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IMDbPro

Josef von Sternberg(1894-1969)

  • Director
  • Writer
  • Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
Josef Von Sternberg, c. 1930.
Josef von Sternberg split his childhood between Vienna and New York City. His father, a former soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army, could not support his family in either city; Sternberg remembered him only as "an enormously strong man who often used his strength on me." Forced by poverty to drop out of high school, von Sternberg worked for a time in a Manhattan store that sold ribbons and lace to hat makers. A chance meeting in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, led to a new career in the cleaning and repair of movie prints. This job provided an entrée to the film production industry, then flourishing in Fort Lee, New Jersey. As an apprentice film-maker, from around 1916 to the early 1920s, von Sternberg developed a lasting contempt for most of the directors and producers he worked for (an exception was Emile Chautard, who acted in some of Sternberg's films of the 1930s), and was sure that he could improve on their products. Staked to a few thousand dollars -- even then an absurdly small budget -- von Sternberg proved himself right with The Salvation Hunters (1925), which became a critical and financial hit. For the next couple of years he seesawed between acclaim and oblivion, sometimes on the same project (for instance, he received the rare honor of directing a film for Charles Chaplin, but it was shelved after only one showing and later disappeared forever). His commercial breakthrough was Underworld (1927), a prototypical Hollywood gangster film; behind the scenes, von Sternberg successfully battled Ben Hecht, the writer, for creative control. With The Last Command (1928), starring the equally strong-willed Emil Jannings, von Sternberg began a period of almost a decade as one of the most celebrated artists of world cinema. Both his film career and his personal life were transformed in the making of The Blue Angel (1930). Chosen by Jannings and producer Erich Pommer to make Germany's first major sound picture, von Sternberg gambled by casting Marlene Dietrich, then obscure, as Lola Lola, the night-club dancer who leads Jannings' character into depravity. The von Sternberg-Dietrich story, both on-screen (he directed her in six more movies) and off (he became one of her legions of lovers, more in love with her than most) is a staple of film histories. His films of the mid-'30s are among the most visionary ever made in Hollywood, but in spite of their visual sumptuousness, contemporary audiences found them dramatically inert. The films' mediocre box office and a falling-out with Ernst Lubitsch, then head of production at Paramount Pictures (Sternberg's employer), meant that after The Devil Is a Woman (1935) he would never again have the control he needed to express himself fully. In his sardonic autobiography, he more or less completely disowned all of his subsequent films. In spite (or perhaps because) of his truncated career and bitter personality, von Sternberg remains a hero to many critics and filmmakers. His best films exemplify the proposition, as he put it, that in any worthwhile film the director is "the determining influence, and the only influence, despotically exercised or not, which accounts for the worth of what is seen on the screen."
BornMay 29, 1894
DiedDecember 22, 1969(75)
BornMay 29, 1894
DiedDecember 22, 1969(75)
IMDbProStarmeterSee rank
  • Nominated for 2 Oscars
    • 7 wins & 5 nominations total

Photos5

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Known for

Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
The Devil Is a Woman
6.9
  • Director
  • 1935
George Bancroft and Betty Compson in The Docks of New York (1928)
The Docks of New York
7.5
  • Director
  • 1928
Anatahan (1953)
Anatahan
7.0
  • Director
  • 1953
Shanghai Express (1932)
Shanghai Express
7.3
  • Director
  • 1932

Credits

Edit
IMDbPro

Director



  • John Wayne and Janet Leigh in Jet Pilot (1957)
    Jet Pilot
    5.6
    • Director
    • 1957
  • Anatahan (1953)
    Anatahan
    7.0
    • Director
    • 1953
  • Robert Mitchum in Macao (1952)
    Macao
    6.6
    • Director
    • 1952
  • Gregory Peck, Joseph Cotten, and Jennifer Jones in Duel in the Sun (1946)
    Duel in the Sun
    6.7
    • Director (uncredited)
    • 1946
  • The Town (1944)
    The Town
    5.8
    Short
    • Director
    • 1944
  • Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Phyllis Brooks, Walter Huston, and Ona Munson in The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
    The Shanghai Gesture
    6.5
    • Director
    • 1941
  • Spencer Tracy and Hedy Lamarr in I Take This Woman (1940)
    I Take This Woman
    6.3
    • Director (uncredited)
    • 1940
  • Wallace Beery and Laraine Day in Sergeant Madden (1939)
    Sergeant Madden
    6.1
    • Director (as Josef Von Sternberg)
    • 1939
  • Fernand Gravey, Miliza Korjus, and Luise Rainer in The Great Waltz (1938)
    The Great Waltz
    6.4
    • Director (uncredited)
    • 1938
  • Merle Oberon in I, Claudius (1937)
    I, Claudius
    • Director (unfinished)
    • 1937
  • Grace Moore and Franchot Tone in The King Steps Out (1936)
    The King Steps Out
    6.2
    • Director
    • 1936
  • The Fashion Side of Hollywood (1935)
    The Fashion Side of Hollywood
    5.8
    Short
    • Director
    • 1935
  • Peter Lorre, Edward Arnold, and Marian Marsh in Crime and Punishment (1935)
    Crime and Punishment
    6.9
    • Director (directed by)
    • 1935
  • Marlene Dietrich in The Devil Is a Woman (1935)
    The Devil Is a Woman
    6.9
    • Director
    • 1935
  • The Scarlet Empress (1934)
    The Scarlet Empress
    7.5
    • Director
    • 1934

