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{{Short description|Swedish film director (1883–1928)}}{{citations|date=May 2024}}{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}

factoids

| birth_place = Helsinki, Grand Duchy of Finland1928187df=y}}| death_place = Stockholm, Sweden| citizenship = Sweden| occupation = Film director, screenwriter| years_active = 1912–1928| spouse = Greta Garbo (1924-1928)}}Mauritz Stiller (born Moshe Stiller, 17 July 1883 – 18 November 1928) was a Finnish film director of Jewish origin, best known for discovering Greta Garbo and bringing her to America. Stiller was a pioneer of the Swedish film industry, writing and directing many short films from 1912. When Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer invited him to Hollywood as a director, he arrived with his new discovery Greta Gustafsson, whose screen name Greta Garbo is believed to have been his suggestion. After frequent disagreements with studio executives at MGM and Paramount Pictures, Stiller returned to Sweden, where he died soon afterward.

Early life

Moshe Stiller was born on 17 July 1883{{cn|date=May 2024}} in Helsinki. His family was of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, {{BLF}} having lived in Russia and Poland before settling in Finland, these countries being ruled by the Russian Empire at that time. After his father’s death when he was four, his mother committed suicide. He was raised by family friends. From an early age, Stiller was interested in acting. His talents did not go unnoticed, and soon Stiller was offered the opportunity to practise and display his acting skills in the theatres of Helsinki and Ã…bo in Finland.Drafted into the army of Czar Nicholas II — Finland was at the time a Grand Duchy of Finland, an autonomic state ruled by the Russian Czars — rather than report for duty he fled the country for exile, and settled in Sweden. He became a Swedish citizen in 1921.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Career

By 1912, Stiller had become involved with Sweden’s rapidly developing silent film industry. He began by writing scripts, acting and directing in short films but within a few years gave up acting to devote his time to writing and directing. He was soon directing feature-length productions, and his 1918 work Thomas Graals bästa barn (Thomas Graal’s First Child), starring Karin Molander, and with Victor Sjöström in the leading role, received much acclaim.By 1920, having directed more than 35 films, including Sir Arne’s Treasure and Erotikon, Stiller was a leading figure in Swedish filmmaking. He also directed The Blizzard starring a young Einar Hanson and based on the Selma Lagerlöf novel En herrgÃ¥rdssägen.

Stiller and Garbo

File:GarboandStiller.jpg|thumb|Drottningholm}} in 1925 en route to the United StatesAt the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm, he met a young actress named Greta Gustafsson whom he cast in an important but secondary role in his film, Gösta Berlings saga (The Atonement of Gosta Berling), and who some{{Who|date=August 2020}} have said gave her the stage name Greta Garbo. For Stiller, the screen presence of the 18-year-old actress led to him bringing her and Hanson to the United States after he accepted an offer from Louis B. Mayer to direct for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.In Hollywood, Mauritz Stiller was assigned to direct The Temptress (1926), Garbo’s second film with MGM, but he could not deal with the studio structure. After repeated arguments with MGM executives, he was replaced on the film by Fred Niblo, and his contract with the studio terminated. Stiller immediately was hired by Paramount Pictures, where he made three successful films, but he was let go a second time while directing his fourth film because of his continuing disagreements with studio bosses.

Death and legacy

Stiller returned to Sweden in 1927 and died on 18 November 1928 from pleurisy at the age of 45. He was interred in the Norra begravningsplatsen in Stockholm.{{cn|date=May 2024}}It was long believed that Greta Garbo never married, but a 1932 news item confirmed that she married Mauritz Stiller while in her late teens. She survived him upon his death in 1928. “They were married secretly in Constantinople, in 1924,” reported Film Daily, “so she is over in Sweden to claim her share of the Stiller estate.”Film Daily, Oct. 18, 1932, p. 4.Stiller’s contribution to the motion picture industry was recognised in 1960 with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 1713 Vine Street. Originally his star was listed erroneously as “Maurice Diller” and was not corrected until the late 1980s.{{cn|date=May 2024}} A theatre in Filmhuset, home of the Swedish Film Institute, was named in his honour as “Bio Mauritz”.WEB, Cinemas, Swedish Film Institute, 11 August 2015,www.filminstitutet.se/en/about-us/filmhuset/cinemas/, 7 May 2024, In Kristianstad, a monument was erected in his honour.{{when|date=May 2024}}{{cn|date=May 2024}}In the Badehotellet episode “Feriebarnet”,{{when|date=May 2024}} Kitty tells Frigh that Stiller wrote her a letter and wants to take her to Hollywood. When Fright admits he doesn’t know who he is, Kitty replies that Stiller discovered Garbo and shows him a newspaper clipping of the photo of Garbo and Stiller posing on the deck of the SS Drottningholm.{{cn|date=May 2024}}

