According to a 1943 Jewish Telegraphic Agency newspaper article, he "was a featured player of UFA in the palmy days before the Furore [Hitler]",[3] but after Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Zilzer fled to France, where he worked dubbing voices in several French versions of Hollywood productions.

After his emigration, he started to work with Ernst Lubitsch in several anti-Nazi movies, using pseudonyms[3] to protect his father, who was still living in Berlin.

The Internet Broadway Database lists a single credit for a Wolfgang Zilzer, in the 1943 play The Barber Had Two Sons.

Zilzer played the man without a passport who is shot by French policemen at the beginning of the film.

After World War II, Zilzer performed on stage in the United States and in Germany.