Alexander Granach

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 WierzbowceWerbiwci Horodenka district Austrian Galicia then now Verbivtsi IvanoFrankivsk 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 costarred 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 Lubitschs Ninotchka 1939 for MetroGoldwynMayer 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 antifascists Perhaps his best role was as Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in Fritz Langs Hangmen Also Die 1943 His last film appearance was in MGMs The Seventh Cross 1944 in which almost the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees