Gustav von Seyffertitz was a German film actor and director
Background
He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81. Gustav von Seyffertitz was born into an aristrocratic family as the son of Guido Freiherr von Seyffertitz and his wife Anna Gräfinance von Butler Clonebough zu Haimhausen.
Career
He settled in the United States. His family exspected that he would start a military career, but was shocked when he said that he wanted to be an actor. He emigrated to the United States in 1896, after being asked by the Austrian-American theatre director Heinrich Conried.
Despite his thick Austrian accent, he was a succesful on Broadway where he worked as a stage actor and director during the 1900s and 1910s.
He appeared as an actor in such lavish productions as The Brass Bottle in 1910. This play was turned into several films and was the idea for the television show I Dream of Jeannie in the 1960s.
He made his film debut in 1917, appearing with Douglas Fairbanks in Down to Earth. In his films, the dignified-looking Gustav von Seyffertitz often played the "very embodiment of the Hideous Hun - America"s notion of the merciless, atrocity-happy German military officer".
One of his most successful film roles was Professor Moriarty in 1922"s Sherlock Holmes with John Barrymore.
He continued his career into the sound film and portrayed supporting roles in the Josef von Sternberg-Marlene Dietrich films Dishonored (1931) and Shanghai Express (1932). He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939. Gustav von Seyffertitz was married five times and had numerous children.
Membership
He was a member of the Meiningen Court Theatre and also appeared in operas.