Josef von Sternberg
Josef von Sternberg (29 May 1894 – 22 December 1969) was an Austrian-American film director. He is one of the earliest examples of auteur filmmakers, and performed many other duties on his films besides directing, including cinematographer, writer, and editor.
Josef von Sternberg was born Josef Sternberg (the von was added by a Hollywood studio head) in Vienna, Austria but spent much of his childhood in New York City where his father, a former soldier in the army of Austria-Hungary, tried to make a new life for himself. Sternberg grew up in poverty and dropped out of high school. As a youth he got a job cleaning and repairing movie prints and soon found himself apprenticing in the movie industry. He made his directorial debut in 1925 with The Salvation Hunters (called by some the first American independent film) and had commercial success later in the decade with a series of early gangster films including Underworld and Thunderbolt.
His new found prosperity made it possible for him to commission an impressive mini-mansion from the famous architect Richard Neutra. Even after its demolition Von Sternberg house remained an example of modernism in Architecture.
In 1930, Sternberg went to Germany and directed the widely acclaimed film Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel) in German and English language versions simultaneously, the first German-language talkie. It was Sternberg's second film with the famous German actor Emil Jannings as the doomed Professor Rath. Sternberg also cast the then-unknown Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola, the female lead, and overnight made her an international star. Sternberg and Dietrich continued to collaborate on Morocco, Dishonored, Shanghai Express, Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress, and The Devil Is a Woman.
Macao was one of Sternberg's last Hollywood films. He was fired by Howard Hughes about a third of the way into filming.
The mediocre John Wayne/Janet Leigh vehicle Jet Pilot was Sternberg's final film.
Josef von Sternberg died in 1969 and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Sternberg's autobiography is titled Fun In A Chinese Laundry.