Alexander Granach (April 18, 1890 - March 14, 1945) was a popular German actor in the 1920s and 1930s.
He was born Jessaja Gronach in Wierzbowce (or Werbiwci) (Horodenka district, Austrian Galicia then, now Verbovtsy, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine) to Jewish parents and rose to theatrical prominence at the Volksbühne in Berlin. Granach entered films in 1922; among the most widely exhibited of his silent efforts was the 1922 vampire classic Nosferatu, in which the actor was cast as Knock, the lunatic counterpart to Dracula's Renfield. He was co-starred in such major early German talkies as Kameradschaft (1931). Granach, being Jewish, fled to the Soviet Union when Hitler came to power. When the Soviet Union also proved too inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in Ernst Lubitsch's Ninotchka. Granach proved indispensable to big-studio filmmakers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was Julius Streicher in The Hitler Gang) and loyal anti-fascists. His last film appearance was in MGM's The Seventh Cross (1944), in which virtually the entire supporting cast was comprised of prominent European refugees. Alexander Granach's autobiography, There Goes an Actor, was published in 1945, the year of his death.
Alexander Granach died on March 14th 1945 in New York after an appendectomy from a pulmonary embolism.
His son, Gad Granach, currently lives in Jerusalem and has written his own memoir entitled "Heimat los!" published 1997 in German.
Leading stage and film actor in Germany during the 20's and early 30's. With the advent of Hitler, Granach fled his adopted homeland, eventually to arrive in America in the late 30's. He became a Broadway and Hollywood character actor, appearing in both venues through the mid-40's.
