M
Max Obal
actor, director, writer
- Birth name:
- Max David Gotthelf Sroke
- Born:
- 1881-09-04, Brieg, Silesia, Germany [now Brzeg, Opolskie, Poland]
- Died:
- 1949-05-18, Wilmersdorf, Berlin, Germany
- Professions:
- actor, director, writer
Biography
Brieg, Silesia—4 September 1881—brought forth a restless storyteller named Max Obal. Behind the camera he turned Berlin’s streets into playgrounds of suspense: in 1914 he sent audiences skyward with Sein Rekordflug, then plunged them into the city’s criminal underbelly with Das Rattenloch in 1921 and crowned his silent-era career with the mischievous epic Der größte Gauner des Jahrhunderts seven years later. On 18 May 1949, in the quiet Wilmersdorf quarter of a divided Berlin, the final curtain fell.
