Gustav von Seyffertitz
| Gustav von Seyffertitz | |
|---|---|
 von Seyffertitz in Mystery Liner (1934) | |
| Born |
Gustav Carl Viktor Bodo Maria von Seyffertitz 4 August 1862 Haimhausen, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire |
| Died |
25 December 1943 (aged 81) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | ca. 1880–1939 |
Gustav von Seyffertitz (4 August 1862 – 25 December 1943) was a German film actor and director. He settled in the United States. He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81.
Biography
Gustav von Seyffertitz was born into an aristrocratic family as the son of Guido Freiherr von Seyffertitz and his wife Anna Gräfin von Butler Clonebough zu Haimhausen. His family expected him to start a military career, but was shocked when he said that he wanted to be an actor. He was a member of the Meiningen Court Theatre and also appeared in operas. He emigrated to the United States in 1896, after being asked by the Austrian-American theatre director Heinrich Conried. Despite his thick Austrian accent, he was a successful on Broadway where he worked as a stage actor and director during the 1900s and 1910s. He appeared as an actor in such lavish productions as The Brass Bottle in 1910. This play was turned into several films and was the idea for the television show I Dream of Jeannie in the 1960s.[1] He made his film debut in 1917, appearing with Douglas Fairbanks in Down to Earth.
In his films, the dignified-looking Gustav von Seyffertitz often played the "very embodiment of the Hideous Hun - America's notion of the merciless, atrocity-happy German military officer".[2] One of his most successful film roles was Professor Moriarty in 1922's Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore. He also played the antogonist to Mary Pickford in Sparrows (1926) and appeared as Ramon Novarro's uncle in Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). He continued his career into the sound film and portrayed supporting roles in the Josef von Sternberg-Marlene Dietrich films Dishonored (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932). He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939.
Gustav von Seyffertitz was married five times and had numerous children.[3]
Selected filmography
- The Little Princess (1917)
- The Devil-Stone (1917)
- Rimrock Jones (1918)
- Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918)
- The Whispering Chorus (1918)
- Old Wives for New (1918)
- Stella Maris (1918) (uncredited)
- Mr. Fix-It (1918) (uncredited)
- Till I Come Back to You (1918)
- To Hell with the Kaiser! (1918)
- The Secret Garden (1919)
- Even as Eve (1920) - Amasu Munn
- Sherlock Holmes (1922) as Professor Moriarty
- The Bandolero (1924)
- Flower of Night (1925)
- Red Dice (1926)
- Sparrows (1926)
- The Dice Woman (1926)
- The Bells (1926)
- Don Juan (1926) (as Neri, the alchemist)
- Diplomacy (1926)
- The Lone Wolf Returns (1926)
- Barbed Wire (1927)
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
- The Magic Flame (1927)
- Rose of the Golden West (1927)
- The Gaucho (1927)
- The Mysterious Lady (1928)
- Yellow Lily (1928)
- The Docks of New York (1928)
- The Woman Disputed (1928)
- Chasing Through Europe (1929)
- The Canary Murder Case (1929)
- Dangerous Paradise (1930)
- The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930)
- Dishonored (1931)
- The Front Page (1931)
- Shanghai Express (1932)
- The Penguin Pool Murder (1932)
- Queen Christina (1933) as General
- Mystery Liner (1934)
- The Moonstone (1934)
- She (1935)
- Remember Last Night? (1935)
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) as Doctor Emile von Haller
- Cipher Bureau (1938)
- Son of Frankenstein (1939)
- Nurse Edith Cavell (1939)
References
- ↑ "Gustav von Seyffertitz at Internet Broadway Database". IBDb. 27 April 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2012.
- ↑ Gustav von Seyffertitz, Rotten Tomatoes
- ↑ Seyffertitz at ClassicHorror
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gustav von Seyffertitz. |