Quick Facts
Biography
Gustav von Seyffertitz (4 August 1862 – 25 December 1943) was a German film actor and director. He settled in the United States. He was born in Haimhausen, Bavaria and died in Los Angeles, California, aged 81.
Biography
Gustav von Seyffertitz was born into an aristocratic family as the son of Guido Freiherr von Seyffertitz and his wife Anna Gräfin von Butler Clonebough zu Haimhausen. His family expected him to start a military career, but was shocked when he said that he wanted to be an actor. He was a member of the Meiningen Court Theatre and also appeared in operas. 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 successful 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 also played the antagonist to Mary Pickford in Sparrows (1926) and appeared as Ramon Novarro's uncle in Ernst Lubitsch's The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927). 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). Among his later film roles was a parody on Sigmund Freud in Frank Capra's film classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936). He appeared in 118 films between 1917 and 1939.
Gustav von Seyffertitz was married five times and had numerous children.
Selected filmography
- Down to Earth (1917), as Dr. Jollyem
- The Countess Charming (1917), as Jacob Vandergraft
- The Little Princess (1917), as Mr. Carrisford
- The Devil-Stone (1917), as Stephen Densmore
- Stella Maris (1918), as The Surgeon (uncredited)
- Rimrock Jones (1918), as Stoddard
- The Widow's Might (1918), as Horace Hammer
- The Hidden Pearls (1918), as John Garvin
- Amarilly of Clothes-Line Alley (1918), as Surgeon (uncredited)
- The Whispering Chorus (1918), as Mocking face
- His Majesty, Bunker Bean (1918), as Professor Balthasar
- Mr. Fix-It (1918), as Doctor (uncredited)
- Old Wives for New (1918), as Melville Bladen
- To Hell with the Kaiser! (1918)
- Less Than Kin (1918), as Endicott Lee
- Till I Come Back to You (1918), as Karl von Drutz
- The Source (1918), as Ekstrom
- The Secret Garden (1919, director)
- The Dark Star (1919), as German Spy
- Even as Eve (1920), as Amasu Munn
- The Sporting Duchess (1920), as Major Roland Mostyn
- Sherlock Holmes (1922), as Professor Moriarty
- When Knighthood Was in Flower (1922), as Grammont
- The Face in the Fog (1922), as Michael
- Unseeing Eyes (1923), as Father Paquette
- Under the Red Robe (1923), as Clom
- Yolanda (1924), as Oliver de Daim
- The Lone Wolf (1924), as Wetheimer
- The Bandolero (1924), as Marques de Bazan
- Grounds for Divorce (1925), as Labell
- The Goose Woman (1925), as Mr. Vogel
- A Regular Fellow (1925), as Prime Minister
- Flower of Night (1925), as Vigilante leader
- The Eagle (1925), as Court Servant at Dinner (uncredited)
- Red Dice (1926), as Andrew North
- Sparrows (1926), as Mr. Grimes
- The Dice Woman (1926), as Datto of Mandat
- The Bells (1926), as Jerome Frantz
- Don Juan (1926), as Neri the alchemist (uncredited)
- The Lone Wolf Returns (1926), as Morphew
- Diplomacy (1926), as Baron Ballin
- Going Crooked (1926), as Mordaunt
- Barbed Wire (1927), as Pierre Corlet
- The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), as King Karl VII
- The Magic Flame (1927), as The Chancellor
- Rose of the Golden West (1927), as Gomez
- The Gaucho (1927), as Ruiz the usurper
- The Wizard (1927), as Prof. Paul Coriolos
- Yellow Lily (1928), as Kinkelin
- The Mysterious Lady (1928), as General Boris Alexandroff
- The Red Mark (1928), as De Nou
- The Woman Disputed (1928), as Otto Krueger
- The Docks of New York (1928), as "Hymn Book" Harry
- The Canary Murder Case (1929), as Dr. Ambrose Lindquist
- Chasing Through Europe (1929), as Phineas Merrill
- His Glorious Night (1929), as Krehl
- Dangerous Paradise (1930), as Mr. Jones
- The Case of Sergeant Grischa (1930), as General Schieffenzahn
- The Bat Whispers (1930), as Dr Venrees
- Dishonored (1931), as Austrian Secret Service Chief
- The Front Page (1931), as Professor Max J. Engelhoffer (uncredited)
- Ambassador Bill (1931), as Prince de Polikoff
- Safe in Hell (1931), as Larson
- Shanghai Express (1932), as Eric Baum
- The Roadhouse Murder (1932), as Porter
- Doomed Battalion (1932), as Austrian General
- Afraid to Talk (1932), as Attorney Harry Berger
- The Penguin Pool Murder (1932), as Von Donnen / Dr Max Bloom
- The Silver Cord (1932), as German Doctor (uncredited)
- Queen Christina (1933), as General
- Mystery Liner (1934), as Inspector Von Kessling
- Change of Heart (1934), as Dr. Nathan Kurtzman
- Murder on the Blackboard (1934), as Dr. Max Von Immen
- The Moonstone (1934), as Carl von Lucker
- Little Men (1934), as Schoolmaster Page (uncredited)
- She (1935), as Billali, She's mortal governor
- Remember Last Night? (1935), as Professor Karl Jones
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), as Doctor Emile von Haller
- Murder on a Bridle Path (1936), as Doctor Bloom
- Mad Holiday (1936), as Hendrick Van Mier
- Cipher Bureau (1938), as Albert Grood
- Son of Frankenstein (1939), as A burgher
- Nurse Edith Cavell (1939), as President of Court
- The Mad Empress (1939), as Ambassador Metternich