Erich von Stroheim

Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born

Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12,
Erich von Stroheim
1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and
producer, most noted as a film star and avant-garde,
visionary director of the silent era. His masterpiece
adaptation of Frank Norris's McTeague titled Greed is
considered one of the finest and most important films ever
made. After clashes with Hollywood studio bosses over
budget and workers' rights issues, Stroheim was banned for
life as a director and subsequently became a well-respected
character actor, particularly in French cinema. For his early
innovations as a director, Stroheim is still celebrated as one
of the first of the auteur directors.[1] He helped introduce
more sophisticated plots and noirish sexual and
psychological undercurrents into cinema.[2] He died of
prostate cancer in France in 1957, at the age of 71. Beloved
by Parisian neo-Surrealists known as Letterists, he was
honored by Letterist Maurice Lemaître with a 70-minute
1979 film titled Erich von Stroheim.
Stroheim, c. 1920
Born Erich Oswald Stroheim
Contents September 22, 1885
Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Background and personal life
Died May 12, 1957 (aged 71)
Film career Maurepas, Seine-et-Oise,
Filmography France
Quotes Occupation Actor, director, screenwriter,
See also producer

References Years active 1914–1955

External links Height 1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)

Spouse(s) Margaret Knox
(m. 1913; div. 1915)
Background and personal life Mae Jones
(m. 1916; div. 1919)
Stroheim was born in Vienna, Austria in 1885 as Erich Valerie Germonprez (m. 1920)
Oswald Stroheim (some sources give Hans Erich Maria Denise Vernac (never officially
Stroheim von Nordenwall,[3][4] but this seems to have been married)
an assumed name, see below), the son of Benno Stroheim, a
middle-class hatmaker, and Johanna Bondy, both of whom
were observant Jews.[5]
Stroheim emigrated to America aboard the SS Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm[2] on November 26, 1909.[6][7] On
arrival at Ellis Island, he claimed to be Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall,
the son of Austrian nobility like the characters he would go on to play in his films. However, he first found
work as a traveling salesman – work which took him to San Francisco and then Hollywood.[2]

Both Billy Wilder and Stroheim's agent Paul Kohner claimed that he spoke with a decidedly lower-class
Austrian accent. His years in America seem to have affected his speech, though. In The Great Gabbo,
Stroheim's German, though fluid, has Midwestern American r's. Later, while living in Europe, Stroheim
claimed in published remarks to have "forgotten" his native tongue. In Renoir's movie La Grande Illusion,
Stroheim speaks German with what seems to be an American accent. Similarly, in his French-speaking roles,
von Stroheim speaks with a noticeable American accent. Jean Renoir writes in his memoirs: "Stroheim spoke
hardly any German. He had to study his lines like a schoolboy learning a foreign language."[8]

However, the fashion photographer Helmut Newton, whose first language was German, used a clip from a
Stroheim film on which to base one of his fantasy nude photographs, and he has commented that in the clip
Stroheim speaks "a very special kind of Prussian officer lingo – it's very abrupt: it's very, very funny".[9]

Stroheim was married three times. He was married to Margaret Knox from 1913 to 1915; His second marriage
was to Mae Jones from 1916 to 1919. He was never divorced from his third wife Valerie Germonprez, though
he lived with actress Denise Vernac, 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) as an assistant director[10]
and Josef (1922–2002) as a sound editor.[11]

After appearing in 1950's Sunset Boulevard, Stroheim moved to France where he spent the last part of his life.
There 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 Legion of Honour shortly before his death.

In 1956, Stroheim began to suffer severe back pain that was diagnosed as prostate cancer. He eventually
became paralyzed and was carried to his drawing room to receive the Legion of Honor award from an official
delegation. He died at his chateau in Maurepas near Paris on May 12, 1957, at age 71, accompanied by his
longtime lover Denise Vernac.

Film career
By 1914, he was working in Hollywood. He began working in movies as a stuntman,[2] and then in bit-parts
and as a consultant on German culture and fashion. His first film, in 1915, was The Country Boy, in which he
was uncredited. His first credited role came in Old Heidelberg.

