Erich von Stroheim - biography

“Because I select my players from a feeling that comes to me when I am with them, a certain sympathy you might call it, or a vibration that exists between us that convinces me they are right.”

“For my Vienna is as different from what they call Vienna now as the quick is different from the dead.”

“If I speak of Vienna it must be in the past tense, as a man speaks of a woman he has loved and who is dead.”

“I would like to have you quote me, Erich von Stroheim, as having said on this day of this month of this year this one thing: you Americans are living on baby food.”

“In Hollywood - in Hollywood, you’re as good as your last picture.”

“It is not because I do not love my adopted land - it is the natural feeling of one far from home, who remembers those happy, carefree days when life flowed at full tide, without responsibility, flashing past one like the drama in a fascinating story of adventure and romance.”

“The picture has made its million back in four months; I have been overwhelmed by letters, hundreds of them, literally, begging me in my next production not to swing over the shallow trash of mother love, father love, sister love, brother love.”

“Fay has spirituality too, but she also has that very real sex appeal that takes hold of the hearts of men.”

“Bobbed hair makes women look uniform.  They lack individuality.”

“I was reared in an atmosphere where a great deal of attention was paid to women’s hairdressing.”

“I could not work with a girl who did not have a spiritual quality.”

“And yet because of my attempt at sincerity I have been condemned, hooted at, reviled; filthy rumors have been circulated about me, not about my characterizations but about me personally, my private self.”

“As soon as I had seen Fay Wray and spoken with her for a few minutes, I knew I had found the right girl.”

“I am just old-fashioned enough to prefer long hair.”

“Since that first showing of Foolish Wives I have seemed to walk through vast crowds of people, their white American faces turned towards me in stern reproof.”

Erich von Stroheim directed the following films:
Blind Husbands (1919)
The Devil’s Passkey (1920)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
Greed (1924)
The Merry Widow (1925)
The Honeymoon (1928)
The Wedding March (1928)
Queen Kelly (1929)
The Great Gabbo (1929)
Hello, Sister! (1933)
Fugitive Road (1934)

Erich von Stroheim has appeared in the following films:
The Country Boy (1915)
Captain Macklin (1915)
The Failure (1915)
Ghosts (1915)
Farewell to Thee (1915)
Old Heidelberg (1915)
His Picture in the Papers (1916)
The Flying Torpedo (1916)
Macbeth (1916)
Intolerance (1916)
The Social Secretary (1916)
Panthea (1917)
In Again, Out Again (1917)
For France (1917)
Draft 258 (1917)
Reaching for the Moon (1917)
Sylvia of the Secret Service (1917)
Who Goes There? (1917)
The Unbeliever (1918)
Hearts of the World (1918)
The Hun Within (1918)
The Heart of Humanity (1918)
Blind Husbands (1919)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Greed (1924)
The Honeymoon (1928)
The Wedding March (1928)
The Great Gabbo (1929)
Three Faces East (1930)
Friends and Lovers (1931)
The Lost Squadron (1932)
As You Desire Me (1932)
Fugitive Road (1934)
Crimson Romance (1934)
The Crime of Dr. Crespi (1935)
Marthe Richard au service de la France (1937)
La Grande illusion (1937)
L’Alibi (1937)
Under Secret Orders (1937)
Ultimatum (1938)
Les Pirates du rail (1938)
L’Affaire Lafarge (1938)
Les Disparus de Saint-Agil (1938)
Gibraltar (1938)
Le Monde tremblera (1939)
Derrière la façade (1939)
Rappel immédiat (1939)
Pièges (1939)
Menaces (1940)
Tempête (1940)
I Was an Adventuress (1940)
So Ends Our Night (1941)
Macao, l’enfer du jeu (1942)
Five Graves to Cairo (1943)
The North Star (1943)
The Lady and the Monster (1944)
Storm Over Lisbon (1944)
The Great Flamarion (1945)
Scotland Yard Investigator (1945)
The Mask of Diijon (1946)
On ne meurt pas comme ça (1946)
La Foire aux chimères (1946)
Danse de mort (1948)
Le Signal rouge (1949)
Portrait d’un assassin (1949)
Sunset Boulevard (1950)
Alraune (1952)
Minuit... Quai de Bercy (1953)
L’Envers du paradis (1953)
Alerte au sud (1953)
Série noire (1955)
Napoléon (1955)
La Madone des sleepings (1955)
Souls for Sale (1923)

Erich von Stroheim was photography director on the following films:
Captain Macklin (1915)
Less Than the Dust (1916)


Erich von Stroheim contributed to the screenplay for the following films:
Blind Husbands (1919)
The Devil’s Passkey (1920)
Foolish Wives (1922)
Merry-Go-Round (1923)
Greed (1924)
The Merry Widow (1925)
Tempest (1928)
The Honeymoon (1928)
The Wedding March (1928)
Queen Kelly (1929)
Hello, Sister! (1933)
Fugitive Road (1934)
The Devil-Doll (1936)
Gibraltar (1938)
I Was an Adventuress (1940)
Danse de mort (1948)