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Alexander Granach

Acting Born Apr 18, 1890 Werbowitz, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Verbivtsi, Kolomyia Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine] 24 credits

Biography

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 (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (Horodenka district, Austrian Galicia then, now Verbivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk 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 co-starred 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 Lubitsch's Ninotchka (1939) for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. 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 anti-fascists. Perhaps his best role was as Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in Fritz Lang's Hangmen Also Die! (1943). His last film appearance was in MGM's The Seventh Cross (1944), in which almost the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees.

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Known for

Film

Nosferatu

as Knock

Glitter Force

as Gestapo Agent

Full filmography

  • Nosferatu (1922) as Knock
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) as Soldier (uncredited)
  • Ninotchka (1939) as Comrade Kopalski
  • For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943) as Paco
  • Foreign Correspondent (1940) as Hotel Valet (uncredited)
  • Hangmen Also Die! (1943) as Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber
  • The Seventh Cross (1944) as Zillich
  • Danton (1921) as Minor Role (rumored)
  • Der Kampf (1936) as Rovelli
  • Mission to Moscow (1943) as Russian Air Force Officer (uncredited)
  • Comradeship (1931) as Kasper
  • So Ends Our Night (1941) as The Pole
  • Joan of Paris (1942) as Gestapo Agent
  • The Hitler Gang (1944) as Julius Streicher
  • Half Way to Shanghai (1942) as Mr. Nikolas
  • 1914: The Last Days Before the War (1931) as Jaurès' Friend
  • A Man Betrayed (1941) as T. Amato
  • The Theft of the Mona Lisa (1931) as Redner
  • Three Russian Girls (1943) as Major Braginski
  • Warning Shadows (1923) as Shadowplayer
  • Man by the Roadside (1923) as Shoemaker
  • Svengali (1927) as Geiger Gecko
  • My Buddy (1944) as Tim Oberta
  • Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (2025) as Knock - ein Häusermakler