By Dave Graham
Schreck is best remembered for playing the cadaverous
vampire Count Orlok in F.W. Murnau's 1922 silent classic
"Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror," the first, unauthorized
cinematic adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula."
"Whoever hopes to discover a vampire will be disappointed,
but they will find an actor of real skill and versatility,"
said Eickhoff. "Yet he himself remains somewhat shrouded in
mystery."
In 1953, Greek-born critic Adonis Kyrou mischievously asked
in his book "Le Surrealisme au Cinema" whether the actor was a
vampire. The idea caught hold and later inspired a film.
Despite years of research, Eickhoff found there were
virtually no anecdotes featuring Schreck, nor any references to
him in the memoirs of the many people he had worked with.
Instead, Eickhoff's biography provides a detailed chronicle
of the career of Schreck, a civil servant's son who appeared in
around 800 stage and screen roles. Glimpses into the man behind
the actor's mask remain few and far between.
Only in death does Schreck's character begin to come alive.
The most revealing descriptions of the Berliner come from
tributes paid to Schreck after he died suddenly in 1936.
LONER
Contemporaries remembered Schreck, who was married but had
no children, as a loyal, conscientious loner with an offbeat
sense of humor and a talent for playing the grotesque.
One recalled how he lived in "a remote and strange world"
and would spend hours walking through dense, dark forests.
"Nosferatu" helped propel Murnau to a brief but successful
Hollywood career, but Schreck faded from the limelight.
The haunting film, which critics later saw as a metaphor
for the collective trauma Germany suffered after defeat in
World War One, changed the names of Bram Stoker's characters
because the filmmakers failed to get permission to adapt his
novel.
After the release, Stoker's widow sued the production
company for breach of copyright, and won a court order to have
all prints of the film destroyed. Since it had already been
distributed worldwide, this ultimately proved impossible.
Reuters/Nielsen
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