# "Max Schreck" revisited **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 1999, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921 "1999-11-24T14:10:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/1 "1999-11-24T14:10:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/2 "1999-11-24T14:17:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/3 "1999-11-24T15:03:00Z")
The original Max Schreck, 1922. [![](http://www.cinematter.com/gifs/orckk.jpg) ](http://www.cinematter.com/gifs/orckk.jpg) * * * “It is lucky for rulers that men do not think.” — Adolf Hitler ---
**Author:** ![RavingMad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/edb3f5/32.png) [@RavingMad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RavingMad)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/4 "1999-11-24T17:19:00Z")
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 ~ ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/5 "1999-11-24T17:45:00Z")
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](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Schreck,+Max) 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](http://us.imdb.com/Title?Burned+to+Light), which focuses on Schreck and the director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (played by Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, respectively). ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/6 "1999-11-24T17:46:00Z")
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](http://us.imdb.com/Bio?Schreck,+Max) 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](http://us.imdb.com/Title?Burned+to+Light), which focuses on Schreck and the director, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau (played by Willem Dafoe and John Malkovich, respectively). ---
**Author:** ![saraam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@saraam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saraam)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/7 "1999-11-24T19:35:00Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/8 "1999-11-24T19:46:00Z")
I don’t think we have conflicting info here. “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. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 1999, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/max-schreck-revisited/4921/9 "1999-11-24T22:13:00Z")
> [@](#): > > **Schreck, Max** - German character actor (1879-1936) who earned virtual screen immortality for his portrayal of Count Orlock in the 1922 masterpiece _Nosferatu_, directed by F. W. Murnau. A member of the Max Reinhart theatrical company, Schreck was blessed with a very appropriate name, for _schreck_ means terror in German. This was not a stage name, as has been suggested over the years. Schreck established arguably the most hideous version of a vampire that has ever been seen in film. Following _Nosferatu_, he had character roles in other films but never matched his triumph as Orlock. > > _The Vampire Encyclopedia_ - Matthew Bunson