Known For
Acting
Born
Apr 18, 1890
Died
Mar 14, 1945
Place of Birth
Werbowitz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Verbivtsi, Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine]
Credits
48 titles
Alexander Granach
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.
Known For
Filmography
Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Knock - ein Häusermakler
My Buddy
Tim Oberta
The Seventh Cross
Zillich
The Hitler Gang
Julius Streicher
Voice in the Wind
Angelo
Three Russian Girls
Major Braginski
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Paco
Mission to Moscow
Russian Air Force Officer (uncredited)
Hangmen Also Die!
Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber
Wrecking Crew
Joe Poska
Northwest Rangers
Pierre - Man in Casino
Half Way to Shanghai
Mr. Nikolas
Joan of Paris
Gestapo Agent
A Man Betrayed
T. Amato
So Ends Our Night
The Pole
Foreign Correspondent
Hotel Valet (uncredited)
Ninotchka
Comrade Kopalski
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Soldier (uncredited)
The Struggle
Rovelli (uncredited)
Gypsies
Danilo, rich gypsy camp leader
A Man's a Man
Comradeship
Kasper
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
Redner
Danton
Marat
1914: The Last Days Before the War
Jaurès' Friend
The Twelfth Hour
Karsten (Archive footage)
Das letzte Fort
Gestino
Flucht in die Fremdenlegion
Beppo, Legionär
Pavement Butterfly
Coco
The Adjutant of the Czar
Stranger
Freie Fahrt
Accident
Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland
Pollaczek
Die berühmte Frau
Diener bei Alfredo
Svengali
Geiger Gecko
Qualen der Nacht
Murphy
Die Radio Heirat
I.N.R.I. – A Film of Humanity
Judas Ischariot
Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant
Archivar Lindhorst
Warning Shadows
Shadowplayer
Man by the Roadside
Shoemaker
Navarro the Dancer
Clegg
Paganini
Ferucchio
Earth Spirit
Schigolch
Lucrezia Borgia
ein Gefangener
Nosferatu
Knock
Danton
Minor Role (rumored)
Camera obscura