Biography of erich von stroheim

Erich von Stroheim is best known to the filmgoing public for his acting roles as monocle-wearing Nazi officers and other villains, which earned him the nickname "the man you love to hate."

Von Stroheim enjoyed telling elaborate tales about his youth in Vienna as Erich Oswald Hans Carl Maria von Stroheim, the son of a noble Austrian family; however, the truth was far different.

He was born Erich Oswald Stroheim, on September 22, 1885, in Vienna, Austria. However, rather than being a wealthy member of the Austrian aristocracy, his father, Benno Stroheim, sold straw hats for a living. Although von Stroheim claimed that he had served several years in the Austrian military, he actually had worked as a supervisor in his father's hat factory.

In 1909 he decided to start a new life in the United States. When he landed at Ellis Island, he was penniless but listed himself as "von Stroheim," so people would think he was an Austrian aristocrat.

By