He began working with D. W. Griffith, taking an uncredited role as a Pharisee in Intolerance. Additionally,
Stroheim acted as one of the many assistant directors on Intolerance, a film remembered in part for its huge
cast of extras. Later, with America's entry into World War I, he played sneering German villains in such films
as Sylvia of the Secret Service and The Hun Within. In The Heart of Humanity, he tears the buttons from a
nurse's uniform with his teeth, and when disturbed by a crying baby, throws it out of a window.

Following the end of the war, 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, creating films that
represent 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!") Recurring tropes in his films include the portrayal of janitors, and the depiction
of characters with physical disabilities.[2]
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 $1 million.

In 1923, Stroheim began work on Merry-Go-Round. He cast the American actor Norman Kerry as Count
Franz Maximilian von Hohenegg, a part written for himself, and newcomer Mary Philbin in the lead actress
role. However studio executive Irving Thalberg fired Stroheim during filming[2] 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. Von
Stroheim shot in San Francisco with his actors in period dress
and silent movie makeup while the city itself was represented in
its modern form. Automobiles can be seen in the background of Stroheim as Sergius Karamzin in Foolish
some scenes and any "extras" or passersby are in (what was for Wives, 1922
the time) modern clothing. When the production did move to
Death Valley it was in the middle of summer. Greed is also
considered by some film historians to be the first feature-length film shot on location. The original print ran for
an astonishing 10 hours. Knowing this version was far too long, Stroheim cut almost half the footage, reducing
it to a six-hour version to be shown over two nights. It still was 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 Pictures 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 to a manageable length.[12]
Mathis gave the print to a cutter, who reduced it to 2.5 hours.[13] 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.[14] However, Mathis had worked
with Stroheim before and had long admired him, so it is not likely she would have indiscriminately butchered
his film.[15] The film was partially reconstructed in 1999 by producer Rick Schmidlin, using the existing
footage mixed with surviving still photographs, but the original cut of 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.

His stern nature, as well as some of his villainous roles, earned him the nickname "the man you love to
hate".[16][17]
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.[18]

Stroheim is perhaps best known as an actor for his role as

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 costarred Gloria Swanson, Stroheim was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Excerpts from Queen Kelly were used in the film. The Mayerling Stroheim also performed on stage.
character states that he used to be one of the three great directors of Here he portrays Jonathan Brewster
the silent era, along with D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille; many in the 1941–1943 Broadway
film critics agree that Stroheim was indeed one of the great early production of Arsenic and Old Lace.
directors. Stroheim's character in Sunset Boulevard thus had an He assumed that role from Boris
Karloff, who was in the play's original
autobiographical basis that reflected the humiliations suffered through
cast.
his career.

He appeared as a guest star in the 1953 anthology drama television

series Orient Express in the episode titled The Man of Many Skins.[19]

Filmography
Year Title Role Notes
Man in straw hat
An Unseen Director: D. W. Griffith. Co-stars: Lillian Gish and Dorothy Gish. Short
1912 dancing by desk
Enemy Film. Extant.
in lobby
1915 The Failure Minor Role Uncredited
1915 Ghosts Minor Role Uncredited
Lutz: Prince
Old Karl's valet; film Director: John Emerson. Co-stars: Wallace Reid and Dorothy Gish.
1915
Heidelberg about university Extant.
life
Anti-vegetarian
silent comedy set
in NYC, von
His Picture in Stroheim plays Director: John Emerson. Co-written by Anita Loos. Starring Douglas
1916
the Papers an eye-patch- Fairbanks. Extant.
wearing gang
member of the
"Weazels"
The Flying Accomplice—a Directors: John B. O'Brien & Christy Cabanne. Futuristic: Set in 1921.
1916
Torpedo German officer Lost.
1916 Macbeth Uncredited
1916 Intolerance Second Pharisee Uncredited
The Buzzard: a
Director: John Emerson. Uncredited Second Director: von Stroheim.
nosy NYC
The Social Producer: D. W. Griffith. Screenplay: John Emerson and Anita Loos.
1916 newspaper
Secretary Starring: Norma Talmadge. Set in NYC. U.S. production. Romantic
reporter (featured
Comedy. Extant.
role)
Lieutenant of
1917 Panthea
Police
In Again, Out
1917 Officer Uncredited
Again
1917 For France Minor Role Uncredited
1917 Draft 258
Reaching for Prince Badinoff's
1917 Uncredited
the Moon Aide
Sylvia of the
1917 Secret Minor Role Also Assistant director
Service
Who Goes
1917
There?
The Lt. Kurt von Director: Alan Crosland. Propaganda and war film. Set in the trenches
1918
Unbeliever Schnieditz during World War I. Extant.
Hearts of the
1918 A Hun
World
The Hun
1918 Von Bickel
Within
Eric von Eberhard Director: Alan Holubar. War and Propaganda film. Follows the story of a
The Heart of
1918 - a lecherous U.S. Red Cross nurse stationed in Belgium and France during World
Humanity
"Hun" War I. Extant.
1919 Blind Lieutenant Eric Director, screenwriter, producer, and star: von Stroheim. Set in the
Husbands Von Steuben Austrian Alps. Extant.
 The Devil's
1920 Director and screenwriter: von Stroheim. Set in Paris. Extant.
Pass Key
Count Wladislaw
Sergius Karamzin
(Russian Captain
Foolish Director, screenwriter, and star: von Stroheim. Set in Monaco. Comedy.
1922 of Hussars): false
Wives Extant.
Russian
nobleman and
con artist
Director and screenwriter: von Stroheim. Set in pre-World War I Vienna.
Merry-Go-
1923 A disguised nobleman falls in love with a circus puppeteer's daughter.
Round
Extant.
Souls for
1923 Himself
Sale
Director and screenplay adaptation: von Stroheim. Based on Frank
Norris's 1899 novel McTeague. Starring von Stroheim muse ZaSu Pitts.
Balloon vendor -
1924 Greed Considered one of the cinema's more important films. At 8 hours, it is
uncredited
one of the longest feature films in cinematic history. Much of the film is
lost.
The Merry Director, screenwriter, and producer: von Stroheim. Starring Mae
1925
Widow Murray. Small roles: Joan Crawford and Clark Gable. Extant.
Nicki / Prince
Nickolas von
The Wedding Director and star: von Stroheim. Co-stars: Fay Wray and ZaSu Pitts.
1928 Wildeliebe-
March Set in Vienna. Extant.
Rauffenburg. Co-
starring role.
Director: Sam Taylor. Co-writer: von Stroheim. Starring John Barrymore
as a peasant Russian army officer who falls in love with a Russian
1928 Tempest princess in Czarist Russia. Von Stroheim was supposed to star in and
direct this film but was taken off the project and replaced by Sam
Taylor. Drama. Extant.
The Great Gabbo
Director: James Cruze. Screenplay source: Ben Hecht's short story
The Great - a U.S. based
1929 "The Rival Dummy". Von Stroheim's "talkie" debut. Drama and Musical.
Gabbo ventriloquist.
Extant
Starring role.
Valdar / Shiller /
Blecher: London
butler who is Director: Roy Del Ruth. Score: Paul Lamkoff. Co-Star: Constance
