Sternberg, Josef von

Sternberg, Josef von

 orig. Jonas Stern

Josef von Sternberg editing a film.

(credit: Culver Pictures)

(born May 29, 1894, Vienna, Austria—died Dec. 22, 1969, Hollywood, Calif., U.S.) Austrian-born U.S. film director. He immigrated with his Orthodox Jewish family to New York as a boy. By 1923 he was a scriptwriter and cameraman in Hollywood. In 1927 he made the first serious gangster movie, Underworld. His films became noted for their striking visual effects and atmospheric use of light and dark. In Germany he directed The Blue Angel (1930), which made actress Marlene Dietrich an international star. She returned with Sternberg to Hollywood, where he directed her in Morocco (1930), Shanghai Express (1932), Blonde Venus (1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil Is a Woman (1935). His career thereafter declined, though his late films Macao (1952) and The Saga of Anatahan (1953) were admired.