Max Landa | |
|---|---|
 Landa photographed in 1920 by Nicola Perscheid | |
| Born | 24 April 1873 |
| Died | 8 November 1933 |
| Other names | Max Landau |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1913–1928 (film) |
| Spouse | Margot Walter |
Max Landa (Belarusian : Макс Ландаў; 24 April 1873 – 8 November 1933; [1] born Max Landau) was a Russian Empire-born Austrian silent film and stage actor.
Landa attended the Handelsakademie (commercial academy) in Vienna and took classes with acting teacher Karl Arnau in the same city. After working as a bank clerk for a short period he decided to focus on his acting career in 1893. [2] After working at various theatres in Austria and Germany for about twenty years he was discovered in Berlin as leading man by movie star Asta Nielsen with whom he played in several movies directed by Urban Gad. [3]
When Joe May founded his own film production company in 1915 he formed a contract with Max Landa [4] who became the first of a number of actors to play the role of the fictional British detective Joe Deebs, created as a rival to Sherlock Holmes during the silent era. [5] The Jewish Landa and his wife Margot Walter fled Germany following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, and he committed suicide in exile in Yugoslavia. [1]
Carl Wilhelm, was a prolific German film director, film producer and screenwriter of the silent film era, at the end of which his career apparently entirely faded away and he vanished into obscurity.
Frederic Zelnik was an Austrian producer, director, and actor. He was one of the most important producers-directors of the German silent cinema. Zelnik achieved success through period operetta films in the 1920s and 1930s.
Conrad Wiene was an actor, screenwriter, film producer and director of Austrian and German silent films. He was the younger brother of German film director Robert Wiene.
Ernst Reicher was a German-Jewish actor, screenwriter, film producer and film director of the silent era.
Paul Davidson was a German film producer.
Ellen Richter was an Austrian-Jewish film actress of the silent era. She was married to Willi Wolff, who directed many of her films. Ellen Richter composed her own production company to create her films. She worked primarily in Germany and was one of the foremost actresses of Weimar cinema.
Paul Biensfeldt was a German-Jewish stage and film actor.
Rudolf Meinert was an Austrian screenwriter, film producer and director.
Hermann Vallentin was a German actor.
Fritz Richard was an Austrian actor and theatre director.
Manfred Noa was a German film director. Noa was described by Vilma Bánky, who he directed twice, as her "favourite director". Noa's 1924 film Helena has been called his "masterpiece" although it was so expensive that it seriously damaged the finances of Bavaria Film.
Sophie Berg Pagay was an Austrian stage and film actress, born in Brünn, Austria-Hungary. She began acting as a child, and went to Berlin to perform on stage in 1887. She married actor Hans Pagay.
Erich Schönfelder (1885–1933) was a German screenwriter, actor, and film director of the silent and early sound eras. Early in his career he worked frequently with Ernst Lubitsch.
Clementine Plessner was an Austrian stage and film actress. Plessner worked in the German film industry and appeared in over sixty films, mostly during the silent era. Plessner featured in Richard Oswald's enlightenment film Different from the Others and F.W. Murnau's Journey into the Night.
Hermann Picha was a German stage and film actor. Picha was extremely prolific, appearing in over 300 short and feature films during the silent and early sound eras. Picha played a mixture of lead and supporting roles during his career. He played the title role in the 1920 film Wibbel the Tailor, directed by Manfred Noa. He appeared in Fritz Lang's Destiny.
Carl Goetz was an Austrian stage and film actor. He appeared in around seventy films during the silent and early sound eras. Goetz was of a Jewish background. He is particularly noted for his role in Georg Wilhelm Pabst's Pandora's Box (1929).
Joe Deebs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Along with Stuart Webbs and a number of other fictional cinema detective characters with Anglo-Saxon names, he was modeled on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In 2009, Ken Wlaschin wrote that "Joe Deebs was one of the most famous screen detectives of the German silent cinema, the suave crime-solving star of at least thirty films."
Adolf Edgar Licho was a Russian-German actor, screenwriter, and film director. He was born of Jewish parentage in Kremenchug which was then part of the Russian Empire, but emigrated to Germany to work in the theatre and then later in silent films. Following the Nazi Party's takeover in 1933 he went into exile, first in Austria and France and later in the United States. In Hollywood he played minor roles until his death in 1944.
August Rinaldi (1883–1962) was a German art director. He worked on around fifty films during the silent era. Rinaldi was of Jewish descent.
Maxim Galitzenstein was an Austrian film producer active in the German film industry during the silent era. Of Jewish background, Galitzenstein was associated with the film pioneer Oskar Messter before the First World War.
