Gustav von Seyffertitz

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Gustav Carl Viktor Bodo Maria Freiherr von Seyffertitz (born August 4, 1862 in Haimhausen , Bavaria , † December 25, 1943 in Woodland Hills , Los Angeles ) was a German film and theater actor and director. Between 1917 and 1938 he starred as a well-known character actor in nearly 120 Hollywood films.

Life

Von Seyffertitz (right) with Alice Joyce in the film Slaves of Pride (1920)

Gustav von Seyffertitz was the second son of Guido Freiherr von Seyffertitz from Innsbruck and Anna Countess von Butler Clonebough zu Haimhausen. Instead of pursuing a career in the military as expected by the respected family, Seyffertitz began an acting career instead. He soon became a member of the Meiningen Court Theater and also appeared regularly in comic operas. In 1895 von Seyffertitz went to the USA through the mediation of the Austrian-American theater man Heinrich Conried . There he established himself on stage as a character actor despite his strong accent , so he played regularly on New York's Broadway in the 1900s and 1910s . He worked with theater stars of his time, including Maude Adams , and was able to count the legendary producer Charles Frohman among his sponsors.

In 1917 von Seyffertitz made his film debut at the side of Douglas Fairbanks in the film Down to Earth , where he held a major supporting role as a doctor. He was to appear as an actor in 118 films between 1917 and 1939. Von Seyffertitz also worked as a director for four films during the silent film era. He received widespread attention in 1922 when he portrayed Professor Moriarty in the crime film Sherlock Holmes alongside John Barrymore . With his strict, aristocratic appearance, the gray-haired von Seyffertitz was henceforth mostly occupied by noble but malicious gentlemen. In 1926 he played a brutal child kidnapper in the film Sparrows, alongside Mary Pickford ; a year later he could be seen as King Karl in the film operetta Alt-Heidelberg , directed by Ernst Lubitsch .

Despite his accent, Seyffertitz's career survived the leap from silent to talked about film in the late 1920s . In Josef von Sternberg -Filmdramen Dishonored (1931, as an Austrian intelligence chief) and Shanghai Express (1932, as dubious cocaine dealer) the actor was in each case on the side of Marlene Dietrich to see. In the late phase of his film career, Seyffertitz was increasingly cast in comedic roles, as a psychiatrist in Frank Capra's classic film Mr. Deeds Goes to the City (1936), a parody of Sigmund Freud .

The actor died at the age of 81, four years after his last film role. He was married five times, including the actress Toni Creutzberg from 1894 to 1897 , and had numerous children.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Gabriele Donder-Langer, Reinold Rehberger: Gustav von Seyffertitz (= Haimhauser Kulturkreis. Vol. 1). Haimhauser Kulturkreis eV, Haimhausen 2004.
  • William K. Everson : Evil written on the face. The films of the Viennese screen villain Gustav von Seyffertitz. In: Michael Omasta, Christian Cargnelli (Ed.): Departure into the Unknown. Volume 1: Austrian filmmakers who emigrated before 1945. Wespennest, Vienna 1993, ISBN 3-85458-503-9 , pp. 155–162.

Web links

Commons : Gustav von Seyffertitz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ancestry of the Seyffertitz family . seyffertitz.at
  2. ↑ Alexander Horwath , Michael Omasta (Ed.): Josef von Sternberg. The Case of Lena Smith (= Filmmuseum Synema Publications. Vol. 5). Synema, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-901644-22-1 , p. Z-88 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  3. ↑ Biography at Classic Horror
personal data
SURNAME Seyffertitz, Gustav von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Seyffertitz, Gustav Carl Viktor Bodo Maria Freiherr von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film actor and director of the silent film era
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1862
PLACE OF BIRTH Haimhausen , Bavaria
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1943
Place of death Woodland Hills , Los Angeles