Alexander Granach
Acting • Born 1890-04-18 – Died 1945-03-14
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.
Filmography
48 credits
Nosferatu
Movie • 1922
Knock
Ninotchka
Movie • 1939
Comrade Kopalski
Hangmen Also Die!
Movie • 1943
Gestapo Insp. Alois Gruber
A Man's a Man
Movie • 1931
Voice in the Wind
Movie • 1944
Angelo
Comradeship
Movie • 1931
Kasper
Joan of Paris
Movie • 1942
Gestapo Agent
Warning Shadows
Movie • 1923
Shadowplayer
The Seventh Cross
Movie • 1944
Zillich
Half Way to Shanghai
Movie • 1942
Mr. Nikolas
Earth Spirit
Movie • 1923
Schigolch
Three Russian Girls
Movie • 1943
Major Braginski
Danton
Movie • 1931
Marat
Lucrezia Borgia
Movie • 1922
ein Gefangener
1914: The Last Days Before the War
Movie • 1931
Jaurès' Friend
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Movie • 1939
Soldier (uncredited)
Freie Fahrt
Movie • 1928
The Theft of the Mona Lisa
Movie • 1931
Redner
The Adjutant of the Czar
Movie • 1929
Stranger
The Twelfth Hour
Movie • 1930
Karsten
Gypsies
Movie • 1936
Danilo, rich gypsy camp leader
My Buddy
Movie • 1944
Tim Oberta
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Movie • 1943
Paco
Foreign Correspondent
Movie • 1940
Hotel Valet (uncredited)
Der Kampf
Movie • 1936
Rovelli
Die berühmte Frau
Movie • 1927
Diener bei Alfredo
Flucht in die Fremdenlegion
Movie • 1929
Beppo, Legionär
Northwest Rangers
Movie • 1942
Pierre - Man in Casino
So Ends Our Night
Movie • 1941
The Pole
Pavement Butterfly
Movie • 1929
Coco
Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland
Movie • 1928
Pollaczek
Die Radio Heirat
Movie • 1924
Svengali
Movie • 1927
Geiger Gecko
Das letzte Fort
Movie • 1929
Gestino
Man by the Roadside
Movie • 1923
Shoemaker
I.N.R.I. – A Film of Humanity
Movie • 1923
Judas Ischariot
Wrecking Crew
Movie • 1942
Joe Poska
Qualen der Nacht
Movie • 1926
Murphy
Paganini
Movie • 1923
Ferucchio
Ein Weib, ein Tier, ein Diamant
Movie • 1923
Archivar Lindhorst
Mission to Moscow
Movie • 1943
Russian Air Force Officer (uncredited)
Navarro the Dancer
Movie • 1923
Clegg
Accident
Movie • 1928
Camera obscura
Movie • 1921
A Man Betrayed
Movie • 1941
T. Amato
The Hitler Gang
Movie • 1944
Julius Streicher
Radiohead X Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror
Movie • 2025
Knock - ein Häusermakler
Danton
Movie • 1921
Minor Role (rumored)