G.W. Pabst
| G. W. Pabst | |
|---|---|
G. W. Pabst during production of the film L'Opéra de quat'sous (The Threepenny Opera) in 1931
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| Born |
Georg Wilhelm Pabst 25 August 1885 Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (now Czech Republic) |
| Died | 29 May 1967 (aged 81) Vienna, Austria |
| Resting place | Zentralfriedhof |
| Years active | 1901–1957 |
| Spouse(s) | Gertrude Hennings (m. 1924–67) |
Georg Wilhelm Pabst (25 August 1885 – 29 May 1967), known professionally as G. W. Pabst, was an Austrian theatre and film director.
Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary (today's Roudnice nad Labem, Czech Republic), the son of a railroad official. While growing up in Vienna, he studied drama at the Academy of Decorative Arts and initially began his career as a stage actor in Switzerland, Austria and Germany. In 1910, Pabst traveled to the United States, where he worked as an actor and director at the German Theater in New York City.
When World War I began, Pabst returned to Europe, where he was interned in a Prisoner-of-war camp in Brest. While imprisoned, Pabst organised a theatre group at the camp. Upon his release in 1919, he returned to Vienna, where he became director of the Neue Wiener Bühne, an avant-garde theatre.
Pabst began his career as a film director at the behest of Carl Froelich who hired Pabst as an assistant director. He directed his first film, The Treasure, in 1923. He developed a talent for "discovering" and developing the talents of actresses, including Greta Garbo, Asta Nielsen, Louise Brooks, and Leni Riefenstahl.
Pabst's early and most famous films concern the plight of women, including The Joyless Street (1925) with Greta Garbo and Asta Nielsen, Geheimnisse einer Seele (1926) with Lili Damita, The Loves of Jeanne Ney (1927) with Brigitte Helm, Pandora's Box (1929), and Diary of a Lost Girl (1929) with American actress Louise Brooks. He also co-directed with Arnold Fanck a mountain film entitled The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) starring Leni Riefenstahl.
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