Max Schreck is a famous German actor. He is most often remembered today for his lead role in the film Nosferatu (1922). A film where he played a vampire made him and the film very popular. He himself became a character in the 2000 film Shadow of the Vampire, which told a fictionalized version of the making of Nosferatu.
Education
His father saw Schreck's ever-growing enthusiasm for theater and did not approve. His mother provided the boy with money, which he used to secretly take acting lessons.Only after the death of his father he attended drama school. After graduating, he travelled across the country with Demetrius Schrutz for a short time.
Schreck received his training at the Berliner Staatstheater (the State Theatre of Berlin) which he completed in 1902.
Career
Engagements in Mulhouse, Meseritz, Speyer, Rudolstadt, Erfurt, Weissenfels, and the first extended stay at the Gera Theater. Greater engagement will follow, especially in Frankfurt am Main. From there he went to Berlin to Reinhardt and the Munich Chamber Games to Otto Falkenberg. From then on he began to work in films. He made his stage début in Meseritz and Speyer, and then toured Germany for two years appearing at theatres in Zittau, Erfurt, Bremen, Lucerne, Gera, and Frankfurt am Main. Schreck then joined Max Reinhardt's company of performers in Berlin. Many of Reinhardt's troupe made a significant contribution to cinema. In 1921, Schreck was cast in his most famous role by director F.W. Murnau. Schrek was cast as Count Orlok, a gruesome vampire, in Nosferatu, which was based on Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The film proved to be a big success in the United States and helped launch a career in Hollywood for its director. But Schreck did not receive much of a boost from his appearance in the movie. Also in 1923, Schreck appeared as a blind man in the film Die Straße (The Street). Schreck continued to work in German films and on the stage for the rest of his life. He was playing the Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlos in a 1936 Munich production when he became ill.