Mauritz Stiller (born Moshe Stiller, 17 July 1883 – 18 November 1928) was a Swedish film director of
Finnish Jewish origin, best known for discovering
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
and bringing her to America.
Stiller had been a pioneer of the Swedish film industry, writing and directing many short films from 1912. When
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
invited him to Hollywood as a director, he arrived with his new discovery Greta Gustafsson, whose screen name Greta Garbo is believed to have been his suggestion.
After frequent disagreements with studio executives at MGM and
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
, Stiller returned to Sweden, where he died soon afterwards.
Life
Moshe Stiller was born in
Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the Capital city, capital, primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Finland, most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of U ...
. His family was of
Ashkenazi Jewish
Ashkenazi Jews ( ; he, יְהוּדֵי אַשְׁכְּנַז, translit=Yehudei Ashkenaz, ; yi, אַשכּנזישע ייִדן, Ashkenazishe Yidn), also known as Ashkenazic Jews or ''Ashkenazim'',, Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation: , singu ...
heritage, having lived in Russia and Poland before settling in Finland, these countries being part of the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. After his father's death when he was four, his mother committed suicide. He was raised by family friends. From an early age, Stiller was interested in acting. His talents did not go unnoticed, and soon Stiller was offered the opportunity to practice and display his acting skills in the theaters of Helsinki and
Åbo
Turku ( ; ; sv, Åbo, ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, city and former Capital city, capital on the southwest coast of Finland at the mouth of the Aura (Archipelago Sea), Aura River, in the region of Southwest Finland, Finland Proper ...
in Finland.
Drafted into the army of
Czar Nicholas II
Nicholas II or Nikolai II Alexandrovich Romanov; spelled in pre-revolutionary script. ( 186817 July 1918), known in the Russian Orthodox Church as Saint Nicholas the Passion-Bearer,. was the last Emperor of Russia, King of Congress Polan ...
— Finland was at the time an autonomous
Grand Duchy of Finland
The Grand Duchy of Finland ( fi, Suomen suuriruhtinaskunta; sv, Storfurstendömet Finland; russian: Великое княжество Финляндское, , all of which literally translate as Grand Principality of Finland) was the predecessor ...
, part of Russia — rather than report for duty he fled the country for exile, and settled in Sweden. He became a Swedish citizen in 1921.
Career
By 1912, Stiller had become involved with Sweden's rapidly developing
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when ...
industry. He began by writing scripts, acting and directing in
short film
A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...
s but within a few years gave up acting to devote his time to writing and directing. He was soon directing feature-length productions, and his 1918 work ''
Thomas Graals bästa barn
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
'' (''Thomas Graal's First Child''), starring
Karin Molander
Karin Molander (born Katarina Margareta Elisabet Edwertz, 20 May 1889 – 3 September 1978) was a Swedish stage and film actress whose career spanned over five decades.
Career
Born Katarina Margareta Elisabet Edwertz in Stockholm, Sweden, ...
, and with
Victor Sjöström
Victor David Sjöström (; 20 September 1879 – 3 January 1960), also known in the United States as Victor Seastrom, was a pioneering Swedish film director, screenwriter, and actor. He began his career in Sweden, before moving to Hollywood in ...
in the leading role, received much acclaim.
By 1920, having directed more than 35 films, including ''
Sir Arne's Treasure'' and ''
Erotikon'', Stiller was a leading figure in Swedish filmmaking. He also directed ''
The Blizzard
"The Blizzard" (or The Snow Storm) (russian: Мете́ль, ''Metél' '') is the second of five short stories that constitute ''The Belkin Tales'' by Alexander Pushkin. The manuscript for the story was originally completed October 20, 1830. It wa ...
'' starring a young
Einar Hanson
Einar Hanson (; Stockholm, Sweden – ; Santa Monica, California), also known as Einar Hansen, was a Swedish silent film actor.
Career
Discovered at Stockholm's Royal Dramatic Theatre by director Mauritz Stiller, handsome and sophisticated, he w ...
and based on the
Selma Lagerlöf
Selma Ottilia Lovisa Lagerlöf (, , ; 20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940) was a Swedish author. She published her first novel, ''Gösta Berling's Saga'', at the age of 33. She was the first woman to win the 1909 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
novel ''En herrgårdssägen''.
Stiller and Garbo
At the
Royal Dramatic Theatre
The Royal Dramatic Theatre ( sv, Kungliga Dramatiska Teatern, colloquially ''Dramaten'') is Sweden's national stage for "spoken drama", founded in 1788. Around one thousand shows are put on annually on the theatre's five running stages.
