Contrary to his screen image as an excitable, explosive, emotional
type, Auer was in reality a quiet, somewhat introspective scholar who
spoke six languages: Russian, English, Italian, French, German and
Spanish.
His father was an officer in the Russian navy under Tsar Nicholas II. After the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, Mischa with his mother escaped to southern Russia. He got a job driving an ambulance during a typhus epidemic (which killed his mother). In 1920 his maternal grandfather found him and managed to bring him to the U.S.
HOLLYWOOD, Feb. 13 (Associated Press) - Actor Mischa Auer broke his right leg when he chased a prowler from his Encino home early today and fell trying to follow the man over a fence. ("Mischa Auer Breaks Leg Chasing Robber", The San Bernardino Daily Sun, San Bernardino, California, Wednesday 14 February 1945, Volume 51, page 1.).