There Goes an Actor

Garden City NY: Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.. Very Good+ in Very Good dj. 1945. First American Edition. Hardcover. [light shelfwear, slight fading to cloth at top of spine; the jacket is modestly edgeworn and slightly faded at the spine, with just a bit of paper loss at the top of the spine; a small closed tear at the bottom edge of the front panel is internally repaired with branded tape from the famous Hollywood bookstore, Pickwick Books]. Posthumously-published autobiography of the German-Austrian actor (1890-1945), who late in life (after fleeing the Nazis and then the Soviets) landed in Hollywood, where he turned in memorable character performances in a number of films, among them NINOTCHKA, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS and HANGMEN ALSO DIE. This memoir, however, covers only his youth and his early career in the German theatre, where he studied under Max Reinhardt and rose to some prominence on the Berlin stage. The book wraps up around 1919 -- which, coincidentally or not, was about the time he did his first film work. His first really prominent and memorable role was as "Knock" (the equivalent of "Renfield") in F.W. Murnau's NOSFERATU (1922). The book is widely available in various German-language editions, but this original English translation is quite uncommon. .