The the ...
in Stockholm, he met a young actress named Greta Gustafsson whom he cast in an important but secondary role in his film, ''
Gösta Berlings saga'' (''The Atonement of Gosta Berling''), and who some have said gave her the stage name
Greta Garbo
Greta Garbo (born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson; 18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American actress. Regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses, she was known for her melancholic, somber persona, her film portrayals of tragedy, ...
. For Stiller, the screen presence of the 18-year-old actress led to him bringing her and Hanson to the United States after he accepted an offer from
Louis B. Mayer
Louis Burt Mayer (; born Lazar Meir; July 12, 1882 or 1884 or 1885 – October 29, 1957) was a Canadian-American film producer and co-founder of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios (MGM) in 1924. Under Mayer's management, MGM became the film industr ...
to direct for
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc., also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures and abbreviated as MGM, is an American film, television production, distribution and media company owned by amazon (company), Amazon through MGM Holdings, founded o ...
.
In Hollywood, Mauritz Stiller was assigned to direct ''
The Temptress
''The Temptress'' is a 1926 American silent romantic drama film directed by Fred Niblo and starring Greta Garbo, Antonio Moreno, Lionel Barrymore, and Roy D'Arcy. It premiered on October 10, 1926. The film melodrama was based on a novel by ...
'' (1926), Garbo's second film with MGM, but he could not deal with the studio structure. After repeated arguments with MGM executives, he was replaced on the film by
Fred Niblo
Fred Niblo (born Frederick Liedtke; January 6, 1874 – November 11, 1948) was an American pioneer film actor, director and producer.
Biography
He was born Frederick Liedtke (several sources give "Frederico Nobile", apparently erroneously) in Yo ...
, and his contract with the studio terminated. Stiller immediately was hired by Paramount Pictures, where he made three successful films, but he was let go a second time while directing his fourth film because of his continuing disagreements with studio bosses.
Death and legacy
Stiller returned to Sweden in 1927 and died the following year from
pleurisy
Pleurisy, also known as pleuritis, is inflammation of the membranes that surround the lungs and line the chest cavity (pleurae). This can result in a sharp chest pain while breathing. Occasionally the pain may be a constant dull ache. Other sy ...
at the age of 45. He was interred in the
Norra begravningsplatsen
Norra begravningsplatsen, literally "The Northern Cemetery" in Swedish, is a major cemetery of the Stockholm urban area, located in Solna Municipality. Inaugurated on 9 June 1827, it is the burial site for a number of Swedish notables.
Nota ...
in Stockholm.
Stiller's contribution to the motion picture industry was recognized in 1960 with a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a historic landmark which consists of more than 2,700 five-pointed terrazzo and brass stars embedded in the sidewalks along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard and three blocks of Vine Street in Hollywood, Californ ...
at 1713 Vine Street. Originally his star was listed erroneously as "Maurice Diller" and was not corrected until the late 1980s. In
Kristianstad
Kristianstad (, ; older spelling from Danish language, Danish ''Christianstad'') is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Kristianstad Municipality, Scania County, Sweden with 40,145 inhabitants in 2016. During the last 15 years, it has ...
, a monument was erected in his honor.
In the ''
Badehotellet
''Badehotellet'' (English: ''Seaside Hotel'') is a Danish drama comedy series that has been running on TV 2 since 2013. The story line follows the guests and employees at the hotel at a seaside hotel in Skagerrak, south of Skagen
Skagen ...
'' episode "Feriebarnet", Kitty tells Frigh that Stiller wrote her a letter and wants to take her to Hollywood. When Fright admits he doesn't know who he is, Kitty replies that Stiller discovered Garbo and shows him a newspaper clipping of the photo of Garbo and Stiller posing on the deck of the ''SS Drottningholm''.
Filmography
References
External links
*
*
Original Photoplay Interview with Greta Garbo, where she talks about her first meeting with Stiller: "I started trembling all over."Literature on Mauritz Stiller
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stiller, Mauritz
1883 births
1928 deaths
Artists from Helsinki
People from Uusimaa Province (Grand Duchy of Finland)
Finnish Jews
Finnish people of Polish-Jewish descent
Finnish people of Russian-Jewish descent
Swedish people of Finnish-Jewish descent
Finnish film directors
Swedish film directors
LGBT Jews
LGBT film directors
Finnish emigrants to Sweden
Burials at Norra begravningsplatsen
Swedish Ashkenazi Jews