Alexander Granach

Alexander Granach

  • Birthday: 1890-04-18
  • Deathday: 1945-03-14
  • Place of birth: Werbowitz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Verbivtsi, Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine]
  • Also know as: Aleksandr Granakh

Biography

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 – March 14, 1945) was a popular German actor in the 1920s and 1930s who immigrated to the United States in 1938. Granach was born Jessaja Gronach in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Horodenka district, Austrian Galicia then, now Verbivtsi, 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 Renfield, effectively a substitute name for Dracula. He co-starred in such major early German talkies as Kameradschaft (1931). The Jewish Granach fled to the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power. When the Soviet Union also proved inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Granach proved indispensable to film makers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was Julius Streicher in The Hitler Gang, 1944) and loyal anti-fascists. Perhaps his best 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 almost the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees.

Filmography

Comradeship

1931

As Kasper

Warning Shadows

1923

As Shadowplayer

Gypsies

1936

As Danilo

Man by the Roadside

1923

As Shoemaker

Freie Fahrt

1928

As

Pavement Butterfly

1929

As Coco

Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant

1923

As Archivar Lindhorst

Navarro the Dancer

1923

As Clegg

Three Russian Girls

1943

As Major Braginski

Danton

1931

As Marat

My Buddy

1944

As Tim Oberta

Voice in the Wind

1944

As Angelo

Earth Spirit

1923

As Schigolch

Die berühmte Frau

1927

As Diener bei Alfredo

Das letzte Fort

1929

As Gestino

Svengali

1927

As Geiger Gecko

I.N.R.I. – A Film of Humanity

1923

As Judas Ischariot

Qualen der Nacht

1926

As Murphy

Wrecking Crew

1942

As Joe Poska

Nosferatu

1922

As Knock

Ninotchka

1939

As Comrade Kopalski

Joan of Paris

1942

As Gestapo Agent

Half Way to Shanghai

1942

As Mr. Nikolas

A Man Betrayed

1941

As T. Amato

The Adjutant of the Czar

1929

As Stranger

Der Kampf

1936

As Rovelli

Flucht in die Fremdenlegion

1929

As Beppo, Legionär

Paganini

1923

As Ferucchio

Nosferatu: The First Vampire

1998

As Knock - ein Häusermakler

The Seventh Cross

1944

As Zillich

Accident

1928

As

Hangmen Also Die!

1943

As Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber

So Ends Our Night

1941

As The Pole

Lucrezia Borgia

1922

As ein Gefangener

1914

1931

As Jaurès' Friend

Northwest Rangers

1942

As Pierre - Man in Casino

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

1939

As Soldier (uncredited)

Foreign Correspondent

1940

As Hotel Valet (uncredited)

Mission to Moscow

1943

As Russian Air Force Officer (uncredited)

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