Biography for
Erich von Stroheim More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

22 September 1885, Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria)

Date of Death

12 May 1957, Maurepas, Seine-et-Oise, (now Yvelines, Île-de-France), France (cancer)

Birth Name

Erich Oswald Stroheim

Nickname

The Man You Love to Hate

Height

5' 7" (1.70 m)

Spouse

Valerie Germonprez	(16 October 1920 - 1936) (separated) 1 child
Mae Jones	(1916 - July 1919) (divorced) 1 child
Margaret Knox	(19 February 1913 - November 1915) (divorced)
Denise Vernac	(? - 12 May 1957) (his death)

Trade Mark

Ambulances are recurring themes in his films

Frequently included imbecile characters in films he wrote/directed

Worked frequently with Maude George, 'Dale Fuller', Gibson Gowland, 'Cezare Gravina' and Zasu Pitts.

Frequently included shots of janitors or cleaning personel in films he directed in order to add realism and demystify the location. Examples include the janitor removing candle wax from the floor of the cathedral in The Wedding March (1928) and a cleaning crew vaccuming the grand staircase in the palace in Queen Kelly (1929).

His films as a writer/director are often set in Austro-Germanic or Graustarkian locations, such as Vienna for Merry-Go-Round (1923), _The Wedding March (1928)_ and The Honeymoon (1928), the kingdom of Monteblanco in _The Merry Widow (1925)_ and the kingdom of Kronberg in Queen Kelly (1929).

Frequently played high ranking officials in the German military

Short Prussian military hairstyle which sometimes gave him the appearance of being bald.

Trivia

Althugh von Stroheim claimed to have broken two ribs when he fell from a roof in The Birth of a Nation (1915), there is some question as to whether he actually worked on that film at all, and Joseph Henabery, one of the picture's assistant directors, says that von Stroheim didn't work for director D.W. Griffith until more than a year after this film was shot.

Immigrated to the United States at the port of New York aboard the S.S. Prinz Friedrich Wilhelm on 25 November 1909.

Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume One, 1890-1945". Pages 1069-1079. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1987.

He fabricated an elaborate back-story for himself as an Austrian aristocrat and imperial officer, while in fact he was the son of a lower-middle-class Jewish hat maker and never served in any military.

Brother-in-law of Louis Germonprez.

While appearing in French films, Stroheim met actress Denise Vernac who became his secretary and companion for the rest of his life. He never divorced estranged third wife Valerie Germonprez. Denise also appeared in several films with him over the years.

While working at the tavern he met his first wife, Margaret Knox, and in a daring move for 1912 moved in with her. Knox acted as a sort of mentor to von Stroheim, teaching him language and literature and encouraging him to write. Under Knox's tutelage he wrote a novella entitled "In the Morning," with themes that anticipated his films: corrupt aristocracy and innocence debased. The couple married February 19, 1913, but money woes drove von Stroheim to deep depressions and terrible temper tantrums, which he took out on Knox. Not long after Margaret left him, and in May of 1914 filed for divorce.

Not very well documented is von Stroheim's second marriage to Mae Jones, a seamstress and dressmaker. The marriage was brief, but produced one son, Erich von Stroheim Jr..

In 1936 he left for France, leaving behind third wife, actress Valerie Germonprez, and sons Erich von Stroheim Jr. and Josef von Stroheim, The rest of his career was spent writing two novels, touring in a production of "Arsenic and Old Lace," and appearing in small roles in Europe and the U.S.

Despite their strong professional relationship, Von Stroheim was never as a close a confidante of D.W. Griffith's, never making it into Griffith's "inner circle."

His longtime business manager was Elmer Cox, father of actor Dick Sargent.

As the butler in Sunset Blvd. (1950) he is in the projection room when Norma Desmond and Joe Gillis are watching one of Norma's old films. The film is actually Queen Kelly (1929), which von Stroehim directed and which starred Gloria Swanson, who is playing Norma Desmond.

Although it is inaccurate to say he is actually a character in Peter Handke's "anti-play," "The Ride Across Lake Constance," his name is used as a designation of a character, as are the names of other celebrated actors of the German cinema, Elisabeth Bergner, Heinrich George, Emil Jannings, Henny Porten and the twins Alice Kessler and Ellen Kessler.

May 1924: A $10,000 bonus was offered to him by MGM chief Louis B. Mayer if he finished The Merry Widow (1925) in less than six weeks.

Profiled in "From the Arthouse to the Grindhouse: Highbrow and Lowbrow Transgression in Cinema's First Century" by John Cline and Robert G. [2010]

Personal Quotes

If you live in France and you have written one good book, or painted one good picture, or directed one outstanding film, 50 years ago, and nothing ever since, you are still recognized as an artist and honored accordingly . . . In Hollywood - in Hollywood, you're as good as your last picture. If you didn't have one in production in the last three months, you're forgotten, no matter what you have achieved ere this. It is that terrific, unfortunately necessary, egotism in the makeup of the people who make the cinema, it is the continuous endeavor for recognition, that continuous struggle for survival and supremacy, among the newcomers, that relegates the old-timers to the ashcan.

The difference between me and [Ernst Lubitsch] is that he shows you the king on the throne and then he shows you the king in his bedroom. I show you the king in his bedroom first. Then when you see him on the throne you have no illusions about him.

[on seeing the two-hour version of Greed (1924), rather than the whole film] It was like viewing a corpse in a graveyard.

[on Irving Thalberg and the cutting of Greed (1924)] The man who cut my picture has nothing on his head but a hat!

[shouting at actors while shooting Foolish Wives (1922)] I'm making this picture for the theatre! Not for the actors!

[dying in bed, telling his biographer] This is not the worst. The worst is that they stole 25 years from my life . . . "

[Sunday, May 18, 1941, article "I Am an American Day") I feel that the many reasons why I am glad to be an American will be propounded by others more articulate and eloquent than I . . . therefore I shall not touch "Liberty" and all other prerogatives that are America's. One reason I dare mention. I have been traveling abroad a great deal lately and I have had ample opportunity to notice the profound respect that little red passport with that gilded spread eagle and that simple inscription, "United States of America", commands everywhere . . . no matter who the bearer may be. They may not love us everywhere . . . but they respect and fear us. I prefer that!

Salary

Who Goes There? (1917)	$75/week
Sunset Blvd. (1950)	$5,000 per week + 1,500,000 French Francs upon completion