AKA: Erich Oswald Stroheim, Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria Stroheim
Nationality: Austrian
Birthdate: 09/22/1885
Birthplace: Vienna, Austria
Death Date: 05/12/1957
biography
Erich Stroheim adopted his 'von', the mark of nobility, somewhere between his native Vienna, where he grew up working in his father's straw hat factory, and Hollywood, where he joined D.W. Griffith's ensemble around 1914, playing mainly villains. As America entered WWI and anti-German sentiment grew, Stroheim cultivated the image of the implacable, autocratic Hun, which inspired the studio tag line, "the man you love to hate."In fact, his true aspiration was directing. "Blind Husbands" (1919) provided Stroheim with a successful debut--he not only directed, but wrote, designed the sets and