Three Faces
1930 actually a Bennett. Set in London during World War I. U.S. production. War
East
powerful German drama. Extant.
spy. Co-starring
role.
Director, writer, and star: von Stroheim. Sequel to The Wedding March.
The
1931 Nikki Only known copy of it was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s. The film is
Honeymoon
lost.
Victor Sangrito: a
Director: Victor Schertzinger. Adapted from a novel by: Maurice
cruel,
Dekobra. Score: Victor Schertzinger and Max Steiner. Costumes: Max
Friends and blackmailing
1931 Ree. Art Production: Max Ree. Co-starring: Adolphe Menjou, Lili
Lovers husband and rare
Damita, Laurence Olivier. Set in Calcutta amid the British Raj. U.S.
porcelain dealer.
production. Drama. Extant.
Featured role.
1932 Queen Kelly Director, screenwriter, co-producer: von Stroheim. Joseph P. Kennedy
Sr. and Gloria Swanson hired von Stroheim to write and direct this
Swanson vehicle in 1928-1929. Silent film. A German prince falls in
love with an orphan who inherits an African brothel. It is the film snippet
that plays during the home movie scene in Billy Wilder's Sunset Blvd..
Never released in the U.S. Incomplete.
 Directors: George Archainbaud and Paul Sloane. Co-stars: Mary Astor
and Joel McCrea. Three World War I flying aces find work in Hollywood
Arthur von Furst: as film stunt pilots post-war. Likely based to some extent on the tragic
dictatorial death of Mary Astor's newly wed husband and Howard Hawks's brother
The Lost
1932 Hollywood film Kenneth Hawks. Astor and Kenneth Hawks had been married only two
Squadron
director. Co- years and were living on Appian Way in Laurel Canyon (in a house later
starring role. owned by Ida Lupino) when Kenneth, directing a film about World War I
flying aces, crashed into the waves in Santa Monica, California when a
stunt plane and his film-crew plane collided mid-air. Drama. Extant.
Carl Salter: Director: George Fitzmaurice. Costumes: Adrian. Based on a story by
alcoholic Luigi Pirandello. Also starring Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. An
As You
1932 Budapest-based Italian countess with amnesia post-World War I lives in Budapest with
Desire Me
novelist. Co- her cruel lover (von Stroheim) and then reunites with her husband
starring role. (Melvyn Douglas). U.S. production. Drama. Extant.
Director and screenwriter: von Stroheim. Working title: "Walking Down
Broadway." Starring ZaSu Pitts. A casual pick-up on Broadway leads to
1933 Hello, Sister! an unplanned pregnancy. Von Stroheim's final official directorial effort
(he may have co-directed Fugitive Road in 1934). U.S. production.
Drama. Extant.
Hauptmann
Oswald von
Traunsee:
Austrian military
Directors: Frank R. Strayer and possibly von Stroheim. Screenplay co-
1934 Fugitive Road officer in charge
writer: possibly von Stroheim. U.S. production. War comedy. Extant.
of a border
outpost during
World War I.
Starring role.
Captain Wolters: Director: David Howard. A German-American leaves the U.S. and joins
World War I the German air force, driven out by anti-German hysteria. His best
Crimson
1934 German airforce friend accompanies him and also joins the air force. They both fall in
Romance
officer. Featured love with the same woman, an ambulance driver. Von Stroheim is a
role. supporting player. Low-budget. War drama. Extant.
Dr. Andre Crespi:
invents a serum
The Crime of that allows him to Director: John H. Auer. Based on Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The
1936
Dr. Crespi bury his victims Premature Burial". U.S. production. Low budget. Horror. Extant.
alive. Starring
role.
Director: Tod Browning. Co-Screenplay adaptation: von Stroheim.
Adapted from Abraham Merritt's 1932 novel Burn Witch Burn!. Score:
Franz Waxman. Set in Paris and French penal colony of Cayenne in
