Erich von Stroheim

Erich von Stroheim was an Austrian-American director, screenwriter, actor and producer whose silent-era films such as Blind Husbands, Foolish Wives, The Merry Widow and Greed were marked by lavish production values and psychologically complex plots unusual for Hollywood at the time. His 1924 film Greed, adapted from Frank Norris's novel McTeague, was cut down drastically from its original multi-hour form by the studio, a clash with executives over budget and creative control that recurred throughout his directing career. In later decades he worked mainly as an actor, most notably playing the former director and butler Max von Mayerling opposite Gloria Swanson in Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard, a role that earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor.