Alexander Granach

Birthday: 1890-04-18
Deathday: 1945-03-14
Birthplace: Werbowitz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Verbivtsi, Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine]
Gender: Male
Owned By: Unowned

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.

Credits

Year Title Character
1998-03-15 Nosferatu: The First Vampire Knock - ein Häusermakler
1944-10-12 My Buddy Tim Oberta
1944-07-24 The Seventh Cross Zillich
1944-03-03 Voice in the Wind Angelo
1943-12-30 Three Russian Girls Major Braginski
1943-07-12 For Whom the Bell Tolls Paco
1943-04-29 Mission to Moscow Russian Air Force Officer (uncredited)
1943-04-15 Hangmen Also Die! Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber
1942-11-07 Wrecking Crew Joe Poska
1942-10-28 Northwest Rangers Pierre - Man in Casino
1942-09-18 Half Way to Shanghai Mr. Nikolas
1942-01-20 Joan of Paris Gestapo Agent
1941-03-07 A Man Betrayed T. Amato
1941-02-27 So Ends Our Night The Pole
1940-08-16 Foreign Correspondent Hotel Valet (uncredited)
1939-12-29 The Hunchback of Notre Dame Soldier (uncredited)
1939-11-23 Ninotchka Comrade Kopalski
1936-09-10 Der Kampf Rovelli
1936-07-29 Gypsies Danilo
1931-12-31 A Man's a Man
1931-11-17 Comradeship Kasper
1931-08-24 The Theft of the Mona Lisa Redner
1931-01-21 Danton Marat
1931-01-20 1914 Jaurès' Friend
1930-05-16 The Twelfth Hour Karsten
1929-07-08 Das letzte Fort Gestino
1929-06-29 Flucht in die Fremdenlegion Beppo, Legionär
1929-04-09 Pavement Butterfly Coco
1929-02-12 The Adjutant of the Czar Stranger
1928-12-07 Freie Fahrt
1928-11-06 Accident
1928-01-19 Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland Pollaczek
1927-10-29 Die berühmte Frau Diener bei Alfredo
1927-09-06 Svengali Geiger Gecko
1926-04-23 Qualen der Nacht Murphy
1924-03-05 Die Radio Heirat
1923-12-24 I.N.R.I. – A Film of Humanity Judas Ischariot
1923-11-01 Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant Archivar Lindhorst
1923-10-16 Warning Shadows Shadowplayer
1923-06-11 Man by the Roadside Shoemaker
1923-04-02 Navarro the Dancer Clegg
1923-03-31 Paganini Ferucchio
1923-02-22 Earth Spirit Schigolch
1922-10-20 Lucrezia Borgia ein Gefangener
1922-02-16 Nosferatu Knock
1921-04-23 Camera obscura