The Devil-
1936 French Guiana, known as Ile du Diable or Devil's Island. Co-starring
Doll
Maureen O'Sullivan and Lionel Barrymore. Wrongly accused banker
escapes prison and returns to Paris to wreck revenge through shrunken
humans. This will be Browning's second-to-last film. Horror. Extant.
Original Story: Erich von Stroheim Director: George B. Seitz. Film's
Between Two theme of a female burn victim echoes the actual experience in 1933 of
1937
Women von Stroheim's wife Valerie who was burned in a Hollywood (shop
located on Sunset Boulevard) beauty parlor explosion. Extant.
Baron Erich von
Ludow: World
War I naval
Director: Raymond Bernard. Based on French prostitute, spy, and
attache and
politician Marthe Richard. Von Stroheim's character based on German
Marthe spymaster who
1937 officer and naval attache Hans von Krohn/Crohn. Set in Germany,
Richard commits suicide
France, and Spain during and pre-World War I. French production. War
over romantic and
drama and biopic. Extant.
national
betrayals. Co-
starring role.
1937 La Grande Captain von Director: Jean Renoir. Co-starring Dita Parlo and Jean Gabin. The
Illusion Rauffenstein: cultural importance of this film cannot be overstated. Nominated for an
commander of a Academy Award. Set during World War I. French production. War
POW drama. Extant.
camp/castle.
Featured role.
Col. W.
Under Secret Mathesius / Director: Edmond T. Greville. Co-starring: Dita Parlo and Claire Luce.
Orders a.k.a. Simonis: German Set in London during World War I. Based on a Pabst film. Remade by
1937
Mademoiselle officer, spy, and Sam Wood as Stamboul Quest and Alberto Lattuarda as Fraulein
Docteur spy recruiter. Co- Docteur. British production. War drama. Extant.
starring role.
le professeur
Winckler: a
Parisian nightclub
Director: Pierre Chenal. Co-starring: Albert Prejean and Louis Jouvet.
1937 The Alibi hypnotist,
Set in Paris. Low budget. French production. Murder mystery. Extant.
conman, and
murderer. Starring
role.
Les Pirates
1938 Tchou King
du rail
The Lafarge
1938 Denis
Case
Walter: eerie
Boys' School English language Director: Christian-Jaque. Adapted from a novel of the same title by
a.k.a. Les teacher at Pierre Véry. Some dialogue by: Jacques Prévert. Co-starring: Charles
1938
disparus de Parisian boarding Aznavour and Serge Reggiani. French production. Murder mystery.
St. Agil. school. Featured Extant.
role.
Directors: Robert Wiene and Robert Siodmak. Co-starring: Dita Parlo.
Adapted from novel by Ewald Bertram Days Before the Storm.
Historical film depicting the July Crisis in Serbia and the events leading
Yugoslavian
to World War I. In exile from Nazi Germany, director Robert Wiene,
General and
1938 Ultimatum famous for his silent films including The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
Prime Minister
and Raskolnkikow (1923) died from a heart attack and the effects of
Dušan Simović.
cancer while making this film. His friend director Robert Siodmak took
over production. French production. War drama/Historical drama.
Extant.
Marson:
supposed
hairdresser who
is actually a Director: Fedor Ozep/ Fyodor Otsep. Co-star: Viviane Romance as a
1938 Gibraltar
terrorist blowing flamenco dancer. French production. War drama. Extant.
up UK battleships
in Gibraltar. Co-
starring role.
Eric: card sharp
cheating with his
business
partner's
Directors: Georges Lacombe and Yves Mirande. Also featured: Michel
Behind the American
1939 Simon and Lucien Baroux. Ensemble cast featured in vignettes. Comic
Facade fiancée. Both
murder mystery. French production. Extant.
recently
naturalized
French citizens.
Cameo.
Le monde Emil Lasser /
1939
tremblera Monsieur Frank
1939 Immediate Captain Stanley
 Call Wells
Personal