Filmography {| class“wikitable”

! rowspan=“2” width=“33“|Year! rowspan=“2“|Film! colspan=“4“|Credited as! width=65 | Director! width=65 |Writer! width=65 |Actor! Role| 1912The Gardener (1912 film)>The Gardener (TrädgÃ¥rdsmästaren)|| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| Passenger| 1912| Mor och dotter| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| Raoul de Saligny| 1912| I lifvets vÃ¥r||| {{yes}}| von Plæin| 1912| Den tyranniske fästmannen| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| Elias Pettersson| 1912| De svarta maskerna| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913| Vampyren| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913| PÃ¥ livets ödesvägar| {{yes}}|||| 1913| När larmklockan ljuder| {{yes}}|||| 1913| När kärleken dödar| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913| Mannekängen| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913| The Conflicts of Life (Livets konflikter)| {{yes}}|||| 1913| Brother Against Brother (Gränsfolken)| {{yes}}|||| 1913| En pojke i livets strid| {{yes}}|||| 1913| Den okända| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913| Den moderna suffragetten| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1913Barnet (film)>Barnet| {{yes}}|||| 1914| StormfÃ¥geln| {{yes}}|||| 1914| Skottet| {{yes}}|||| 1914| När svärmor regerar| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| Elias| 1914| Kammarjunkaren|| {{yes}}||| 1914| För sin kärleks skull| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1914| Det röda tornet| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1914| Bröderna| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1915| När konstnärer älska| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Minlotsen| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Mästertjuven| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Madame de Thèbes| {{yes}}|||| 1915Playmates (1915 film)>Playmates (Lekkamraterna)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1915| Hans hustrus förflutna| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Hans bröllopsnatt| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Hämnaren| {{yes}}|||| 1915| Dolken| {{yes}}|||| 1916The Wings (film)>The Wings (Vingarne)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| {{yes}}| Film director| 1916| LyckonÃ¥len| {{yes}}|||| 1916| Kärlek och journalistik| {{yes}}|||| 1916| Kampen om hans hjärta| {{yes}}|||| 1916| Balettprimadonnan| {{yes}}|||| 1917| Thomas Graals bästa film| {{yes}}|||| 1917| Alexander den store| {{yes}}|||| 1918| Thomas Graals bästa barn| {{yes}}|||| 1919The Song of the Blood-Red Flower (1919 film)>Song of the Scarlet Flower (Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta)Music by Armas Järnefelt, possibly the first original film music by a Nordic composer. See Hannu Salmi (2008) Järnefeltin jalanjäljillä: Laulu tulipunaisesta kukasta (1919) (In the footsteps of Järnefelt : Song of the Scarlet Flower). (In Finnish). Retrieved 24 August 2015.| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1919| Sir Arne’s Treasure (Herr Arnes pengar)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1920| Fiskebyn| {{yes}}|||| 1920Erotikon (1920 film)>Erotikon| {{yes}}|||| 1921Johan (Film)>Johan| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1921| Guarded Lips (De landsflyktige)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1923The Blizzard (1923 film)>The Blizzard (Gunnar Hedes saga)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1924The Saga of Gosta Berling>The Saga of Gösta Berling (Gösta Berlings saga)| {{yes}}| {{yes}}||| 1926| The Temptress| {{yes}}||| replaced by Fred Niblo| 1927| The Woman on Trial| {{yes}}|||| 1927Hotel Imperial (1927 film)>Hotel Imperial| {{yes}}|||| 1927Barbed Wire (1927 film)>Barbed Wire| {{yes}}|||| 1928| Street of Sin| {{yes}}|||

References

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External links

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• {{IMDb name|0830249}}
• {{Sfdb name}}
• Original Photoplay Interview with Greta Garbo, where she talks about her first meeting with Stiller: “I started trembling all over.”
• Literature on Mauritz Stiller

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