Erich von Stroheim

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Erich von Stroheim

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

19141955

Spouse(s)

Margaret Knox (19131915; divorced)

Mae Jones (19161919; divorced; 1 son)
Valerie Germonprez (19201957; his death; 1 son)
Denise Vernac (never officially married)

Erich von 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.[1]
Contents
[hide]

1 Background

2 Film career

3 Selected filmography

4 Quotes

5 See also

6 References

7 External links

Background[edit]
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 practisingJews.[2]
Stroheim emigrated to America at the end of 1909.[3] On arrival at Ellis Island he claimed to be
Count Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim und Nordenwall, the son of Austriannobility
like the characters he played in his films, but both Billy Wilder and Stroheim's agentPaul
Kohner claimed that he spoke with a decidedly lower-class Austrian accent. HoweverJean
Renoir writes in his memoirs: Stroheim spoke hardly any German. He had to study his lines
like a schoolboy learning a foreign language. [4] 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 von Stroheim film on which to base one of his fantasy nude photographs, and
comments that in the clip von Stroheim speaks "a very special kind of Prussian officer lingo it's very abrupt: it's very, very funny".[5]

Film career[edit]
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.

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!")
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 one million dollars.
In 1923, Stroheim began work on Merry-Go-Round. He cast the American actor Norman
Kerry in a part written for himself 'Count Franz Maximilian Von Hohenegg' and newcomer Mary
Philbin in the lead actress role. However studio executive Irving Thalberg fired Von Stroheim
during filming and replaced him with director Rupert Julian.

Erich von Stroheim as Sergius Karamzin in Foolish Wives

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'sGoldwyn 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. The original print ran for an
astonishing 10 hours. Knowing this version was far too long, Stroheim cut out almost half the
footage, reducing it to a six-hour version to be shown over two nights. It was still 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 was bought by Marcus Loew and merged intoMetroGoldwyn-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 down to a manageable length.[6] Mathis gave the print to a routine cutter, who reduced it to
2.5 hours.[7] In what is considered one of the greatest losses in cinema history, a janitor
destroyed the cut footage.
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.[8] However, Mathis had worked with Stroheim before and had
long admired him, so it is not likely she would have indiscriminately butchered his film. [9] The
film was partially reconstructed in 1999 by Producer Rick Schmidlin, using the existing footage
mixed with surviving still photographs, but 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. He appeared as a guest star in the 1953 anthology drama television seriesOrient
Express in the episode entitled The Man of Many Skins.[10]
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.[11]
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 co-starred Gloria Swanson, Stroheim was nominated for the Academy
Award for Best Supporting Actor. Excerpts from Queen Kelly were used in the film. The
Mayerling character states that he used to be one of the three great directors of the silent era,
along with D. W. Griffith and Cecil B. DeMille; many film critics agree that Stroheim was indeed
one of the great early directors. Stroheim's character in Sunset Boulevard thus had an
autobiographical basis that reflected the humiliations suffered through his career.
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. (19161968) as an assistant director [12] and Josef (19222002) as
a sound editor.[13]
Stroheim spent the last part of his life in France, where 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 Lgion d'honneur shortly before his death in 1957 in Maurepas, France at the age
of 71.

Selected filmography[edit]
Year

Title

Role

1912

An Unseen
Enemy

Man in straw hat dancing by desk

in lobby

1915

Old Heidelberg

Lutz

Notes

Year

Title

1916

The Flying
Torpedo

Accomplice

1916

His Picture in the

Papers

'Eye patch' thug

1918

The Unbeliever

Lt. Kurt von Schnieditz

1918

The Heart of
Humanity

Eric von Eberhard

1919

Blind Husbands

Lieutenant Eric Von Steuben

1920

The Devil's Pass

Key

1922

Foolish Wives

1923

Merry-Go-Round

1924

Greed

1925

The Merry
Widow

1928

The Wedding
March

Role

Notes

Director and screenwriter and

producer

Director and screenwriter

Their cousin, Count Wladislaw

Sergius Karamzin (Russian
Captain of Hussars)

Director and screenwriter

Director and screenwriter

Balloon vendor - uncredited

Director and screenwriter

Director and screenwriter and

producer

Nicki / Prince Nickolas von

Wildeliebe-Rauffenburg

Director

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1928

Tempest

Screenwriter

1929

Queen Kelly

Director and screenwriter and

producer

1929

The Great Gabbo

The Great Gabbo

1932

The Lost
Squadron

Arthur von Furst

1932

As You Desire
Me

Carl Salter

1933

Hello, Sister!

1936

The Crime of Dr.

