William Dieterle

William Dieterle (July 15, 1893 – December 9, 1972) was a German-born actor and film director who emigrated to the United States in 1930 to leave a worsening political situation. He worked in Hollywood primarily as a director for much of his career, becoming a United States citizen in 1937. He moved back to Germany in the late 1950s. His best-known films include The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) and The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941). His film The Life of Emile Zola (1937) won the Academy Award for Best Picture, the second biographical feature to do so. Early life and career He was born Wilhelm Dieterle in Ludwigshafen, the youngest child of nine, to factory worker Jacob and Berthe (Doerr) Dieterle. As a child, he lived in considerable poverty and earned money by various means, including carpentry and as a scrap dealer. He became interested in theater early and would stage productions in the family barn for friends and family. At the age of sixteen, Dieterle had joined a traveling theater company as a handy-man, scene shifter, and apprentice actor. His striking good looks and ambition soon paved his way to gain roles as a leading romantic actor in theater productions. In 1919, he attracted the attention of theater director Max Reinhardt in Berlin, who hired him as an actor for his productions until 1924. He started acting in German films in 1921 to make more money and quickly became a popular character actor. He usually portrayed "country yokels" or simpletons with great gusto and popularity, but he was ambitious to begin a career as a director. In 1921, Dieterle married Charlotte Hagenbruch, an actress and later screenwriter.