Column in Pears: Parisian Director:Robert Siodmak. Co-starring: Maurice Chevalier and Pierre
1939 France fashion designer. Renoir. Remade in 1947 by Douglas Sirk as Lured starring Lucille Ball.
known as Featured role. French production. Murder mystery. Extant.
Pieges
Le professeur
1940 Menaces
Hoffman
1940 Tempête Korlick
Andre
Desormeaux: Director: Gregory Ratoff. Score: David Buttolph. Co-stars: Peter Lorre
I Was an
1940 international jewel and Vera Zorina. Set in Europe and Paris. Caper comedy. U.S
Adventuress
thief. Co-starring (Twentieth Century Fox) production. Extant.
role.
Brenner: Nazi SS
officer tries to
tempt escaped Director: John Cromwell. Adapted from a novel by Erich Maria
So Ends Our
1941 concentration Remarque. Co-starring: Fredric March, Margaret Sullavan, and Glenn
Night
camp refugee into Ford. U.S. production. War drama. Extant.
naming names.
Featured role.
Werner von Krall:
Director: Jean Delannoy. France's Vichy government insisted Delannoy
international arms
Macao, and producer Andre Paulve delete all of von Stroheim's scenes and
1942 smuggler and
l'enfer du jeu replace him with actor Pierre Renoir. In 1945, von Stroheim's role was
dealer. Co-
restored in the film. French production. Extant.
starring role.
Director: Billy Wilder. Screenplay: Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett.
Field Marshal Score: Miklós Rózsa. Cinematography: John F. Seitz. Costumes: Edith
Five Graves
1943 Erwin Rommel. Head. Co-starring: Franchot Tone, Anne Baxter, and Akim Tamiroff.
to Cairo
Co-starring role. Semi-comic approach to the material. Filmed in the Mojave and Yuma
Arizona deserts. U.S. production. War drama and historical film. Extant.
Dr. von Harden:
Nazi doctor who
Director: Lewis Milestone. Original story and screenplay: Lillian
drains blood from
Hellman. Cinematography: James Wong Howe. Score: Aaron Copland.
The North Ukrainian village
1943 Co-stars: Anne Baxter, Dana Andrews, Walter Huston, Walter Brennan,
Star children to infuse
Jane Withers, Farley Granger, Dean Jagger. U.S. production. War
into German
drama/propaganda. Extant.
soldiers. Featured
role.
Prof. Franz
Mueller:
experimental Director: George Sherman. Adapted from Curt Siodmak's novel
The Lady and scientist who Donovan's Brain. Co-star: Vera Ralston. Cinematography: John Alton.
1944
the Monster keeps a dead Gothic castle in the Arizona desert. Remade in 1953 as Donovan's
miser's brain Brain. U.S. production. Low budget. Horror film. Extant.
alive. Starring
role.
Deresco: spy for
Japan who owns
Storm Over a Lisbon Director: George Sherman. Cinematography: John Alton. Co-star: Vera
1944
Lisbon nightclub as a Ralston. U.S. production. Low budget. War drama. Extant.
front. Co-starring
role.
1945 The Great The Great Director: Anthony Mann. Score: Alexander Laszlo. Co-starring: Mary
Flamarion Flamarion: ex- Beth Hughes and Dan Duryea. Set in Mwxico City, Philadelphia, San
World War I Francisco, and Los Angeles. Anthony Mann's seventh film. Von
German army Stroheim's first film noir. U.S. production. Low budget. Film Noir.
officer working as Extant.
 a sharp shooter in
the U.S.
vaudeville circuit.
Starring role.
Carl Hoffmeyer:
infamous German
art collector
Scotland
determined to Director: George Blair. Set in Paris and London. U.S. production. Low
1945 Yard
steal the Mona budget. War drama. Extant.
Investigator
Lisa at outbreak
of World War 2.
Starring role.
Diijon: famous
hypnotist
attempts a
The Mask of
1946 comeback in the Director: George Blair. U.S. production. Low budget. Film noir. Extant.
Diijon
U.S. nightclub
circuit. Starring
role.
On ne meurt
1946 pas comme Eric von Berg
ça
Frank Davis:
lonely, facially
Devil and the
disfigured master-
Angel. Director: Pierre Chenal. Co-star: Madeleine Sologne. A much
engraver for a
1946 French title: underrated work of French poetic realism. French production. Film noir.
bank who falls in
La Foire aux Extant.
love with a blind
Chimeres.
circus performer.
Starring role.
Edgar: a bitter,
fallen prison
Director: Marcel Cravenne. Co-starring: Denise Vernac, von Stroheim's
warden in charge
Danse de wife. Some claim this role and Frank Davis in Devil and Angel are
1946 of a sunless,
Mort among von Stroheim's finest performances. Adapted from an August
island fortress.
Strindberg play.
Starring role.
Extant.
Le docteur
Mathias Berthold:
a widower whose
wife was killed in
a train accident
Le Signal sleep walks and Director: Ernst Neubach. Co-starring von Stroheim's wife Denise
1949
rouge sabotages train Vernac.
tracks until he is
cured by
Viennese
psychiatrists.
Starring role.
Eric: former
circus
acrobat/trick
motorcycle rider Director: Bernard Roland. Co-starring: Maria Montez and Arletty. Von
Portrait of an
1949 forced to retire Stroheim's role was originally written for Orson Welles who was sued for
Assassin
due to severe not performing in this film. French production. Film noir. Extant.
work-related
injuries. Starring
role.
1950 Sunset Max von Director: Billy Wilder. Screenplay: Wilder and Charles Brackett. Co-
Boulevard Mayerling: ex- starring: William Holden and Gloria Swanson. Film nominated for many
 Hollywood silent Academy Awards. Von Stroheim nominated for Academy Award for
film director now Best Supporting Actor. Set in Hollywood, California. Often on top-ten
working as a lists of greatest noirs or greatest films. U.S. production. Film noir.
butler for his ex- Extant.
wife and ex-silent
film star Norma
Desmond.
Featured role.
Professor Jacob
ten Brinken:
experimental
Director: Arthur Maria Rabenalt. Co-star: Hildegard Knef. Based on
genetic scientist
novel of the same name by Hanns Heinz Ewers and Henrik Galeen's
who creates the
1952 Alraune 1928 silent film of the same title starring Brigitte Helm. Galeen's film is
"perfect" yet
known by other titles including Mandrake, Unholy Love, and Daughter of
soulless woman
Destiny. West German production. Horror. Extant.
through artificial
insemination.
Starring role.
Professeur
Midnight . . .
Kieffer: a
Quai de
religious fanatic
Bercy a.k.a. Director: Christian Stengel. A whodunit. A Parisian landlady is murdered
1953 who distributes
Minuit . . . and there are many suspects.
pamphlets to
Quai de
strip-club patrons.
Bercy
Cameo.
The Other
William O'Hara:
Side of
an eccentric sea
Paradise Director: Edmond T. Greville. Score: Paul Mistaki. Set in Segnac,
1953 captain living in a
a.k.a. Provence. Black and white. French production. Drama. Extant.
southern French
L'envers du
village. Cameo.
Paradis
Alarm in
Conrad Nagel. Director: Jean-Devaivre. Set in French Morocco. Two members of the
Morocco
1953 Co-starring role Foreign Legion uncover a nuclear weapon test site. Von Stroheim's first
a.k.a. Alerte
(?). color film. French-Italian production. Adventure film. Extant.
au Sud
The
Infiltrator. Sacha Zavaroff: a
1955 Original Russian mob Director: Pierre Foucaud. Corsican gangsters.
French title: boss. Cameo.
Serie noire
Ludwig van Director/co-star: Sacha Guitry. Both von Stroheim and Orson Welles
1955 Napoléon Beethoven. have minor, featured roles in the film. Color. Franco-Italian production.
Cameo. Historical epic. Extant.
Doctor Siegfried
Madonna of Traurig: a Director: Henri Diamant-Berger. Adaptation from 1925 novel of same
the Sleeping German title by Maurice Dekobra and 1928 silent film, also with the same title.
1955 Cars a.k.a. psychiatrist on Co-starring: Jean Gaven. Von Stroheim's final film. Black and white.
La madone the Orient French production. Spy thriller comedy. Extant.
des sleepings Express. (final film role)
Featured role.

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."[20]
"If you live in France, for instance, and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or
directed one outstanding film 50 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."[21]

See also
List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees

References
1. Obituary Variety, May 15, 1957, page 75.
2. Sullivan, Chris (February 2019). "Erich Von Stroheim". Chap. Spring 2019: 23–27.
3. Das Bertelsmann Lexikon. C. Bertelsmann. 1966.
4. Joseph Francis Clarke (1977). Pseudonyms. BCA. p. 168.
5. Koszarski, Richard. Von: The Life and Films of Erich von Stroheim. New York: Limelight
Editions, 2001. p. 4.
6. Passenger list. "Ancestry. com" (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/nypl/?name=Eric
h_Stroheim&birth=1885&arrival=1909-11-26&arrival_x=0-0-0&birth_x=0-0-0&name_x=1_1&pc
at=img_passlists).
7. Koszarski, op. cit. p. 3.
8. Renoir, Jean. Ma Vie et mes films (Flammarion, 1974) p.150. Renoir writes of the filming of La
Grande Illusion: "An amusing detail was that Stroheim barely spoke German. He had to study
his lines like a schoolboy learns a text in a foreign language. In the eyes of the whole world, he
remains nevertheless the perfect example of the German soldier. His genius triumphs over the
literal copy of reality."
9. 1:30:30 - 1:32:00 Frames From the Edge - Helmut Newton (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
Tiu5e8rrv-w)
10. Erich von Stroheim Jr. (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002232/) on IMDb
11. Josef von Stroheim (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0903067/) on IMDb
12. Unterburger, Amy L.; Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1999). The St. James Women Filmmakers
Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera (https://archive.org/details/stjameswom
enfilm0000unse/page/270). Visible Ink Press. pp. 270 (https://archive.org/details/stjameswome
nfilm0000unse/page/270). ISBN 1-57859-092-2.
13. Koszarski, Richard (1983). The Man You loved to Hate: Erich von Stroheim and Hollywood.
Oxford University Press. pp. 144–145. ISBN 0-19-503239-X.
14. Ward Mahar, Karen (2006). Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood (https://archive.org/details/
womenfilmmakersi0000maha). JHU Press. pp. 200 (https://archive.org/details/womenfilmmaker
si0000maha/page/200). ISBN 0-8018-8436-5.
15. Slater, Thomas J. Moving the Margins to the Mainstream: June Mathis's Work in American
Silent Film (http://ijh.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.26/prod.755). International Journal of the
Humanities, 2007.
16. Crouse, Richard (December 15, 2010). Son of the 100 Best Movies You've Never Seen (https://
books.google.com/books?id=B5alnowvF3sC&pg=PT91). ECW Press. pp. 91–. ISBN 978-1-
55490-330-6.
17. Lewis, Lloyd (June 22, 1941). "The Man You Love to Hate: Erich von Stroheim of the movies
now is a vicious brewster of Chicago's 'Arsenic and Old Lace' " (https://www.nytimes.com/1941/
06/22/archives/the-man-you-love-to-hate-erich-vou-stroheim-of-the-movies-now-is-a.html). The
New York Times.
18. Faulkner, Christopher, Jean Renoir, a guide to references and resources, page 22. Boston,
Mass.: G.K. Hall & Company, 1979.
19. "The Billboard Magazine - TV Film Reviews" (https://books.google.com/books?id=4EQEAAAA
MBAJ&q=Orient+Express+anthology&pg=PA10). October 10, 1953.
20. Stroheim quoted in Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films, ed. and trans. Peter Morris (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1972) 217.
21. Eulogy for D. W. Griffith, reprinted in The Man You Loved To Hate, by Richard Koszarski, page
282.

External links
Erich von Stroheim (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002233/) on IMDb
All about Erich (https://web.archive.org/web/20080523145824/http://www.geocities.com/bercov
y/) at the Wayback Machine (archived May 23, 2008)
The Stroheim Wing (http://www.ealasaid.com/fan/lorrelibrary/stroheim/)
The Great Gabbo (Portrait of Erich) (http://www.solowey.com/Portraits/images/VonStroheimE29
0907.jpg)
Erich von Stroheim (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7126906) at Find a Grave
Erich von Stroheim (https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/3809) at the Internet Broadway
Database
The Films of Erich von Stroheim, ToxicUniverse.com article by Dan Callahan (http://www.toxicu
niverse.com/review.php?aid=1000407)
Blind Biographers: The Invention of Erich von Stroheim (https://web.archive.org/web/20060418
132232/http://www.ealasaid.com/writing/columns/stroheim.html)
Stroheim's Review of Citizen Kane, June 1941 (http://www.fredcamper.com/M/VonStroheim.htm
l)
Bibliography (http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=2375)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erich_von_Stroheim&oldid=993673414"

This page was last edited on 11 December 2020, at 21:37 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this
site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.