Lionel Royce (born Leon Moriz Reiss; March 30, 1891 – April 1, 1946) was an Austrian-American actor of stage and screen, also known during his European career as Leo Reuss.

Fleeing the Nazis he returned to Austria in 1936, where to hide his heritage, he created the persona of Kaspar Brandhofer, a Tyrolian peasant, and became a sensation as a natural actor on the stage in Vienna.

At the outbreak of World War I, he volunteered for the Austro-Hungarian Army and served in the Infanterie-Regiment Hoch- und Deutschmeister Nr.

[2] To further hide his identity, he bleached all of his hair, head and body, by bathing every ten days in diluted hydrogen peroxide.

[2] His performance was hailed as a great success, and Brandhofer was touted as a potential star, with one paper calling him "the sensation of the evening.

"[4] Other accolades came in naming him "the humble peasant of the Austrian Alps, the finest natural actor of his generation," while the Nazis lauded him for his "Aryan" roles.

[4] The resulting uproar of his fraud caused him once again to have to relocate,[2] this time to the United States, where he had been given a contract by MGM, after Louis B. Mayer had seen his performance in Vienna.

[3] Forced to flee Austria in 1937, Reuss changed his name again, this time to Lionel Royce, and immigrated to the United States.

He began his American film career in 1938, with a small role in the epic, Marie Antoinette, starring Tyrone Power and Norma Shearer.

[13] Outside of film, in 1939 Royce joined the Continental Players, a theater group made up of refugees from the Nazi regime in Europe.

The brainchild of William Dieterle, it was funded by him and Harry Warner, with the famed German director Leopold Jessner taking the directing helm.

They had been instructed by their leaders in Berlin to offer Royce "honorary Aryan" status, if he would return to Germany and take over control of UFA.

[17] His role as the German interrogator Herr Deckart in the wartime drama, The Man I Married, starring Joan Bennett and Francis Lederer, received positive reviews.

[19] He closed out the year in the featured role of Colonel Zimmerman in the action film, The Son of Monte Cristo, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, and George Sanders.