Max Reinhardt (September 9, 1873 - October 30, 1943) was an Austrian (later naturalised American) theatre and film director and actor.

Biography

He was born as Maximilian Goldmann, of Jewish ancestry, in Baden bei Wien, Austria-Hungary. From 1902 until the beginning of Nazi rule in 1933, he worked as a director at various theaters in Berlin. From 1905 to 1930 he managed the Deutsches Theater ("German Theatre") in Berlin and, in addition, the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna from 1924 to 1933. By employing powerful staging techniques, and harmonising stage design, language, music and choreography, Reinhardt introduced new dimensions into German theatre.

The Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, which is arguably the most important German-language acting school, was installed implementing his ideas. Siegfried Jacobsen wrote Max Reinhardt in 1910.

In 1920, Reinhardt established the Salzburg Festival with Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal, notably directing an annual production of the morality play Everyman about God sending Death to summon a representative of mankind for judgement.

After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi-governed Germany in 1938, he emigrated first to England, then to the United States, where he had already successfully directed his own play The Miracle in 1924, and a popular stage version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1927.

Reinhardt followed that success by directing a film version in 1935 using a mostly different cast, that included James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown and Olivia de Havilland, amongst others. Mickey Rooney and Ms. de Havilland had also appeared in Reinhardt's stage production. The Nazis banned the film because of the Jewish ancestry of both Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn, whose music arranged by Erich Korngold) was used throughout the film.

Reinhardt also opened the Reinhardt School of the Theatre in Hollywood, on Sunset Boulevard. Several notable stars of the day received classical theater training, among them actress Nanette Fabray.

In 1940 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. At that time, he was married to his second wife, the actress Helene Thimig.

Death

He died in New York City in 1943. Reinhardt is interred at Westchester Hills Cemetery in Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York.

His son, Gottfried Reinhardt, was a well-regarded film producer. His grandson, Stephen Reinhardt, is a labor lawyer who has been one of the most liberal judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit since his appointment by Jimmy Carter in 1980.

The mausoleum of Max Reinhardt in Westchester Hills Cemetery

Work on Broadway

• Sumurun (pantomime) (1912) - leader of the Deutsches Theater of Berlin on a New York tour
• The Miracle (1924) - Co-playwright and Director
• A Midsummer Night's Dream (revival) (1927) - Producer
• Jederman (1927) - Co-producer
• Peripherie (1928) - Playwright
• Redemption (revival) (1928) - Director
• The Eternal Road (musical Biblical pageant) (1937) - Director
• The Merchant of Yonkers (1938), Thornton Wilder's play, later rewritten as "The Matchmaker". (This play had nothing to do with "The Merchant of Venice".)
• Sons and Soldiers (1943) - Producer and Director

Films

• A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935 film)
• Das Mirakel

External links

• ''A hard-nosed Utopian'' By Esther Slevogt at signandsight.com
• Michael Frayn's play Afterlife, based on Reinhardt's life: National Theatre, London (2008) http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/afterlife

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