Alexander Granach

Biography

Alexander Granach was a German-Austrian actor active in the 1920s and 1930s who built a stage reputation at Berlin's Volksbühne before entering cinema in 1922. He was born in Werbowitz in Austrian Galicia. His silent work included the role of Knock in F.W. Murnau's Nosferatu (1922), and he later appeared in early German sound films like Kameradschaft (1931). After emigrating to the United States in 1938, he made his first American screen appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939). In wartime Hollywood he was cast as both fanatical Nazis and anti-fascist characters; his Nazi roles included Julius Streicher in The Hitler Gang (1944). Fritz Lang directed him as Gestapo inspector Alois Gruber in Hangmen Also Die! (1943). He also appeared in The Seventh Cross (1944) and wrote an autobiography, There Goes an Actor, published in 1945.

54years old at death

Born April 18, 1890Verbivtsi
Died March 14, 1945New York City
Star sign: AriesThe sign runs March 21 to April 19

Movie Career

Films: 4
Career span: 5 years1939 to 1944

Every film, newest first

1944The Seventh CrossIMDb rating 7.4
1943For Whom the Bell TollsIMDb rating 6.8
1943Hangmen Also Die!IMDb rating 7.4
1939NinotchkaIMDb rating 7.8

Genres

Did you know?!

First role
After the Soviet Union also proved inhospitable, Granach settled in Hollywood. His first American film appearance there was as Kopalski in Ninotchka (1939), which starred Greta Garbo, was directed by Ernst Lubitsch and was released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Behind the camera
Granach's autobiography, There Goes an Actor, came out in 1945 and was republished in 2010 by Transaction Publishers as From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor.