister and turned a kind of "flat ash blonde" with grey in only two places to start with. I did dye my hair because my job entailed meeting people from all over the world and I did not feel that I wished to do that looking like an exhibit from a zoo. Now, I am retired so I no longer lighten it and it is slowly getting all grey. If anyone whose hair is going white or grey dyes his or her hair a darker color that person more nearly resembles a cadaver. One's hair, if darker and paired with the skin tone that accompanies grey and white hair, looks dead white. Oskar's life style, usually, in summer, more outside and in or around water at least some of the time, would result in lighter hair as the summer wore on then darker as winter approached. We also have to remember that the film from the '80's was most likely inclined not to be absolutely true color wise. So, since his mother was darker (we can't tell what color exactly since the only photos of her are black and white) and his father, while a young man, was blonde, we can't judge too closely. I can tell you, however, no matter what his natural hair color was at a given time, he would only change it, or wear a wig if a certain role required it. "Hamlet", for instance, seems to have required all the title role actors to be blonde. Perhaps, this is because Hamlet was Danish, therefore he must have been blonde!

A lot makes sense
Pamela, a lot of what you say makes perfect sence. Only...OW was in his early sixties when he passed away. I know of no one that age who has darker hair. I should think his hair would have been gray...not brown. As far as the wigs in plays, etc. I think you are right. But I still, personally, believe that he did darken his hair as he grew older. One reason I believe this, I used to be a hairdresser...and I know how hair is...I'm not saying that you are wrong...Only that I believe otherwise. But I do thank you for giving me your input. On the other note, it is very fortunate for you that you knew him personally...You are very lucky, indeed. I, too, would like to know how this happened.

Well, now you can say you know of three people whose blonde hair darkened with age..... and with circumstance. I was in my late teens when mine showed that darkening. But, even then, if I was outside and or swimming enough it would lighten again.I have two aunts one on each side of my family who were blonde when young but who, as they matured, began to have darker hair. One aunt didn't give a hoot...... and when she went grey it was in two spots, like mine, and she didn't care about that either. But, she didn't work in the kind of position I did. As I said, I didn't care to be in that position in a very large company looking like something that belonged in a zoo! My other aunt, on my father's side, did not begin to show any darkening until a lot later in life. She decided she plain didn't like it and began to have it lightened. Note, that in all these instances, the natural hair color was blonde and darkened long before it was time for it to become grey. There is a photo of Oskar with his son in 1980, he is still blonde.... but, most of the time with Felix I think he spent out doors and the sun will get you every time. After that he became increasingly depressed, that usually results in the person's not being outside very much. There has never been anyone less vain than Oskar. If he chose to do something with his hair for his appearance's sake he would not have chosen red but rather to go back to his younger blonde. Just as my one aunt and I did. Look at his eyebrows.... And, if you have a wide experience of people's hair.... you must agree that, were he seeing any kind of professional hair care person that same person would have at least made the attempt to do something with the styling of his hair so that he did not always look as though he had "come backwards through a bush". I really wonder if he bequeathed his hair problems (all 'cowlicks -all over!) to me. I never had anything like that until a hairdresser friend said she was finding "funny little bends in my hair." She was a friend from childhood and when I went to have anything done to my hair I always went to her. So, this was something new to her and certainly new to me. Her discovery came in April of '85 almost 6 months to the day after Oskar's passing. He was not fussy about his appearance unless it had directly somethingt to do with a role he was playing. Also, in his la-*test*-('") years he had not enough money to indulge his vanity.... he was very short in that department himself. Not in a position to toss money away on simple vanity.

As far as the correspondence between Oskar and myself is concerned. It resulted from my having seen, not only "Ship of Fools" but philosophically for me, "Shoes of the Fisherman." I look back on that experience and the absolute confiction that I had that it been largely Oskar's own voice and mind that gave life and breath to the character of "David Telemond." I saw it just before Christmas of '80. Very shortly after that my mother had a heart attack. After her recovery I still felt that urge to let Oskar know that at least one person saw and recognized what he did with that part. Everything that motivated that character in the original novel had already been done by Pope John and his successor and the Vatican Councils. So, there was, in essence an empty character but one still necessary to the plot. So, Oskar took it on and did some pretty terrific things with it. So, still driven to writing him, I did so and heard back almost immediately. He had, in that reply, stated that I wasn't a fool if I had caught that (most critics had not... it went right over their heads.) and that he appreciated very much my "warm reaction." That is pretty much what our correspondence was about; ideas and ideals, about which both of us had a meeting of minds. Such a relationship is a treasure. Oftentimes it means more than ordinary relationships in life mean. It is certainly of greater strength.

