Max Schreck

Max Schreck was a German actor who worked in theatre and film. He received his training at the Berliner Staatstheater and joined Max Reinhardt's company of performers in Berlin. He played mostly out of the norm characters, the elderly and the grotesque, because of his talent and passion for make-up and costume fabrication. He made his film debut in The Mayor of Zalamea (1920), adapted from a six-act play. His most famous role was Count Orlok, the vampire in Nosferatu (1922), an unlicensed adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. The film was a masterpiece of expressionist cinema and Schreck's performance was praised for its eerie and haunting quality. He also appeared in other films such as The Street (1923), The Grand Duke's Finances (1924), The Republic of Flappers (1928), and Don Quixote (1933). He died of heart failure in 1936 after playing The Grand Inquisitor in the play Don Carlos. He was buried at Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Güterfelde in Brandenburg. His legacy as a horror icon was revived by the film Shadow of the Vampire (2000), which depicted him as a real vampire who was hired by the director F.W. Murnau to play Count Orlok. Willem Dafoe received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Schreck in the film.