Erich von Stroheim
| Erich von Stroheim | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Erich Oswald Stroheim September 22, 1885 Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
| Died | May 12, 1957 (aged 71) Maurepas, France |
| Occupation | Actor, director, screenwriter, producer |
| Years active | 1914–1955 |
| Spouse(s) | Margaret Knox (1913–1915; divorced) Mae Jones (1916–1919; divorced; 1 son) Valerie Germonprez (1920–1957; his death; 1 son) Denise Vernac (never officially married) |
Erich von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim; September 22, 1885 – May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American director, actor and producer, most notable as being a film star of the silent era, subsequently noted as an auteur for his directorial work. He died in 1957 in France, at age 71.
Stroheim was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1885 as Erich Oswald Stroheim, the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hat-maker, and Johanna Bondy, both of whom were observant 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 Austrian 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. 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. In Renoir's movie la Grande Illusion, Stroheim speaks German with a strong American accent.
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".
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 Boy 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, 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.
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