Thank you!
I am sure you are right about his hair, Pamela. It just seems unusual to me. I do have a daughter with blonde hair...and it has grown a little darker. She is of Scandinavian blood. I think it is wonderul that you had the guts to write to him. Goodness! And...he replied right back! That is wonderful! I am sure it is more than a prescious memory with you, one you will always cherish. I know that I would. I, too, have noticed the cowlick's in OW's hair. I have always thought they may have given him a bit of trouble. I would love to write an autobiography on OW...but I feel I need permission from the OW estate. Would you, Pamela, know how to get in touch with the estate? And thank you so much for sharing!

Well, it was written at least in one book that his hair were dyed.. and how could they change into such a short time from blondest blonde to brown?

Funny you should put this on the Forum today.... my cousin, my blonde father's blonde sister's daughter was here most of the day and I mentioned this issue. All our hair, originally blonde, turned brown by our late 20's to early 30's. A sister of my mother's experienced the same thing. Most real blondes don't have just blonde hairs on their heads. Those that have nothing but that color are either very young, like my dad, his sister etc and me or have had their hair colored. That's when you see all blonde hairs nothing of any other shade. I think the time when the person who started this topic may have been referring to a time rather later in Oskar's life when he had little money. Oskar of all people, would not care a pin about what his hair looked like. He might make an effort if he was doing something very formal, an important reading, perhaps. There's a photo of him with Felix when Felix was in what we call his "middle school years" when he stayed with his father. Oskar's hair, in that photo, looks like our family's hair would at the end of summer, a bit dark, a bit lighter. If we were inside all the time our hair got a lot darker. I got a professional hairdresser's correct name for my hair color as it is now. She said it was "flat ashe blonde." My closest friend, who died a few years ago, was insisting my hair was dark brown. I have, finally (!) gotten a few grey hairs coming in all over. My father's mother never even had a single grey hair and she did not die until she was 92 years old. You just can't tell. Then, you have people like my mother's mother who always had very dark hair. By her 50's her hair had turned some grey and some a kind of yellowed grey. She, like Oskar, didn't care or have the money for that kind of thing. If you do have grey hair and do not fight it..... you very often, as my mother did, have to fight to keep it from going this strange yellowish color. This is done by having a rinse applied at the end of a shampoo done by the hairdresser. I had a boss once, an elderly, and very wealthy banker from Latvia, whose wife, for some reason, had her hair dyed pink! As they say, "it takesl all kinds to make a world." My cousin who was just here today has hair the same color as mine (she was blonde) is now but without the grey.... she's 13 years younger so that's right. I think that whatever or whoever did anything to Oskar's hair deserved some kind of medal, dealing with all his "cowlicks" - the swirls of hair that stood up all over his head. The only times they were probably not an issue might be in films like "Jules et Jim" where, to be living a bohemian lifestyle, it would have been okay for one's hair to look like a kind of crazy broom. Again, in "Voyage of the Damned" (in that his hair was possibly dyed for the role but that would have been pretty much his natural color, but, it would have been right for him to have a kind of all-over ashy brown, as he does in that film). Strangely, the "cowlicks" are easier to handle when one's hair is longer..... I can say this from experience! I think we all are aware that not all books written about Oskar are completely correct. Nor, does all film show colors correctly. I also think that we do not need to clutter up the memory of all his excellent work with a minor matter like this. We should be glad he shared the earth and himself and his ideals with us as long as he did! I do remember seeing in a photo about one of his earler plays that not only was his own blonde hair a terrible mess, but over it he was putting on a wig that was just as much of a mess, the only difference was that the wig was brown! I think it is in "Ein Nacklang" I'm not positive, but, it is very early Oskar's stage career.

I've always thought Oskars hair was Blonde. Never knew anything about it being light brown. . . . . . . . . * Hello Pamela! :wink: :D

Hi Clay!!! Glad to see you back on the new Forum..... we've missed you! No, Oskar's hair, like the hair of all real blondes, was made up of various shades of blonde. Only little children tend to have all blonde. Try looking closely at .... say a magazine photo close up maybe an ad which features a "blonde" if she or he is a true blonde there will be individual hairs of darker and lighter colors. My cousin was with me over the weekend. Her mother and my father were both blondes. So was she when she was a little girl now she is almost exactly the same as I am except she has no grey hairs...... yet.... she does also have a 21 year old son!!! Her mom's hair turned just as her daughters. My dad was killed in WWII but I have no doubt that his hair would also have changed. He grew a light moustache before he went overseas and that came in darker than the hair on his head. Another cousin of mine, on the maternal side of the family, who was blonde but grew a beard when he was still in his twenties and that came in red! The saga of the hair!!! Oh, yes, wasn't there another story we have all heard about a tortoise and a...... oh, that's right that was h a r e!!!