Alexander Moissi

Aleksandër Moisiu
Alexander Moissi in 1906
Born	Aleksandër Moisiu (1879-04-02)2 April 1879 Trieste, Italy (then Austria-Hungary)
Died	22 March 1935 (aged 56) Vienna, Federal State of Austria)
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1899–1935
Spouse(s)	Maria Moissi (div.) Johanna Terwin
Children	Beate Moissi, Bettina Moissi
Parent(s)	Moisi, Amalia
Relatives	Nicolas Berggruen, Gedeon Burkhard, Spiro Moisiu, Alfred Moisiu
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Aleksandër Moisiu (Albanian: Aleksandër Moisiu; German: Alexander Moissi, Italian: Alessandro Moissi; better known as Alexander Moissi, 2 April 1879 – 22/23 March 1935) was an Albanian stage actor.

Moissi was born in Trieste to Moisi Moisiu from Kavajë, who was a rich Albanian merchant of oil and wheat, and an Arbëresh mother, Amalia de Rada, from Trieste, daughter of a Florentine doctor.

After an international childhood in Trieste, Durrës and Graz, the 20-year-old Aleksandër settled with his mother and two sisters in Vienna. He began vocal studies and applied for a drama training at the k.k. Hofburgtheater, but was rejected due to his strong Italian accent and had to confine himself to non-speaking roles. It was his performance in Molière's Tartuffe of the Burgtheater 1899/1900 season, which stunned the renowned Austrian actor Josef Kainz, playing the lead role.

With Kainz' encouragement and support, Moissi's career as one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century began. The following year took him to the New German Theatre in Prague and in 1903 he joined the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he became a protégé of the influential director Max Reinhardt.

Together with Rudolph Schildkraut he performed in Reinhardt's staging of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, now emphasizing his melodious speech, which despite first damning reviews finally made him a star. Moissi and the Reinhardt ensemble toured the Russia in 1911 and was acclaimed in Saint Petersburg by critic and dramatist Anatoly Lunacharsky for his interpretation of Sophocles' Oedipus. Traveling across Europe and the Americas, his most famous role was Fedya in Tolstoy's The Living Corpse — performed more than 1400 times by him. In 1914, Moisiu acquired German citizenship to become a volunteer in World War I, and during the German Revolution of 1918–19 joined the Marxist Spartacus League.