Max Schreck
Birth name	Maximilian Schreck
Born	September 6, 1879 Berlin, Germany
Died	February 19, 1936 Munich, Germany
Other name(s)	Max Von Schreck
Spouse(s)	Fanny Normann (1910 - 1936)

Maximilian "Max" Schreck (September 6, 1879 – February 19, 1936) was a German actor. He is most often remembered today for his lead role in Nosferatu. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... This article is about the capital of Germany. ... [[Media:Italic text]]{| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Germany. ... For other uses, see Munich (disambiguation). ... Fanny Schreck (1877 – 1951), also known as Fanny Normann, was a German actress. ... is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1879 (MDCCCLXXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... [[Media:Italic text]]{| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1936 (MCMXXXVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... For other uses, see Actor (disambiguation). ... This article is about the 1922 silent film. ...

Biography

There is some confusion as to Schreck's actual date of birth. Some sources state his date of birth as September 6, 1879, while others claim it to be June 11, 1879. is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 162nd day of the year (163rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Schreck received his training at the Staatstheater in Berlin. He made his stage debut in Messeritz and Speyer, and then toured Germany for two years appearing at theatres in Zittau, Erfurt, Bremen, Lucerne, Gera, and Frankfurt am Main. Schreck then joined Max Reinhardt's celebrated company of performers back in Berlin. Many of Reinhardt's troupe made a huge contribution to the cinema. This article is about the capital of Germany. ... Speyer (English formerly Spires) is a city in Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) with approx. ... Zittau (Sorbian/Lusatian Žitawa, Czech Žitava) is a city in the south east of Saxony, Germany and capital of the Löbau-Zittau district close to the border triangle between Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic. ... The cathedral Mariendom at night. ... This article is about the city in Germany. ... For other uses, see Lucerne (disambiguation). ... Gera is the largest Town in the east of Thuringia, Germany. ... Frankfurt am Main [ˈfraŋkfʊrt] is the largest city in the German state of Hessen and the fifth largest city of Germany. ... Max Reinhardt Max Reinhardt (born September 9, 1873 in Baden bei Wien; died October 31, 1943 in New York City) was an influential Austrian director and actor. ...

Schreck served in World War I from 1915-1918. For three years between 1919 and 1922, Schreck appeared at the Munich Kammerspiele, including a role in the expressionist production of Bertolt Brecht's debut, Drums in the Night (in which he played the 'freakshow landlord' Glubb).^[1] During this time he also worked on his first film Der Richter von Zalamea, adapted from a six-act play, for Decla Bioscop. In 1922, he was hired by Prana Film for their first and only production, Nosferatu. The company declared themselves bankrupt after the film's release to avoid paying copyright infringement costs to an irate Florence Stoker, the widow of Dracula author Bram Stoker. Schreck's Count Orlok, with his bald, rat-shaped head and long spidery fingers, remains a haunting character. Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... Year 1922 (MCMXXII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a successful German language theatre in Munich. ... {{dy justified his choice of form, and from about 1929 on he began to interpret its penchant for contradictions, much as had Eisenstein, in terms of the dialectic. ... Drums in the Night (German Trommeln in der Nacht) is a play by Bertolt Brecht. ... Prana Film was a short-lived silent-era German studio. ... This article is about the 1922 silent film. ... Bankruptcy is a legally declared inability or impairment of ability of an individual or organization to pay their creditors. ... The Cathach of St. ... Florence Balcombe (July 17, 1858 - May 25, 1937) was the wife of Bram Stoker whom she married in 1878. ... This article is about the novel. ... Abraham Bram Stoker (November 8, 1847 – April 20, 1912) was an Irish writer, best remembered as the author of the influential horror novel Dracula. ... Graf Orlok (ger. ...

In 1923, Schreck appeared as a blind man in the acclaimed film Die Straße.^[2] Schreck's second collaboration with Nosferatu director F.W. Murnau was decidedly less successful with the ill-conceived 1924 comedy Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs. Even Murnau did not hesitate to declare his contempt for the picture. Year 1923 (MCMXXIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... [[Straße, Die]] (1923) Directed by Karl Grune This highly influential movie was the first of the German Street films. ... F. W. Murnau. ... For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ... The word comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humor with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ...

In 1926, Schreck returned to the Kammerspiele in Munich and continued to act in films right through the advent of sound until his death. He was married to actress Fanny Normann, who appeared in a few films, often credited as Fanny Schreck. Schreck had at least one brother named Augustin Schreck, who also fathered Max Schreck's niece, actress Gisela Uhlen (born Gisela Friedhilde Schreck).^[3] Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Fanny Schreck (1877 – 1951), also known as Fanny Normann, was a German actress. ...

Curiously, the word schreck is also the German word for fright, or terror. It comes from the Middle High German word schrecken: to frighten, or terrify. Because of this, many authors who were unaware of Schreck's on-stage credits (and ignorant of the rather sparse details of his personal life) speculated that there was really no such person, and that Schreck was, in fact, some well-known actor who had chosen to adopt a pseudonym for his role in Nosferatu. One of the prime "suspects" was Alfred Abel; however, a careful examination of the photographs of these two actors is sufficient to dispel such notions. Schreck died on February 19, 1936 of a heart attack.^[4] Middle High German (MHG, German Mittelhochdeutsch) is the term used for the period in the history of the German language between 1050 and 1350. ... This article is about the 1922 silent film. ...

Trivia

• Schreck is portrayed by actor Willem Dafoe in E. Elias Merhige's Shadow of the Vampire. In a sort of secret history, Shadow posits that Schreck gave such a terrifying performance as Orlok because Schreck actually was a vampire.
• In the 1992 film Batman Returns, the character Max Shreck was named as an in-joke by director Tim Burton. The part was played by Christopher Walken.
• A vampire character in the film Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter is named Maxine Schreck, as an homage to the actor.

William Dafoe, Jr. ... E. Elias Merhige (Edmund Elias Merhige) is a film director born in Brooklyn in 1964. ... Shadow of the Vampire is a movie that opened in the United States on December 29, 2000. ... A secret history (or shadow history) is a revisionist interpretation of either fictional or real (or known) history which is claimed to have been deliberately suppressed or forgotten. ... Batman Returns is a 1992 superhero thriller film based on the Batman character created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. ... Timothy Tim William Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated American film director, writer and designer. ... Christopher Walken (born March 31, 1943) is an Academy Award-winning American film and theatre actor. ... Categories: Movie stubs | 2001 films | Cult films | Dramatic portrayals of Jesus ...

Works cited

• Willett, John and Ralph Manheim. 1970. Introduction. In Collected Plays: One by Bertolt Brecht. Ed. John Willett and Ralph Manheim. Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry and Prose Ser. London: Methuen. ISBN 041603280X. p.vii-xvii.

John Willett was a translator and a scholar who is famous for translating the work of Bertolt Brecht into English. ... Ralph Manheim (1907 - 26 September 1992) was a translator of German and French literature. ...

References

External links

• Max Schreck at the Internet Movie Database
• http://www.wikitree.org/index.php?title=Maximilian_Schreck Genealogy of Max Schreck at WikiTree
• http://www.filmhistoriker.de/people/schreck.htm German Filmographie and Orbituary on Filmhistoriker.de