Crespi

1936

The Devil-Doll

1936

Mademoiselle
Docteur

1937

La Grande
Illusion

Captain von Rauffenstein, a

German officer

1938

Boys' School

Walter, the English teacher

1938

Gibraltar

Marson

Actor; plays a parody of himself

as an over detail obsessed movie
director

Director and screenwriter

Dr. Andre Crespi

Screenwriter

Year

Title

Role

Notes

1938

Ultimatum

General Simovic

1939

Macao, l'enfer du
jeu (fr)

Werner von Krall

1940

I Was an
Adventuress

Andre Desormeaux

1941

So Ends Our
Night

Brenner

1943

Five Graves to
Cairo

Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

1943

The North Star

Dr. von Harden

1944

The Lady and the

Monster

Prof. Franz Mueller

1944

Storm Over
Lisbon

Deresco

1945

The Great
Flamarion

The Great Flamarion

1945

Scotland Yard
Investigator

Carl Hoffmeyer

1946

The Mask of
Diijon

Diijon

1950

Sunset Boulevard

Maximillian "Max" von Mayerling Nominated for Academy Award

Year

Title

Role

Notes

for Best Supporting Actor

1952

Alraune

Jacob ten Brinken

1953

Alerte au Sud (fr)

Conrad Nagel

1955

Napolon

Ludwig van Beethoven

Quotes[edit]
"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." [14]
"If you live in France, for instance, and you have written one good book, or painted one good
picture, or directed one outstanding film fifty years ago and nothing else since, you are still
recognized and honored accordingly. People take their hats off to you and call you "matre".
They do not forget. In Hollywoodin 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."[15]

See also[edit]
Biography portal

List of German-speaking Academy Award winners and nominees

References[edit]
1.
2.

3.
4.

5.

Jump up^ Obituary Variety, May 15, 1957, page 75.

Jump up^ Koszarski, Richard. Von: The Life and Films of Erich von Stroheim. New
York: Limelight Editions, 2001. p. 4.
Jump up^ Koszarski, op. cit. p. 3.
Jump up^ 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."
Jump up^ 1:30:30 - 1:32:00 Frames From the Edge - Helmut Newton

6.

Jump up^ Unterburger, Amy L.; Foster, Gwendolyn Audrey (1999). The St. James
Women Filmmakers Encyclopedia: Women on the Other Side of the Camera. Visible Ink Press.
p. 270. ISBN 1-57859-092-2.

7.

Jump up^ Koszarski, Richard (1983). The Man You loved to Hate: Erich von Stroheim
and Hollywood. Oxford University Press. pp. 144145. ISBN 0-19-503239-X.

8.

Jump up^ Ward Mahar, Karen (2006). Women Filmmakers in Early Hollywood. JHU
Press. p. 200. ISBN 0-8018-8436-5.

9.

Jump up^ Slater, Thomas J. Moving the Margins to the Mainstream: June Mathis's
Work in American Silent Film. International Journal of the Humanities, 2007.

10.

Jump up^ "The Billboard Magazine - TV Film Reviews". October 10, 1953.

11.

Jump up^ Faulkner, Christopher, Jean Renoir, a guide to references and resources,
page 22. Boston, Mass.: G.K. Hall & Company, 1979.

12.

Jump up^ Erich von Stroheim Jr. at the Internet Movie Database

13.

Jump up^ Josef von Stroheim at the Internet Movie Database

14.

Jump up^ Stroheim quoted in Georges Sadoul, Dictionary of Films, ed. and trans.
Peter Morris (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972) 217.

15.

Jump up^ Eulogy for D.W. Griffith, reprinted in The Man You Loved To Hate, by
Richard Koszarski, page 282.

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Erich von
Stroheim.

Erich von Stroheim at the Internet Movie Database

All about Erich at the Wayback Machine (archived May 23, 2008)

The Stroheim Wing

The Great Gabbo (Portrait of Erich)

Erich von Stroheim at Find a Grave

The Films of Erich von Stroheim, ToxicUniverse.com article by Dan Callahan

Blind Biographers: The Invention of Erich von Stroheim

Stroheim's Review of Citizen Kane, June 1941

Bibliography
[hide]

Films directed by Erich von Stroheim

Blind Husbands (1919)
The Devil's Pass Key (1920)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
Greed (1924)
The Merry Widow (1925)
The Wedding March (1928)
Queen Kelly (1929)
Hello, Sister! (1933)

Authority control

WorldCat
VIAF: 76365463
LCCN: n80010238
ISNI: 0000 0001 0917 2421
GND: 118756001
SUDOC:030722314
BNF: cb12208125b (data)
NDL: 00652381

Categories:
1885 births

1957 deaths

Austrian Jews

Austrian male film actors

Austrian emigrants to the United States

American people of Austrian-Jewish descent

American male film actors

American male silent film actors

American film directors

Jewish American male actors

German-language film directors

Male actors from Vienna

English-language film directors

Cancer deaths in France

20th-century American male actors

20th-century Austrian male actors