Gerald Tannebaum

Who was Gerald Tannebaum?

Gerald Tannebaum was an American humanitarian and actor in China. He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and died in Santa Barbara, California of Parkinson's disease.

After graduation from Northwestern University in 1939, Gerald Tannebaum worked in advertising until 1942, then entered the US Army. After the war he went to China as an army officer supervising UN relief supplies. He stayed on to work in Chinese Relief as secretary to Song Qingling, and when she became head of the Chinese Welfare Association in 1949, Tannebaum was named its executive director.

This got him involved with various theatrical projects of the Association, such as the Shanghai Children's Theater, and soon he was playing foreign roles in Chinese films, usually negative English characters. Although very popular with Chinese film audiences, his roles were limited by his refusal to portray negative American characters. His best-known film role was in 1964's biographical account of the great Canadian internationalist Dr. Norman Bethune, and his life in China.