Granach was born Jessaja Szajko Gronach in Werbowitz (Wierzbowce/Werbiwci) (
Austrian Galicia then, now
Verbivtsi,
Kolomyia Raion,
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, Ukraine), to
Jewish parents and rose to theatrical prominence at the
Volksbühne in Berlin. Granach entered films in 1922; among the most widely exhibited of his silent efforts was
Nosferatu (1922),
F.W. Murnau's loose adaptation of
Dracula, in which the actor was cast as Knock, the film's counterpart to
Renfield. He co-starred in such major early German talkies as
Kameradschaft (1931). The Jewish Granach fled to the
Soviet Union when
Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. When the Soviet Union also proved inhospitable, he settled in Hollywood, where he made his first American film appearance as Kopalski in
Ninotchka (1939) starring
Greta Garbo and directed by
Ernst Lubitsch, released by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Granach proved indispensable to film makers during the war years, effectively portraying both dedicated Nazis (he was
Julius Streicher in
The Hitler Gang, 1944) and loyal
anti-fascists. He portrayed
Gestapo Inspector Alois Gruber in
Fritz Lang's
Hangmen Also Die! (1943). His last film appearance was in
MGM's
The Seventh Cross (1944), in which almost the entire supporting cast was prominent European refugees. Granach died on March 14, 1945, in New York from a
pulmonary embolism following an
appendectomy. He was buried in Montefiore Cemetery in
Springfield Gardens, Queens. Granach's autobiography,
There Goes an Actor (1945) was republished in 2010 under the new title,
From the Shtetl to the Stage: The Odyssey of a Wandering Actor (Transaction Publishers). He was survived by his long time partner, Lotte Lieven, and by his son,
Gad Granach. His son, who lived in Jerusalem, wrote his own memoirs with many references to his father. == Partial filmography ==