Schreck, Max |
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BORN 6 Sep 1879, Berlin: Friedenau - DIED 20 Feb 1936, München, Bayern: Schwabinger Krankenhaus BIRTH NAME Schreck, Friedrich Gustav Maximilian CAUSE OF DEATH heart attack GRAVE LOCATION Berlin: Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde, Potsdamer Damm 11a-c, Stahnsdorf (UR Nr. 670 (ashes, grave newly marked)) |
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Max Schreck is best remembered for his part of the vampire in Nurnau's "Nosferatu" (1922). Without the knowledge of his father he secretly took acting lessons and only after his father's death he attended drama school. He held serveral small engagements before longer engagements in Gera and Frankfurt am Main followed. In Berlin he worked with MaxReinhard and at the Kammerspiele in Munich with Otto Falckenberg (1919-1922). His first movie was "Der Richter von Zalamea" ("The Mayor of Zalamea") in 1920, starring Lil Dagover. In Nosferatu he was Count Orlok, a character based on Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. In 1924 he worked again with Murnau in "Die Finanzen des Grossherzogs" ("The Grand Duke's Finances") but Murnau himself didn't like this movie. In 1909 he had married Fanny Normann and she appeared in several movies as Fanny Schreck. From 1926 onwards Schreck worked for the Kammerspiele in Munich again. In 1928 he met the actress Anny Ondra in Munich. They made four films together and may have been lovers for a while. They certainly were close friends. The actress Gisela Uhlen was his niece. Schreck's marriage lasted until he suddenly died of a heart attack in 1936. His ashes were buried at the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde, where his grave was unmarked for many years. In recent years the author Peter Hahn managed to locate the gravesite. The urns of Schrek and his mother were still there and a new monument was erected. Related persons • was directed by Murnau, Friedrich Wilhelm • was a friend of Ondra, Anny • is uncle/aunt of Uhlen, Gisela |
| Images |
 The grave of Max Schreck at the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde, Stahnsdorf. Picture by Androom (23 Aug 2017) |
Sources • Mende, Hans-Jürgen, Lexicon Berliner Grabstätten, Haude & Spener, 2006 • Scheibmayr, Erich, Wer? Wann? Wo? - Teil 2 -, Weitere Persönlichkeiten in Münchner Friedhöfen, Verlag Erich Scheibmayr, München, 1997 • filmgeschichte.de - Das komplette Projekt zum Download • Grabstein für Max Schreck |
