Erich von Stroheim
Encyclopedia
Erich von Stroheim was an Austria
n-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur
for his directorial work.
, Austria
in 1885 as Erich Oswald Stroheim, the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hat-maker, and Johanna Bondy, both of whom were practicing Jews
.
Stroheim emigrated to America at the end of 1909. On arrival at Ellis Island
he claimed to be Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall, the son of Austria
n nobility like the characters he played in his films, but both Billy Wilder
and Stroheim's agent Paul Kohner
claimed that he spoke with a decidedly lower-class Austrian accent. However Jean Renoir
writes in his memoirs: “Stroheim spoke hardly any German. He had to study his lines like a schoolboy learning a foreign language.” Later, while living in Europe, Stroheim claimed in published remarks to have "forgotten" his native tongue.
Stroheim was a great fantasist and his authorized biography contains many factual errors.
in which he was uncredited. His first credited role came in Old Heidelberg.
He began working with D. W. Griffith
, taking uncredited roles in Intolerance
. Additionally, Von Stroheim acted as one of the many assistant directors on Intolerance, a film remembered in part for its huge cast of extras. Later, he played the sneering German in such films as Sylvia of the Secret Service and The Hun Within. In The Heart of Humanity
, he tore the buttons from a nurse's uniform with his teeth, and when disturbed by a crying baby, threw it out of a window.
Following the end of World War I
, Stroheim turned to writing and then directed his own script for Blind Husbands
in 1919. He also starred in the film. As a director, Stroheim was known to be dictatorial and demanding, often antagonizing his actors. He is considered one of the greatest directors of the silent era, representing on film his by turns cynical and romantic views of human nature. (In the 1932 film The Lost Squadron
Stroheim played a parody of himself as a fanatic German film director making a World War I movie who orders extras playing dead soldiers to "Stay dead!")
His next directorial efforts were the lost film
The Devil's Pass Key
(1919) and Foolish Wives
(1922), in which he also starred. Studio publicity for Foolish Wives claimed that it was the first film to cost one million dollars.
In 1923, Stroheim began work on Merry-Go-Round. He cast the American actor Norman Kerry
in a part written for himself 'Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg' and newcomer Mary Philbin
in the lead actress role. However studio executive Irving Thalberg
fired Von Stroheim during filming and replaced him with director Rupert Julian
.
Probably Stroheim's best remembered work as a director is Greed
, a detailed filming of the novel McTeague
by Frank Norris
. He originally started it as a project with Samuel Goldwyn
's Goldwyn Pictures
. Stroheim had long wanted to do a film version of the book. He originally intended it to be a highly detailed reproduction of the original, shot mostly at the locations described in the book in San Francisco and Death Valley. The original print ran for an astonishing 10 hours. Knowing this version was far too long, Stroheim cut out almost half the footage, reducing it to a six-hour version to be shown over two nights. It was still deemed too long, so Stroheim and director Rex Ingram
edited it into a four-hour version that could be shown in two parts.
However, in the midst of filming, Goldwyn was bought by Marcus Loew
and merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
. After rejecting Stroheim's attempts to cut it to less than three hours, MGM removed Greed from his control and gave it to head scriptwriter June Mathis
, with orders to cut it down to a manageable length. Mathis gave the print to a routine cutter, who reduced it to 2.5 hours. In what is considered one of the greatest losses in cinema history, a janitor destroyed the cut footage.
The shortened release version was a box-office failure, and was angrily disowned by Stroheim. In particular, he blamed Mathis for destroying his pet project, since she was credited as a writer due to contractual obligations. However, Mathis had worked with Stroheim before and had long admired him, so it is not likely she would have indiscriminately butchered his film. The film was partially reconstructed in 1999 by Producer Rick Schmidlin, using the existing footage mixed with surviving still photographs, but Greed has passed into cinema lore as a lost masterpiece.
Stroheim followed with a commercial project, The Merry Widow
(his most commercially successful film) and the more personal The Wedding March and the now-lost The Honeymoon.
Stroheim's unwillingness or inability to modify his artistic principles for the commercial cinema, his extreme attention to detail, his insistence on near-total artistic freedom and the resulting costs of his films led to fights with the studios. As time went on he received fewer directing opportunities.
In 1929, Stroheim was dismissed as the director of the film Queen Kelly
after disagreements with star Gloria Swanson
and producer and financier Joseph P. Kennedy over the mounting costs of the film and Stroheim's introduction of indecent subject matter into the film's scenario.
After Queen Kelly and Walking Down Broadway
, a project from which Stroheim was also dismissed, Stroheim returned to working principally as an actor, in both American and French films. He appeared as a guest star in the 1953 anthology drama television series Orient Express
in the episode entitled The Man of Many Skins.
Working in France on the eve of World War II
, Stroheim was prepared to direct the film La dame blanche
from his own story and screenplay. Jean Renoir
wrote the dialogue, Jacques Becker
was to be assistant director and Stroheim himself, Louis Jouvet
and Jean-Louis Barrault
were to be the featured actors. Max Cossvan was to produce the film for Demo-Film. The production was prevented by the outbreak of the war on September 1, 1939, and Stroheim returned to the United States.
He is perhaps best known as an actor for his role as von Rauffenstein in Jean Renoir
's La Grande Illusion (1937) and as Max von Mayerling in Billy Wilder
's Sunset Boulevard (1950).
For the latter film, which co-starred Gloria Swanson, Stroheim was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
. Excerpts from Queen Kelly were used in the film. The Mayerling character states that he used to be one of the three great directors of the silent era, along with D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille
; many film critics agree that Stroheim was indeed one of the great early directors. Stroheim's character in Sunset Boulevard thus had an autobiographical basis that reflected the humiliations suffered through his career.
Stroheim was married three times. Though he was never divorced from his third wife Valerie Germonprez, he lived with actress Denise Vernac
, who had worked for him as his secretary since 1938, from 1939 until his death. Vernac also starred with him in several films. Two of Stroheim's sons eventually joined the film business: Erich Jr. (1916–1968)(with Mae Jones) as an assistant director and Josef (1922–2002)(with Valerie Germonprez) as a sound editor.
Stroheim spent the last part of his life in France where his silent film work was much admired by artists in the French film industry. In France he acted in films, wrote several novels that were published in French, and worked on various unrealized film projects. He was awarded the French
Légion d'honneur
shortly before his death in 1957 in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.
"If you live in France, for instance, and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or directed one outstanding film fifty years ago and nothing else since, you are still recognized and honored accordingly. People take their hats off to you and call you "maître". They do not forget. In Hollywood—in Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production within the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved ere this."
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n-born film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur
Auteur theory
In film criticism, auteur theory holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur"...
for his directorial work.
Background
Stroheim's most recent biographers, such as Richard Koszarski, say that he was born in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
in 1885 as Erich Oswald Stroheim, the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hat-maker, and Johanna Bondy, both of whom were practicing Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
.
Stroheim emigrated to America at the end of 1909. On arrival at Ellis Island
Ellis Island
Ellis Island in New York Harbor was the gateway for millions of immigrants to the United States. It was the nation's busiest immigrant inspection station from 1892 until 1954. The island was greatly expanded with landfill between 1892 and 1934. Before that, the much smaller original island was the...
he claimed to be Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall, the son of Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n nobility like the characters he played in his films, but both Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
and Stroheim's agent Paul Kohner
Paul Kohner
Paul Kohner . The native of Bohemia in Austria-Hungary came to Hollywood in 1920 after having been a news reporter in Prague...
claimed that he spoke with a decidedly lower-class Austrian accent. However Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
writes in his memoirs: “Stroheim spoke hardly any German. He had to study his lines like a schoolboy learning a foreign language.” Later, while living in Europe, Stroheim claimed in published remarks to have "forgotten" his native tongue.
Stroheim was a great fantasist and his authorized biography contains many factual errors.
Film career
By 1914 he was working in Hollywood. He began working in movies in bit-parts and as a consultant on German culture and fashion. His first film, in 1915, was The Country BoyThe Country Boy
The Country Boy: A Play in Three Acts is a play by Irish playwright, John Murphy . Himself a country boy and native of Charlestown, County Mayo) who emigrated to the United States of America, The Country Boy reflects on the social problems of emigration and rural life in the late 1950s.The Country...
in which he was uncredited. His first credited role came in Old Heidelberg.
He began working with D. W. Griffith
D. W. Griffith
David Llewelyn Wark Griffith was a premier pioneering American film director. He is best known as the director of the controversial and groundbreaking 1915 film The Birth of a Nation and the subsequent film Intolerance .Griffith's film The Birth of a Nation made pioneering use of advanced camera...
, taking uncredited roles in Intolerance
Intolerance (film)
Intolerance is a 1916 American silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and is considered one of the great masterpieces of the Silent Era. The three-and-a-half hour epic intercuts four parallel storylines each separated by several centuries: A contemporary melodrama of crime and redemption; a...
. Additionally, Von Stroheim acted as one of the many assistant directors on Intolerance, a film remembered in part for its huge cast of extras. Later, he played the sneering German in such films as Sylvia of the Secret Service and The Hun Within. In The Heart of Humanity
The Heart of Humanity
-External links:* at IMDb* at AllMovie**...
, he tore the buttons from a nurse's uniform with his teeth, and when disturbed by a crying baby, threw it out of a window.
Following the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Stroheim turned to writing and then directed his own script for Blind Husbands
Blind Husbands
Blind Husbands is a 1919 drama film directed by Erich von Stroheim. The film is an adaptation of the story The Pinnacle by Stroheim.-Cast:* Sam De Grasse as Doctor Robert Armstrong, the husband* Francelia Billington as Margaret Armstrong, the wife...
in 1919. He also starred in the film. As a director, Stroheim was known to be dictatorial and demanding, often antagonizing his actors. He is considered one of the greatest directors of the silent era, representing on film his by turns cynical and romantic views of human nature. (In the 1932 film The Lost Squadron
The Lost Squadron
The Lost Squadron is a action film starring Richard Dix, Mary Astor, and Robert Armstrong, with Erich von Stroheim and Joel McCrea, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is about three World War I pilots who find jobs after the war as Hollywood stunt fliers...
Stroheim played a parody of himself as a fanatic German film director making a World War I movie who orders extras playing dead soldiers to "Stay dead!")
His next directorial efforts were the lost film
Lost film
A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...
The Devil's Pass Key
The Devil's Pass Key (1920 film)
The Devil's Pass Key was a 1920 silent drama film directed by Erich von Stroheim.The film was produced by Universal Pictures and distributed under their Jewel banner...
(1919) and Foolish Wives
Foolish Wives
Foolish Wives is an American drama silent film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. Although uncredited, Irving Thalberg, aged 22, was in charge of production and would go on to become one of the most famous studio heads of all time at...
(1922), in which he also starred. Studio publicity for Foolish Wives claimed that it was the first film to cost one million dollars.
In 1923, Stroheim began work on Merry-Go-Round. He cast the American actor Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry
Norman Kerry was an American actor whose career spanned over twenty-five years in the motion picture industry beginning in the silent era at the end of World War I.-Biography:...
in a part written for himself 'Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg' and newcomer Mary Philbin
Mary Philbin
Mary Philbin was a notable film actress of the silent film era. Philbin is probably best remembered for playing the roles of Christine Daaé in the 1925 film The Phantom of the Opera opposite screen legend Lon Chaney and Dea in The Man Who Laughs...
in the lead actress role. However studio executive Irving Thalberg
Irving Thalberg
Irving Grant Thalberg was an American film producer during the early years of motion pictures. He was called "The Boy Wonder" for his youth and his extraordinary ability to select the right scripts, choose the right actors, gather the best production staff and make very profitable films.-Life and...
fired Von Stroheim during filming and replaced him with director Rupert Julian
Rupert Julian
Rupert Julian was the first New Zealand cinema actor, director, writer and producer.Born Thomas Percival Hayes in Whangaroa, New Zealand, Son of John Daly Hayes and Eliza Harriet Hayes...
.
Greed (film)
Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis....
, a detailed filming of the novel McTeague
McTeague
McTeague is a novel by Frank Norris, first published in 1899. It tells the story of a couple's courtship and marriage, and their subsequent descent into poverty, violence and finally murder as the result of jealousy and avarice...
by Frank Norris
Frank Norris
Benjamin Franklin Norris, Jr. was an American novelist, during the Progressive Era, writing predominantly in the naturalist genre. His notable works include McTeague , The Octopus: A Story of California , and The Pit .-Life:Frank Norris was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1870...
. He originally started it as a project with Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn
Samuel Goldwyn was an American film producer, and founding contributor executive of several motion picture studios.-Biography:...
's Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures
Goldwyn Pictures Corporation was an American motion picture production company founded in 1916 by Samuel Goldfish in partnership with Broadway producers Edgar and Archibald Selwyn using an amalgamation of both last names to create the name...
. Stroheim had long wanted to do a film version of the book. He originally intended it to be a highly detailed reproduction of the original, shot mostly at the locations described in the book in San Francisco and Death Valley. The original print ran for an astonishing 10 hours. Knowing this version was far too long, Stroheim cut out almost half the footage, reducing it to a six-hour version to be shown over two nights. It was still deemed too long, so Stroheim and director Rex Ingram
Rex Ingram (director)
Rex Ingram was an Irish film director, producer, writer and actor. Legendary director Erich von Stroheim once called him "the world's greatest director."-Early life:...
edited it into a four-hour version that could be shown in two parts.
However, in the midst of filming, Goldwyn was bought by Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew
Marcus Loew was an American business magnate and a pioneer of the motion picture industry who formed Loews Theatres and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .-Biography:...
and merged into Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is an American media company, involved primarily in the production and distribution of films and television programs. MGM was founded in 1924 when the entertainment entrepreneur Marcus Loew gained control of Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures Corporation and Louis B. Mayer...
. After rejecting Stroheim's attempts to cut it to less than three hours, MGM removed Greed from his control and gave it to head scriptwriter June Mathis
June Mathis
June Mathis was an American screenwriter and one of the highest paid Hollywood executives in the 1920s. Mathis was the first female executive for Metro/MGM and at only 35, she was the highest paid executive in Hollywood. In 1926 she was voted the third most influential woman in Hollywood, behind...
, with orders to cut it down to a manageable length. Mathis gave the print to a routine cutter, who reduced it to 2.5 hours. In what is considered one of the greatest losses in cinema history, a janitor destroyed the cut footage.
The shortened release version was a box-office failure, and was angrily disowned by Stroheim. In particular, he blamed Mathis for destroying his pet project, since she was credited as a writer due to contractual obligations. However, Mathis had worked with Stroheim before and had long admired him, so it is not likely she would have indiscriminately butchered his film. The film was partially reconstructed in 1999 by Producer Rick Schmidlin, using the existing footage mixed with surviving still photographs, but Greed has passed into cinema lore as a lost masterpiece.
Stroheim followed with a commercial project, The Merry Widow
The Merry Widow (1925 film)
The Merry Widow is a 1925 American silent MGM romantic drama film and black comedy directed and written by Erich von Stroheim. The film stars Mae Murray, John Gilbert and Roy D'Arcy. Joan Crawford and Clark Gable had uncredited roles in the film....
(his most commercially successful film) and the more personal The Wedding March and the now-lost The Honeymoon.
Stroheim's unwillingness or inability to modify his artistic principles for the commercial cinema, his extreme attention to detail, his insistence on near-total artistic freedom and the resulting costs of his films led to fights with the studios. As time went on he received fewer directing opportunities.
In 1929, Stroheim was dismissed as the director of the film Queen Kelly
Queen Kelly
Queen Kelly is the title of an American silent film produced in 1928-29 and released in 1929, originally by United Artists. The film was directed by Erich von Stroheim, starred Gloria Swanson in the title role, and also starred Walter Byron and Seena Owen. It was produced by Joseph P...
after disagreements with star Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
and producer and financier Joseph P. Kennedy over the mounting costs of the film and Stroheim's introduction of indecent subject matter into the film's scenario.
After Queen Kelly and Walking Down Broadway
Hello, Sister!
Hello, Sister! is a 1933 drama film directed by Alan Crosland, Erich von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, and Alfred L. Werker.-Cast:* James Dunn - Jimmy* Zasu Pitts - Millie* Boots Mallory - Peggy...
, a project from which Stroheim was also dismissed, Stroheim returned to working principally as an actor, in both American and French films. He appeared as a guest star in the 1953 anthology drama television series Orient Express
Orient Express (anthology)
Orient Express is a 1953 anthology drama television series filmed in Europe and syndicated in the United States. Each episode ties-in with a story connected to the famed railroad from which the series takes its name...
in the episode entitled The Man of Many Skins.
Working in France on the eve of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Stroheim was prepared to direct the film La dame blanche
La Dame blanche
La dame blanche is an opéra comique in three acts by the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu. The libretto was written by Eugène Scribe and is based on episodes from no less than five of the works by Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott, including his novels The Monastery, Guy Mannering, and The...
from his own story and screenplay. Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
wrote the dialogue, Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker
Jacques Becker was a French screenwriter and film director.Becker was born in Paris, in an upper class background. During the 1930s he worked as an assistant to director Jean Renoir during his peak period, which produced such cinematic masterpieces as Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game...
was to be assistant director and Stroheim himself, Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet
Louis Jouvet was a renowned French actor, director, and theatre director.- Life :Overcoming speech impediments and sometimes paralyzing stage fright as a young man, Jouvet's first important association was with Jacques Copeau's Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, beginning in 1913...
and Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault
Jean-Louis Barrault was a French actor, director and mime artist, training that served him well when he portrayed the 19th-century mime Jean-Gaspard Deburau in Marcel Carné's 1945 film Les Enfants du Paradis .Jean-Louis Barrault studied with Charles Dullin in whose troupe he acted...
were to be the featured actors. Max Cossvan was to produce the film for Demo-Film. The production was prevented by the outbreak of the war on September 1, 1939, and Stroheim returned to the United States.
