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Personal Info

Gender

Male

Birthday

1881-06-15 (143 years old)

Place of Birth

Lemberg, Galicia, Austria-Hungary [now Lviv, Ukraine]

John Gottowt

Biography:

John Gottowt (born Isidor Gesang; 15 June 1881 – 29 August 1942) was an Austrian actor, stage director and film director for theatres and silent movies.

Gottowt was born in Lemberg, Austria-Hungary (present-day Lviv, Ukraine) into a Jewish family. After his education in Vienna, he joined the Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1905, working for Max Reinhardt as an actor and director. Gottowt was mainly active in different theatres in Berlin as a character actor and director.

His first silent film appearance was in Paul Wegener’s Der Student von Prag ("The Student of Prague") (1913). In 1920 he appeared in Robert Wiene's Genuine and took the main role in the early science fiction film Algol. In 1921 he played Professor Bulwer (Abraham van Helsing) in the classic silent film Nosferatu directed by F.W. Murnau.

Gottowt made also several films with his brother-in-law Henrik Galeen but, as a Jew, was banned in 1933 from working as a professional actor. After a few years in Denmark he moved to Kraków in Poland. He was murdered in 1942 by an SS officer while in hiding in Wieliczka, disguised as a Roman Catholic priest.

Known For

Acting

1998

Nosferatu: The First Vampire as Professor Bulwer - ein Paracelsianer

1932

The Living Dead as Beamter des Mechanischen Museums

1930

The Twelfth Hour as Sanitarium Doctor

1926

The Flight in the Night as Bediensteter

1924

Waxworks as Owner of the Waxworks

1922

Nosferatu as Professor Bulwer

1921

Brennendes Land as Wladislaus

1920

1919

1917

Die Prinzessin von Neutralien as The billionaire Vandergold

1913

The Student of Prague as Scapinelli - An Old Adventurer

Directing

1913

Das schwarze Los as Director