Fritz Lang

Fritz Lang
Lang (right) on the set of Woman in the Moon
Born	Friedrich Christian Anton Lang (1890-12-05)December 5, 1890 Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died	August 2, 1976(1976-08-02) (aged 85) Beverly Hills, California, U.S.
Occupation	Film director, film producer
Years active	1919–1960
Spouse(s)	Lisa Rosenthal (m. 1919–21) Thea von Harbou (m. 1922–33) Lily Latté (m. 1971–76)

Friedrich Christian Anton "Fritz" Lang (December 5, 1890 – August 2, 1976) was an Austrian-German filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor. One of the best-known émigrés from Germany's school of Expressionism, he was dubbed the "Master of Darkness" by the British Film Institute.

His most famous films include the groundbreaking futuristic Metropolis (1927) and the also influential M (1931), a film noir precursor that he made before he moved to the United States.

Lang was born in Vienna as the second son of Anton Lang (1860–1940), an architect and construction company manager, and his wife Pauline "Paula" Lang née Schlesinger (1864–1920). Fritz Lang was baptized on December 28, 1890, at the Schottenkirche in Vienna.

Lang's parents were of Moravian descent and practicing Roman Catholics. His parents (his mother, Jewish born, converted to Roman Catholicism) took their religion seriously and were dedicated to raising Fritz as a Catholic. Lang frequently had Catholic-influenced themes in his films. Late in life, he described himself as "born Catholic".

After finishing school, Lang briefly attended the Technical University of Vienna, where he studied civil engineering and eventually switched to art. In 1910 he left Vienna to see the world, traveling throughout Europe and Africa and later Asia and the Pacific area. In 1913, he studied painting in Paris, France.

At the outbreak of World War I, Lang returned to Vienna and volunteered for military service in the Austrian army and fought in Russia and Romania, where he was wounded three times. While recovering from his injuries and shell shock in 1916, he wrote some scenarios and ideas for films. He was discharged from the army with the rank of lieutenant in 1918 and did some acting in the Viennese theater circuit for a short time before being hired as a writer at Decla, Erich Pommer's Berlin-based production company.