Alexander Granach
Encyclopedia
Alexander Granach was a popular German
actor
in the 1920s and 1930s.
district, Austrian
Galicia then, now Verbovtsy, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
, Ukraine
) to Jewish
parents and rose to theatrical prominence at the Volksbühne
in Berlin
. Granach entered films in 1922; among the most widely exhibited of his silent efforts was the vampire classic Nosferatu (1922), in which the actor was cast as Knock, the lunatic counterpart to Dracula's Renfield. He co-starred in such major early German
talkies as Kameradschaft
(1931). Granach, who was Jewish, fled to the Soviet Union
when Hitler came to power. When the Soviet Union also proved too inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch
's Ninotchka
(1939). Granach proved indispensable to big-studio filmmakers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was Julius Streicher
in The Hitler Gang) and loyal anti-fascists. Perhaps his most notable role was as Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die!" (1943). His last film appearance was in MGM's The Seventh Cross
(1944), in which virtually the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees.
Alexander Granach died on March 14, 1945 in New York from a pulmonary embolism
following an appendectomy. Alexander Granach's autobiography, There Goes an Actor (1945) was republished in 2010 under the new title, From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor (Transaction Publishers). His son, Gad Granach
, lived in Jerusalem and wrote his own memoirs with many references to his father.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
in the 1920s and 1930s.
Biography
Granach was born Jessaja Granach in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (HorodenkaHorodenka
Horodenka is a city located in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Horodenka Raion .The current estimated population is around 9,800 .-History:...
district, Austrian
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
Galicia then, now Verbovtsy, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As is the case with most other oblasts of Ukraine this region has the same name as its administrative center – which was renamed by the Soviets after the Ukrainian writer, nationalist...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) to Jewish
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
parents and rose to theatrical prominence at the Volksbühne
Volksbühne
The Volksbühne is a theater in Berlin, Germany. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in what was the GDR's capital....
in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. Granach entered films in 1922; among the most widely exhibited of his silent efforts was the vampire classic Nosferatu (1922), in which the actor was cast as Knock, the lunatic counterpart to Dracula's Renfield. He co-starred in such major early German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
talkies as Kameradschaft
Kameradschaft
Comradeship is a dramatic film with socialist overtones directed by German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst. The French-German co-production drama is noted for combining expressionism and realism ....
(1931). Granach, who was Jewish, fled to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
when Hitler came to power. When the Soviet Union also proved too inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch
Ernst Lubitsch was a German-born film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having "the Lubitsch touch."In 1947 he received an Honorary Academy Award for his...
's Ninotchka
Ninotchka
Ninotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
(1939). Granach proved indispensable to big-studio filmmakers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher
Julius Streicher was a prominent Nazi prior to World War II. He was the founder and publisher of Der Stürmer newspaper, which became a central element of the Nazi propaganda machine...
in The Hitler Gang) and loyal anti-fascists. Perhaps his most notable role was as Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die!" (1943). His last film appearance was in MGM's The Seventh Cross
The Seventh Cross
Anna Seghers' novel The Seventh Cross , is one of the better-known examples of German literature circa World War II. It was published first in America, in an abridged version, in September 1942 by Little, Brown and Company...
(1944), in which virtually the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees.
Alexander Granach died on March 14, 1945 in New York from a pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
following an appendectomy. Alexander Granach's autobiography, There Goes an Actor (1945) was republished in 2010 under the new title, From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor (Transaction Publishers). His son, Gad Granach
Gad Granach
Gad Granach was the son of German actor Alexander Granach known for his roles in Ninotchka, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Gad Granach fled Germany at the age of 21 during the rise of Nazism, immigrating to the then-British Mandate of Palestine in 1936...
, lived in Jerusalem and wrote his own memoirs with many references to his father.
Filmography
- 1922: Nosferatu
- 1922: Lucrezia BorgiaLucrezia BorgiaLucrezia Borgia [luˈkrɛtsia ˈbɔrʤa] was the illegitimate daughter of Rodrigo Borgia, the powerful Renaissance Valencian who later became Pope Alexander VI, and Vannozza dei Cattanei. Her brothers included Cesare Borgia, Giovanni Borgia, and Gioffre Borgia...
- 1923: ErdgeistErdgeist (film)Erdgeist is a 1923 German Expressionist film directed by Leopold Jessner. It stars Asta Nielsen as Lulu, a femme fatale leading an amoral life in a world full of lust and greed...
- 1923: Paganini
- 1923: Der Mensch am Wege
- 1923: Schatten - Eine nächtliche HalluzinationSchatten - Eine nächtliche HalluzinationSchatten – Eine nächtliche Halluzination is a 1923 German silent film directed by Arthur Robison. It is considered part of German Expressionism.-Plot:...
- 1923: I.N.R.I.
- 1924: Ein Sommernachtstraum
- 1926: Qualen der Nacht
- 1928: Das letzte Fort
- 1928/29: Großstadtschmetterling
- 1930: Die letzte Kompanie
- 1931: Danton
- 1931: Der Raub der Mona LisaDer Raub der Mona LisaDer Raub der Mona Lisa is a 1931 German film directed by Géza von Bolváry. It is based on a true story.- Plot :...
- 1931: KameradschaftKameradschaftComradeship is a dramatic film with socialist overtones directed by German director Georg Wilhelm Pabst. The French-German co-production drama is noted for combining expressionism and realism ....
- 1936: Bortsy
- 1939: NinotchkaNinotchkaNinotchka is a 1939 American film made for Metro Goldwyn Mayer by producer and director Ernst Lubitsch which stars Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas. It was written by Billy Wilder, Charles Brackett and Walter Reisch, based on a screen story by Melchior Lengyel. Ninotchka is Greta Garbo's first full...
- 1941: So Ends Our NightSo Ends Our NightSo Ends Our Night is a 1941 drama war film starring Fredric March and directed by John Cromwell.- Plot :The story takes place in Germany during the Third Reich, when Hitler started to invade countries and persecuting to Jews and opponents of his regime...
- 1941: A Man Betrayed
- 1942: Joan of ParisJoan of ParisJoan of Paris is a 1942 war film about five Royal Air Force pilots shot down over Nazi-occupied France during World War II and their attempt to escape to England...
- 1943: Hangmen Also Die!
- 1943: For Whom the Bell TollsFor Whom the Bell Tolls (film)For Whom the Bell Tolls is a 1943 film in Technicolor based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. It stars Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Akim Tamiroff and Katina Paxinou. This was Ingrid Bergman's first technicolor film. Hemingway handpicked Cooper and Bergman for their roles. The film...
- 1944: The Seventh CrossThe Seventh Cross (1944 film)The Seventh Cross is a 1944 film starring Spencer Tracy, Hume Cronyn, Ray Collins and Jessica Tandy. Cronyn was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor...
Literature
- Alexander Granach: There Goes an Actor, Doubleday, Dorian and Co, Inc., Garden City 1945, ASIN B0007DSBEM
- Alexander Granach: Da geht ein Mensch, Ölbaum-Verlag, Augsburg 2003, (Neuauflage) ISBN 3-927217-38-7
- Alexander Granach: From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor. Transaction Publishers, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4128-1347-1
- Albert Klein and Raya Kruk: Alexander Granach: fast verwehte Spuren, Edition Hentrich, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-89468-108-X
- Alexander Granach: Mémoires d'un gardien de bordel, Anatolia, Paris 2009, ISBN 978-2354060404
- Gad GranachGad GranachGad Granach was the son of German actor Alexander Granach known for his roles in Ninotchka, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Gad Granach fled Germany at the age of 21 during the rise of Nazism, immigrating to the then-British Mandate of Palestine in 1936...
: Heimat los!, Ölbaum-Verlag, Augsburg 1997, ISBN 3-927217-31-X - Gad GranachGad GranachGad Granach was the son of German actor Alexander Granach known for his roles in Ninotchka, and For Whom the Bell Tolls. Gad Granach fled Germany at the age of 21 during the rise of Nazism, immigrating to the then-British Mandate of Palestine in 1936...
: Where Is Home? Stories from the Life of a German-Jewish Émigré, Atara Press, Los Angeles 2009, ISBN 978-0-982-22511-0