Max Schreck, the German actor who set the standard for movie vampires everywhere with his legendary portrayal of Nosferatu, has been honoured with a new gravestone commemorating his place in cinematic history.
I honestly didn’t know that Max Schreck’s gravesite was unknown for three-quarters of a century. Truthfully, I never knew much about him at all, other than that he starred in NOSFERATU. But Schreck was a prolific actor with dozens of film credits to his name, although he is best known today, and adored by the legions of vampire and Horror buffs, as the first actor to ever portray Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula. Sorta. See, there were copyright issues at the time, and they had to change the name of the character in F.W. Murnau’s silent noir classic NOSFERATU from Dracula to Graf (Count) Orlock. Not that it matters. A rose by any other name . . .
It’s good to see Schreck getting a fitting memorial, as he was without doubt a cinematic legend. Granted, he attained this legendary status pretty much for just that ONE role, but so what? How many true masterpieces does one need to create, anyway? As an artist, Mr. Schreck might have preferred to be judged by the entire body of his work, but for me and countless others, they could simply chisel the word NOSFERATU on that big granite memorial, and no more would need to be said.