A while back someone posted a question about “Max Schreck,” the actor who played the vampire in “Nosferatu.”
I still don’t know who “Max Schreck” or (“Max Shriek” in English) was.
But here is what I found:
According to Forrest J. Ackerman in “Famous Monsters of Filmland,” (sorry–don’t recall the issue) “Max Schreck” was the German actor equivalent of the “Alan Smithee” director name.
That is, it was a generic name for actors to use if they didn’t want to use their real names.
Typically, they were horror films, where a lot of make-up would make them unrecognizable.
So, the actor’s identity (from “Nosferatu”) is still a mystery–and probably will remain so.
I just saw a preveiw last Friday for a movie about this actor! The premise is that he was as big a freak in real life as on the screen. There’s a scene where the director encourages him to actually bite and drink the blood of the actress playing his victim!
Sorry, but I don’t remember the title or the release date.
Perhaps I am completely mis-remembering, but wasn’t Max Schreck the name of the millionaire protagonist in Batman II (the one with Catwoman; he pushes her - well Selena Kyle, actually - out a window)?
~ Complacency is far more dangerous than outrage ~
Yes, it was, Stark. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the name. In the IMDB listing, it’s spelled “Max Shreck”, but I think that’s misspelled.
According to the IMDB, Max Schreck was a real person and not an “Alan Smithee” pseudonym. And there’s a movie coming out next year about the making of “Nosferatu” called Burned To Light, which focuses on Schreck and the director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (played by Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, respectively).
Yes, it was, Stark. That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw the name. In the IMDB listing, it’s spelled “Max Shreck”, but I think that’s misspelled.
According to the IMDB, Max Schreck was a real person and not an “Alan Smithee” pseudonym. And there’s a movie coming out next year about the making of “Nosferatu” called Burned To Light, which focuses on Schreck and the director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (played by Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, respectively).
To insert my two cents, I asked the question about the “woman” in Nosferatu, and mentioned the story behind Max Schreck. The information I was given about it being a pseudonym was straight from the University of Michigan film/theatre department…I considered it a pretty reliable source.
“Max Shriek” was a pseudonym, but there was indeed an actor playing the good Count.
What we don’t know is whether the movie is based on that actor, another “Max Shriek” actor, or just a totally made-up biography.
That would not be without precedent. Muhammad Ali’s “autobiography” was totally written by an editor for a Nation of Islam newsletter–without the Champ’s input.
One of the better-known nuggets that he created ex nihilo was the infamous “Gold Medal into the river” story.
Completely fabricated–and the Champ went along with it for many years.
“John Dean” wrote “Blind Ambition,” about the Watergate era, but Nixon’s aide John Dean, did not write it–and in fact, later admitted not even having read all of it.
Same with Haldeman’s “Ends of Power.” His name is on it, but I don’t know how much involvement he actually had with it.
