Paal Rocky

Paal Roschberg (born February 27, 1909, died March 21, 1955), also known by the stage name Paal Rocky, was a Norwegian dancer, film actor, and writer. He and his identical twin brother, Leif, were born in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, to an army colonel. After studying ballet and dance under Per Aabel, the brothers rose to international stardom during the Jazz Age as the dance duo The Rocky Twins. Celebrated for their androgynous beauty, lavish costumes, and synchronized choreography, including a legendary drag impersonation of the Dolly Sisters, they became symbols of the era's boundary-pushing glamour across Europe and America between 1927 and 1937. During their peak years, they shared the stage with legendary music hall stars such as Mistinguett and Josephine Baker.The twins made their Hollywood film debut in the Marion Davies comedy Blondie of the Follies (1932) at MGM. Before the outbreak of World War II, Paal also appeared in the German musical film The Stars Shine (Es leuchten die Sterne, 1938). During the war, Paal served in military aviation, training at the "Little Norway" camp in Canada before serving in both the Norwegian and U.S. Army Air Forces as a translator and propagandist in London and Frankfurt.In the 1950s, Paal returned to Norway and transitioned into writing, publishing a childhood memoir and developing several screenplays. He also returned to the screen as a character actor under his stage name Paal Rocky, securing bit parts in notable Norwegian films including Det kunne vært deg (1952), Brudebuketten (1953), and Troll i ord (1954). He died in New York in 1955 at the age of 46. Both Paal and his brother Leif (who passed away in 1967) are buried in Oslo