Max Maximilian (born Franz Kuhn; 23 September 1885 – 25 June 1930) [1] was a German singer, actor and director. [2]
Maximilian was born in Cologne and began his career as a singer and stage actor. He made his stage debut on 20 October 1905 at the Stadttheater Passau performing in operettas. In 1906 he moved to the Studienhaus in Coburg, in 1907 to Pirmasens, in 1908 to the Meininger Residenztheater, and in 1909 as an operetta singer at the Bochum City Theater. In 1910 he followed a call to Speyer, and 1911 to Wittenberge, where he was also allowed to stage plays as a director, and in 1912 to Munich, where he stayed until 1914 and also proved himself as a director and actor. [1]
In the last few years before the outbreak of World War I, Max Maximilian turned to the new medium of film. There he covered the entire range of supporting roles: he played fathers and subordinate service providers, seamen and miners, shady characters and police gendarmes. In the 1920s Maximilian occasionally worked as an assistant director (e.g. in 1922 for the film Der Absturz) or as a production manager (e.g. in 1924 for Garragan and 1926 for Der Student von Prag). [1]
Fritz Kortner was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director.
Friedrich Rudolf Klein, better known as Rudolf Klein-Rogge, was a German film actor, best known for playing sinister figures in films in the 1920s and 1930s as well as being a mainstay in director Fritz Lang's Weimar-era films. He is probably best known in popular culture, particularly to English-speaking audiences, for playing the archetypal mad scientist role of C. A. Rotwang in Lang's Metropolis and as the criminal genius Doctor Mabuse. Klein-Rogge also appeared in several important French films in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
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.
Géza von Bolváry was a Hungarian actor, screenwriter, and film director, who worked principally in Germany and Austria.
Harry Liedtke was a German film actor.
Georg John was a German stage and film actor.
Julius Falkenstein was a German stage and film actor of the silent era. He appeared in more than 180 films between 1914 and 1933. Falkenstein was Jewish, but secured a special permit to continue making films following the Nazi rise to power in 1933. He died of natural causes the same year, having made only one further film.
Fritz Kampers was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 250 films between 1913 and 1950.
Paul Heidemann was a German actor, comedian, film director, film producer, and opera singer.
Eduard Clemens Franz Anna Freiherr von Wangenheim, known as Eduard von Winterstein, was an Austrian-German film actor who appeared in over one hundred fifty German films during the silent and sound eras. He was also a noted theater actor.
Anton Ernst Rückert was a German stage and film actor.
Hermann Vallentin was a German actor.
Robert Garrison was a German-Jewish film actor.
Rudolf Biebrach was a German actor and film director. He directed over 70 films between 1909 and 1930; and he appeared as an actor in nearly 110 films between 1909 and 1938. In his youth, Biebrach had worked for some years as an engraver. He got his first engagement as an actor in Gießen during 1890/1891. After a long career as a stage actor, Biebrach managed to become a successful director and character actor in the German film during the 1910s. He directed many films with Henny Porten and Lotte Neumann.
Rudolf Lettinger was a German stage and film actor. He made his stage debut in 1883 when he played the role of Kosinsky in Friedrich Schiller's drama The Robbers. Some of his more prominent roles in his prestigious stage career were Cyrano de Bergerac and Gessler in William Tell. He also worked with acclaimed stage director Max Reinhardt. In 1912, Lettinger played his first film role in Das Geheimnis von Monte Carlo. Lettinger appeared in over 90 films until 1931, mostly as a supporting actor. His best-known film is perhaps The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), where Lettinger portrayed Dr. Olsen.
Paul Anton Heinrich Rehkopf was a German actor.
Maria Forescu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian opera singer and film actress. During the silent and talkies era of the German cinema, she appeared in several movies as a supporting actress. When Adolf Hitler came to power, Forescu, like other Jews of that period, was barred from her profession. Living undercover during the later years of World War II, she survived the Holocaust and died in 1947 in East Berlin.
Hans Adalbert Schlettow was a German film actor. Schlettow appeared in around a hundred and sixty films during his career, the majority during the silent era. Among his best-known film roles was Hagen von Tronje in Fritz Lang's film classic Die Nibelungen (1924). In 1929 he starred in the British director Anthony Asquith's film A Cottage on Dartmoor.
Jaro Fürth was an Austrian stage and film actor.
Heinrich Gotho was an Austrian film actor. Born in Dolina, he started his acting career at some provincial theatres until he found an engagement at the Neues Volkstheater in Berlin. The character actor appeared in over 50 films between 1922 and 1933, mostly in smaller roles. He notably appeared in numerous films by director Fritz Lang, among them Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922), Metropolis (1927) and M (1931). Gotho was forced to retire from film acting in 1933; as a Jew he could no longer work in Nazi Germany. He died in 1938 in the Jewish Hospital of Berlin-Wedding.