He is perhaps best known as an actor for his role as von Rauffenstein in Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir
Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s...
's La Grande Illusion (1937) and as Max von Mayerling in Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder
Billy Wilder was an Austro-Hungarian born American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist, and journalist, whose career spanned more than 50 years and 60 films. He is regarded as one of the most brilliant and versatile filmmakers of Hollywood's golden age...
's Sunset Boulevard (1950).
For the latter film, which co-starred Gloria Swanson, Stroheim was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
. Excerpts from Queen Kelly were used in the film. The Mayerling character states that he used to be one of the three great directors of the silent era, along with D.W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
; many film critics agree that Stroheim was indeed one of the great early directors. Stroheim's character in Sunset Boulevard thus had an autobiographical basis that reflected the humiliations suffered through his career.
Stroheim was married three times. Though he was never divorced from his third wife Valerie Germonprez, he lived with actress Denise Vernac
Denise Vernac
Denise Vernac was a French film actress.-Career:She appeared in seventeen films between 1939 and 1966....
, who had worked for him as his secretary since 1938, from 1939 until his death. Vernac also starred with him in several films. Two of Stroheim's sons eventually joined the film business: Erich Jr. (1916–1968)(with Mae Jones) as an assistant director and Josef (1922–2002)(with Valerie Germonprez) as a sound editor.
Stroheim spent the last part of his life in France where his silent film work was much admired by artists in the French film industry. In France he acted in films, wrote several novels that were published in French, and worked on various unrealized film projects. He was awarded the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Légion d'honneur
Légion d'honneur
The Legion of Honour, or in full the National Order of the Legion of Honour is a French order established by Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul of the Consulat which succeeded to the First Republic, on 19 May 1802...
shortly before his death in 1957 in Maurepas, France at the age of 71.
Selected Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1918 | The Heart of Humanity The Heart of Humanity -External links:* at IMDb* at AllMovie**... |
Eric von Eberhard | |
| 1919 | Blind Husbands Blind Husbands Blind Husbands is a 1919 drama film directed by Erich von Stroheim. The film is an adaptation of the story The Pinnacle by Stroheim.-Cast:* Sam De Grasse as Doctor Robert Armstrong, the husband* Francelia Billington as Margaret Armstrong, the wife... |
Lieutenant Eric Von Steuben | Director and screenwriter and producer |
| 1920 | The Devil's Pass Key | Director and screenwriter | |
| 1922 | Foolish Wives Foolish Wives Foolish Wives is an American drama silent film produced and distributed by Universal Pictures and written and directed by Erich von Stroheim. Although uncredited, Irving Thalberg, aged 22, was in charge of production and would go on to become one of the most famous studio heads of all time at... |
Their Cousin, Count Wladislaw Sergius Karamzin (Russian Captain of Hussars) | Director and screenwriter |
| 1923 | Merry-Go-Round Merry-Go-Round (1923 film) Merry-Go-Round is a feature film by Erich von Stroheim and his replacement, Rupert Julian, starring Norman Kerry and Mary Philbin,and released by Universal Pictures.-Cast:*Norman Kerry - Count Franz Maxmilian Von Hohenegg... |
Director and screenwriter | |
| 1924 | Greed Greed (film) Greed is a 1924 American dramatic silent film. It was directed by Erich von Stroheim and starring Gibson Gowland, Zasu Pitts, Jean Hersholt, Dale Fuller, Tempe Pigott, Sylvia Ashton, Chester Conklin, Joan Standing and Jack Curtis.... |
Balloon vendor Uncredited | Director and screenwriter |
| 1925 | The Merry Widow The Merry Widow (1925 film) The Merry Widow is a 1925 American silent MGM romantic drama film and black comedy directed and written by Erich von Stroheim. The film stars Mae Murray, John Gilbert and Roy D'Arcy. Joan Crawford and Clark Gable had uncredited roles in the film.... |
Director and screenwriter and producer | |
| 1928 | The Wedding March | Nicki / Prince Nickolas von Wildeliebe-Rauffenburg | Director |
| 1928 | Tempest | screenwriter | |
