Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim (born Erich Oswald Stroheim;
September 22, 1885 â€" May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American
director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and
avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. His masterpiece
adaptation of Frank Norris's McTeague titled Greed is considered one
of the finest and most important films ever made. After clashes with
Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers' rights issues,
Stroheim was banned for life as a director and subsequently became a
well-respected character actor, particularly in French cinema. For his
early innovations as a director, Stroheim is still celebrated as one
of the first of the auteur directors. He helped introduce more
sophisticated plots and noirish sexual and psychological undercurrents
into cinema. He died of prostate cancer in France in 1957, at the age
of 71. Beloved by Parisian neo-Surrealists known as Letterists, he was
honored by Letterist Maurice Lemaître with a 70-minute 1979 film
titled Erich von Stroheim.Stroheim was born in Vienna, Austria in 1885
as Erich Oswald Stroheim (some sources give Hans Erich Maria Stroheim
von Nordenwall, but this seems to have been an assumed name, see
below), the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hatmaker, and
Johanna Bondy, both of whom were observant Jews.Stroheim emigrated to
America aboard the SS Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm on November 26, 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 would go on to play in his films. However, he first
found work as a traveling salesman â€" work which took him to San
Francisco and then Hollywood.
September 22, 1885 â€" May 12, 1957) was an Austrian-American
director, actor and producer, most noted as a film star and
avant-garde, visionary director of the silent era. His masterpiece
adaptation of Frank Norris's McTeague titled Greed is considered one
of the finest and most important films ever made. After clashes with
Hollywood studio bosses over budget and workers' rights issues,
Stroheim was banned for life as a director and subsequently became a
well-respected character actor, particularly in French cinema. For his
early innovations as a director, Stroheim is still celebrated as one
of the first of the auteur directors. He helped introduce more
sophisticated plots and noirish sexual and psychological undercurrents
into cinema. He died of prostate cancer in France in 1957, at the age
of 71. Beloved by Parisian neo-Surrealists known as Letterists, he was
honored by Letterist Maurice Lemaître with a 70-minute 1979 film
titled Erich von Stroheim.Stroheim was born in Vienna, Austria in 1885
as Erich Oswald Stroheim (some sources give Hans Erich Maria Stroheim
von Nordenwall, but this seems to have been an assumed name, see
below), the son of Benno Stroheim, a middle-class hatmaker, and
Johanna Bondy, both of whom were observant Jews.Stroheim emigrated to
America aboard the SS Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm on November 26, 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 would go on to play in his films. However, he first
found work as a traveling salesman â€" work which took him to San
Francisco and then Hollywood.
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