Writer



  • Anatahan (1953)
    Anatahan
    7.0
    • written by
    • 1953
  • Gene Tierney, Victor Mature, Phyllis Brooks, Walter Huston, and Ona Munson in The Shanghai Gesture (1941)
    The Shanghai Gesture
    6.5
    • adaptation
    • 1941
  • Hedy Lamarr, Robert Taylor, and Joseph Schildkraut in Lady of the Tropics (1939)
    Lady of the Tropics
    6.1
    • treatment (uncredited)
    • 1939
  • Marlene Dietrich in Blonde Venus (1932)
    Blonde Venus
    7.1
    • story (uncredited)
    • 1932
  • An American Tragedy (1931)
    An American Tragedy
    6.4
    • Writer (uncredited)
    • 1931
  • Dishonored (1931)
    Dishonored
    7.2
    • screenplay
    • story "X-27"
    • 1931
  • Marlene Dietrich and Emil Jannings in The Blue Angel (1930)
    The Blue Angel
    7.6
    • Writer (uncredited)
    • 1930
  • George Bancroft in Thunderbolt (1929)
    Thunderbolt
    6.5
    • adaptation
    • 1929
  • Emil Jannings in Street of Sin (1928)
    Street of Sin
    6.4
    • story
    • 1928
  • Emil Jannings in The Last Command (1928)
    The Last Command
    7.9
    • story
    • 1928
  • Evelyn Brent and Clive Brook in Underworld (1927)
    Underworld
    7.5
    • Writer (uncredited)
    • 1927
  • Edna Purviance in A Woman of the Sea (1926)
    A Woman of the Sea
    • Writer
    • 1926
  • Renée Adorée, Paulette Duval, and Conrad Nagel in Exquisite Sinner (1926)
    Exquisite Sinner
    5.9
    • adaptation
    • 1926
  • George K. Arthur, Bruce Guerin, and Georgia Hale in The Salvation Hunters (1925)
    The Salvation Hunters
    6.6
    • written by
    • 1925
  • By Divine Right (1924)
    By Divine Right
    • scenario
    • 1924

Second Unit or Assistant Director



  • Clara Bow in It (1927)
    It
    7.2
    • assistant director (uncredited)
    • 1927
  • Stuart Holmes and Anna Q. Nilsson in Vanity's Price (1924)
    Vanity's Price
    • assistant director
    • 1924
  • By Divine Right (1924)
    By Divine Right
    • assistant director
    • 1924
  • Mabel Ballin, Eleanor Boardman, and George Walsh in Vanity Fair (1923)
    Vanity Fair
    7.4
    • assistant director
    • 1923
  • Constance Collier, Gladys Cooper, Ivor Novello, and C. Aubrey Smith in The Bohemian Girl (1922)
    The Bohemian Girl
    6.4
    • assistant director
    • 1922
  • Madge Kennedy in The Highest Bidder (1921)
    The Highest Bidder
    • assistant director (as Jo Sternberg)
    • 1921
  • The Mystery of the Yellow Room (1919)
    The Mystery of the Yellow Room
    6.8
    • assistant director
    • 1919

Personal details

Edit
  • Alternative names
    • Jo Sternberg
  • Height
    • 5′ 5″ (1.65 m)
  • Born
    • May 29, 1894
    • Vienna, Austria-Hungary [now Austria]
  • Died
    • December 22, 1969
    • Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA(heart attack)
  • Spouses
      Meri Otis WilnerOctober 1948 - December 22, 1969 (his death, 1 child)
  • Publicity listings
    • 3 Biographical Movies
    • 8 Print Biographies
    • 2 Portrayals
    • 13 Articles
    • 1 Magazine Cover Photo

Did you know

Edit
  • Trivia
    He maintained such a tyrannical, imperious personality when shooting films that Robert Mitchum threatened to throw him off a pier when they were shooting Macao (1952).
  • Quotes
    Nothing has ever been invented that is more cumbersome to make than the motion picture.
  • Nickname
    • Jo

FAQ12

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