| 1929 | Queen Kelly Queen Kelly Queen Kelly is the title of an American silent film produced in 1928-29 and released in 1929, originally by United Artists. The film was directed by Erich von Stroheim, starred Gloria Swanson in the title role, and also starred Walter Byron and Seena Owen. It was produced by Joseph P... |
Director and screenwriter and producer | |
| 1932 | The Lost Squadron The Lost Squadron The Lost Squadron is a action film starring Richard Dix, Mary Astor, and Robert Armstrong, with Erich von Stroheim and Joel McCrea, and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is about three World War I pilots who find jobs after the war as Hollywood stunt fliers... |
Arthur von Furst | |
| 1933 | Hello, Sister! Hello, Sister! Hello, Sister! is a 1933 drama film directed by Alan Crosland, Erich von Stroheim, Raoul Walsh, and Alfred L. Werker.-Cast:* James Dunn - Jimmy* Zasu Pitts - Millie* Boots Mallory - Peggy... |
Director and screenwriter | |
| 1936 | The Crime of Dr. Crespi The Crime of Dr. Crespi The Crime of Dr. Crespi is a horror film starring Erich von Stroheim, Harriet Russell, Paul Guilfoyle, Jean Brooks , John Bohn, and Dwight Frye, and released by Republic Pictures.... |
Dr. Andre Crespi | |
| 1936 | The Devil-Doll The Devil-Doll The Devil-Doll is a horror film directed by Tod Browning and starring a cross-dressing Lionel Barrymore and Maureen O'Sullivan as his daughter, Lorraine Levond... |
screenwriter | |
| 1936 | Mademoiselle Docteur | ||
| 1937 | La Grande Illusion | Captain von Rauffenstein, a German officer | |
| 1938 | Gibraltar Gibraltar (1938 film) Gibraltar is a 1938 French drama film directed by Fyodor Otsep and starring Viviane Romance, Roger Duchesne, Abel Jacquin and Erich von Stroheim.-Cast:* Viviane Romance - Mercedes* Roger Duchesne - Robert Jackson* Abel Jacquin - Frank Lloyd... |
Marson | |
| 1943 | Five Graves to Cairo Five Graves to Cairo Five Graves to Cairo is a 1943 World War II film by Billy Wilder, starring Franchot Tone and Anne Baxter. It is one of a number of films based on Lajos Biró's play Színmü négy felvonásban, including Hotel Imperial .-Plot:... |
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel | |
| 1943 | The North Star The North Star (1943 film) The North Star is a 1943 war film produced and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Lewis Milestone and written by Lillian Hellman. The film starred Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan and Erich von Stroheim... |
Dr. von Harden | |
| 1944 | The Lady and the Monster The Lady and the Monster The Lady and the Monster is a film based on the horror novel Donovan's Brain by Curt Siodmak.-Plot:The film is about the attempts to keep alive the brain of a multimillionaire after his death, only to create a telepathic monster... |
Prof. Franz Mueller | |
| 1945 | The Great Flamarion The Great Flamarion The Great Flamarion is a 1945 American black-and-white film noir directed by Anthony Mann. The film, like many films noir, is shot in flashback. The film was produced by Republic Pictures.-Synopsis:... |
The Great Flamarion | |
| 1946 | The Mask of Diijon The Mask of Diijon The Mask of Diijon is a 1946 black-and-white suspense film. The film, considered film noir, was directed by Lew Landers.- Plot :A tired magician gives up his act to study the power of the mind. His wife, once supportive, now is struggling to pay bills. She urges her stubborn and older husband to... |
Diijon | |
| 1950 | Sunset Boulevard Sunset Boulevard (film) Sunset Boulevard is a 1950 American film noir directed and co-written by Billy Wilder, and produced and co-written by Charles Brackett... |
Maximillian "Max" von Mayerling | |
| 1955 | Napoléon Napoléon (1955 film) Napoléon is a 1955 French historical epic film directed by Sacha Guitry that depicts major events in the life of Napoleon I of France.The film is notable for its use of location shooting for numerous scenes, especially at the French estates of Malmaison and Fontainebleau, the Palace of Versailles,... |
Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of... |
Quotes
"Lubitsch shows you first the king on the throne, then as he is in the bedroom. I show you the king in the bedroom so you'll know just what he is when you see him on his throne.""If you live in France, for instance, and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or directed one outstanding film fifty years ago and nothing else since, you are still recognized and honored accordingly. People take their hats off to you and call you "maître". They do not forget. In Hollywood—in Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production within the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved ere this."
