Max Landa ( be, Макс Ландаў; 24 April 1873 – 8 November 1933; born Max Landau) was a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

-born

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

silent film A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, 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) ...

and

stage Stage or stages may refer to: Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly British theatre newspaper * Sta ...

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

Career

Landa attended the Handelsakademie (commercial academy) in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and took classes with acting teacher in the same city. After working as a bank clerk for a short period he decided to focus on his acting career in 1893. After working at various theatres in Austria and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

for about twenty years he was discovered in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

leading man A leading actor, leading actress, or simply lead (), plays the role of the protagonist of a film, television show or play. The word ''lead'' may also refer to the largest role in the piece, and ''leading actor'' may refer to a person who typica ...

movie star A movie star (also known as a film star or cinema star) is an actor or actress who is famous for their starring, or leading, roles in movies. The term is used for performers who are marketable stars as they become popular household names and wh ...

Asta Nielsen with whom he played in several movies directed by

Urban Gad Peter Urban Bruun Gad (12 February 1879 – 26 December 1947) was a Danish film director, stage actor, screenwriter, and author. He directed 40 films between 1910 and 1927. His wife Asta Nielsen starred in 30 of his films, also in his début the ...

. When

Joe May Joe May (born Joseph Otto Mandl; 7 November 1880 – 29 April 1954) was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema. Biography After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he began his career as ...

founded his own film production company in 1915 he formed a contract with Max Landa who became the first of a number of actors to play the role of the fictional British detective Joe Deebs, created as a rival to Sherlock Holmes during the silent era.Prawer p.88 The

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Landa and his wife Margot Walter fled Germany following the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

seizure of power in 1933, and he committed suicide in exile in

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

Selected filmography

* '' The Man in the Cellar'' (1914) * '' Die geheimnisvolle Villa'' (1914) * ''

Cinderella "Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...

'' (1916) * '' The Onyx Head'' (1917) * '' Midnight'' (1918) * '' Europe, General Delivery'' (1918) * ''

The Devil Satan,, ; grc, ὁ σατανᾶς or , ; ar, شيطانالخَنَّاس , also known as the Devil, and sometimes also called Lucifer in Christianity, is an entity in the Abrahamic religions that seduces humans into sin or falsehood ...

'' (1918) * '' The Apache of Marseilles'' (1919) * '' The Japanese Woman'' (1919) * '' The Secret of the American Docks'' (1919) * '' The Mask'' (1919) * '' The Derby'' (1919) * '' The Spies'' (1919) * '' World by the Throat'' (1920) * '' The Bandits of Asnières'' (1920) * '' Moriturus'' (1920) * '' The Chameleon'' (1920) * ''

The Grand Babylon Hotel ''The Grand Babylon Hotel'' is a novel by Arnold Bennett, published in January 1902, about the mysterious disappearance of a German prince. It originally appeared as a serial in the ''Golden Penny''. The titular Grand Babylon was modelled on the ...

'' (1920) * ''

Roswolsky's Mistress ''Roswolsky's Mistress'' (german: Die Geliebte Roswolskys) is a 1921 German silent film, silent drama film directed by Felix Basch and starring Asta Nielsen, Paul Wegener, and Wilhelm Diegelmann. It was based on a novel by George Froeschel. The f ...

'' (1921) * '' The Experiment of Professor Mithrany'' (1921) * '' The Passenger in Compartment Seven'' (1922) * '' Flight Around the World'' (1925) * '' The Woman without Money'' (1925) * '' Trude'' (1926) * '' Marriage Announcement'' (1926) * '' Why Get a Divorce?'' (1926) * '' Light-Hearted Isabel'' (1927) * '' Anastasia, the False Czar's Daughter'' (1928) * '' The Hangman'' (1928) * '' Endangered Girls'' (1928)

References

Bibliography

* Isenberg, Noah William. ''Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era''. Columbia University Press,2013. * Prawer, S.S. ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933''. Berghahn Books, 2005. * Weniger, Kay: Es wird im Leben dir mehr genommen als gegeben ...' Lexikon der aus Deutschland und Österreich emigrierten Filmschaffenden 1933 bis 1945: Eine Gesamtübersicht''. ACABUS Verlag, 2011, p. 75-77

External links

* * 1873 births 1933 suicides Austrian male film actors Austrian male silent film actors Actors from Minsk Austrian Jews Russian Jews Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany Suicides in Yugoslavia 20th-century Austrian male actors 1933 deaths Austrian Jews who died in the Holocaust Suicides by Jews during the Holocaust {{Germany-film-actor-stub